Peden Ridge hike

on Friday my neighbour and I parked at Sooke Potholes Regional Park and hiked up to the Peden Ridge, click on the name and you will see the map . The trail leads follows an old logging road at first along side Maryvine Creek, with Wilsons Warblers and  Pacific wrens singing along the way. There is a fairly large waterfall that we pass by .

Above the water fall we climb on to the 100 year old waterline , a stone pipe. that runs from sooke lake to the base of Mt wells, 44 kms long.











From there we cross the creek and head up the hill.

From the top of this knoll, I could see the sooke basin far down the sooke valley.

The trail picks its way through the Manzanita, and fallen pine trees.

From the top there is quite a view of the sooke hills and Sooke Basin with Whiffen Spit cutting across the mouth.

Turkey Vulture

Townsend's warbler

When we got to the top there was a bird singing that I had think about for a minute. I then realized that it was townsend's solitaire. It flew down from a small tree and headed around the corner of the ridge. I searched after it and found it with another solitaire, on the ground . they chased each other around for a while before heading further down the steep rocky outcrop, I am hoping they are nesting in the area. That would be rather rare for the Victoria area.

Blue-eyed Mary

On the way back we came across this precarious boulder ready to tumble down the trail ahead of us.
When we got down to the parking lot I heard a familiar call, a golden Eagle "barking" as it dove across the sky above us towards the cliffs we just came from... arrgh.. oh well, another hike in the area soon I guessin'.