Walking Bowker Creek - Oak Bay Edition
I will admit that even for me, the continuous deluge of rain over the last few weeks has made getting out a walk a little more of chore. Still with limits on fuel consumption and travel restrictions still in place, I can imagine that going for a walk will be a more popular activity in the next few weeks despite the weather.
For those that aren’t too familiar with the various creeks and streams in Victoria, Bowker Creek is the largest along the eastern side of city. The creek starts up near UVic from the main arm and Cedar Hill Golf Course from another smaller one. Those two parts meet near Hillside Mall and form the main creek that flows in a south easterly direction till it reaches the Salish Sea at Oak Bay. For the most part, Bowker Creek goes pretty unnoticed or is perhaps considered a ditch and that is understandable as most of its length is now underground in cement tunnels. There are plans to rejuvenate this neglected local treasure over the next many decades and I truly hope that they will. For those parts that are visible, they actually create some great places to go for a walk. In fact, I have three walks that you can do that will let you have a glimpse or more of Bowker Creek. The one here is the one that I have done most often and is likely the most well known. I will leave the other two for another day.
For this walk, you need to get yourself to Oak Bay Rec Centre on Bee Street just to the south east of Fort and Foul Bay Road. One of the key features of the rec centre are the large inflated tennis domes. It’s just past these domes where the creek path and our walk begins. As the walk starts you will have Oak Bay High to your left and Bowker Creek to your right. Across the creek you will see the running oval of Oak Bay Track. As you pass the school and the track the path begins to have a more parklike feel and you will likely see a large number of ducks coming towards you. This is a popular place to feed them (though of course you shouldn’t…) There are a couple of bridges across the creek here, the more westerly one really doesn’t go anywhere but it is fun to stand on and watch all the birds. The second one carries the main pathway across the creek just before you reach Hampshire Road. The walkway continues directly across the street. Both of these parts of this walk are my favourite. There is a somewhat magical feel to the place, either despite or because of the manicured nature of it. As you get close to Monterey Avenue, the creek washes into a giant swirling tunnel which continues underground for another hundred metres or so.
Depending on how you feel, when you get to Monterey, you have a choice of two walks. For the first option, though the one I usually don’t do, you can cut in front of the Oak Bay Fire Station and cross Firefighter’s Park. When you get across the park you can stop into the amazing community garden here that runs along the side of a re-emerged Bowker Creek. You can’t follow the creek any further than the end of the gardens, but it is a beautiful space. The creek itself continues in behind a few properties before entering the ocean just north of Glenlyon Norfolk School. After stopping in the gardens you can walk north to Cranmore and then follow Cranmore to the west until it gets you back to Oak Bay High and then back over to the rec centre.
My preferred walk is to turn right onto Monterey Avenue when I come out of the Bowker Creek Walkway and follow it down to Oak Bay Village. After stopping for a coffee from Hide and Seek Coffee (and maybe going into the Pharmasave because it is so much fun!), I usually walk down the Avenue to Yale Street. Most of the way along Yale, on the left, is a small street called Byron Street which ends in the parking lot of a church. Cut across the parking lot and you will find yourself on Elgin Road. Follow Elgin to the north until you get to the entrance to the Oak Bay Public Works Yard. From here there is a pedestrian pathway that leads you past the Oak Bay Track and back to the Tennis domes at Oak Bay Rec. The whole walk takes about 30 - 40 minutes depending on how much you dawdle in the Village. It is a great little loop and the walk that will give you the longest continuous connection with Bowker Creek, at least for now.
If you have a favourite stop along this walk, or something that is near by that I didn’t mention, let me know in the comments. I will add a couple more Bowker Creek walks soon. Stay dry everyone!
