Forest Time

For over two decades I lived in a rural area in the interior, where it was easy to walk in the forest. I spent many hours, in every season, amongst the trees of Gardom Lake Park near Salmon Arm. Here is an image from June, followed by one from the fall.

Gardom Lake Park trail, June, with False Solomon's seal in bloom

Gardom Lake Park trail, October

Since moving first to Salmon Arm nine years ago, and then to Victoria earlier this year, I've missed the quiet of the forest, the silence where the only noise might be bird song and rustling leaves, where the ear strains to hear a car.

Earlier this week a friend introduced me to some of the trails at Mount Douglas, and I revisited them yesterday. They are a wonderful discovery. I heard ravens, songbirds, and nuthatches.

I also learned a new word - "monadnock" - to describe Mount Douglas. A monadnock is an isolated hill or mountain, which describes this 225 metre hill (738 feet).

Ferns at Mount Douglas

Oceanspray

Arbutus tree

Aesthetic trail design and one of many amazing Douglas firs

There are also verdant cedars in the park. In fact, the first settler's name for the hill was "Cedar Hill"; cedars from the park were logged to help build pickets around the early Fort Victoria. It was apparently renamed Mount Douglas when one of military at the fort could not find cedars and wanted to honour Douglas.

In 2013 as part of a movement to reclaim aboriginal place names, Mount Douglas went back to its original name of Pkols, which means "White rock" or "White head" in the dialect of the original first peoples of the area, the Saanich and Songhees.  In a ceremony marking the first year of this reclaiming, local First Nations spoke of the cultural significance of the mountain to them which was a traditional meeting place. The story is in the Times-Colonist. 

https://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/reclaimed-pkols-mount-douglas-a-source-of-first-nation-pride-1.1072179

Officially, the BC Geographical Names Office has apparently not responded to the reclaiming of Pkols, according to a Wikipedia article. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Douglas,_Greater_Victoria)

As with other parks that I am discovering in Victoria, there are volunteer efforts to deal with invasive species, and to carry out restoration and replanting. I saw some evidence of this at Mount Douglas.

Replanting efforts in damaged parts of Mount Douglas park

The park is criss-crossed with trails and although there is good signage, there still are many trail intersections that are not signed.

Example of trail signage at an intersection. Trails are colour-coded to help hikers discern the level of difficulty (green for easiest, blue for steeper, and black for steepest).

In the two hikes I have done so far I followed the Whittaker trail, which takes hikers on a perimeter loop around the mountain through several different types of forest - cedars, firs, and Garry oak.

I downloaded the Avenza app to my phone, and then a GPS enabled pdf map provided by the Friends of Mount Douglas Park Society. This proved extremely helpful at figuring out trails at intersections. I can imagine that the mountain could be quite disorienting at times of low light, or in the rain.

The information for the app is at https://www.saanich.ca/EN/main/parks-recreation-community/parks/parks-trails-amenities/trails/mount-douglas-park-gps-enabled-trail-map.html The app does not use cell data, which is a nice feature.

There is a road to the top of the mountain, but it is closed in the mornings to allow non-motorized enjoyment of the park trails. This is a good compromise.

Morning closure of the road to the top of the mountain

I know I will be back for more forest experiences on the mountain.