Sunday turned out to be a beautiful, fall day here in the Cowichan Valley with temperatures around 60F and only a few scattered clouds in the skies.
I have no idea what kind of mushrooms these are.
Paulette and I were both up before 7:00, and after pouring ourselves some coffee, we each headed off to our respective computers for our morning ritual of reading blogs and checking our email messages.
It was quite dark along the forest path heading to the lake
After an hour or so of that, it was time for breakfast, and then I took the muttzo’s for their morning walk. One of the advantages of living in the Pacific Time Zone is that Sunday’s early NFL games start at 10:00am here, so I’m able to watch a good part of the early games and still have the whole afternoon free for other activities.
View across Shawnigan Lake from the Provincial Park
That worked out great yesterday as Paulette and I decided to go for a drive and find a place to take the dogs for a walk. We ended up at Shawnigan Lake Provincial Park which is about 20 minutes from our house. There is a pretty big parking lot near the road, and from there, well maintained paths wind down through the forest before opening up to a large grassy area and finally the beachfront on Shawnigan Lake.
A beautiful Maple tree showing it’s fall colors
This is a very popular spot for swimming in the summer as well as a great place for family picnics. Shawnigan is one of the larger lakes on the Island and has always been a favorite summer vacation destination, and weekend getaway, for many folks from Victoria.
Paulette, Molly and Rylie in the woods at Shawnigan Lake
Although most of the waterfront is taken up with cabins and full-time residences, there are still about 6 parks and beaches around the lake that are open to the public for swimming, boating and canoeing. Shawnigan is a great lake for water skiers both because of it’s width and the length of the lake.
Across the lake is Mt. Baldy, a favorite hiking spot
After about 45 minutes walking around the beach, and in the forest, we decided to head home. On the way back, we passed by the Dog Park and saw it was just full. So, we thought what the heck, we may as well stop and give Molly and Rylie a chance to run around with their friends. I counted 14 dogs in total – all shapes, sizes and breeds so our pups had a great time just running around and playing.
By the time we finished up at the dog park and got back home it was almost 4:00 and when I turned the TV on to see the NFL scores, I found there were still a few games going on so I watched a bit of that, including a good game where the NY Jets lost in overtime.
One of the very nice paths down to the beach at the lake
So, a nothing to do Sunday ended up being a pretty good day after all. We got to spend a few hours outside enjoying the great weather as well as getting some much needed exercise. Last night, it was back to the usual – watching a bit of baseball, football and spending time on the computer.
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