Hullo! Today we are going for a new hike!! To Tod Inlet. It's supposed to have old ruins from a cement plant from back in the day... Sounds like a good project for my pal Little Fox who is working on his Archaeology degree... Perhaps for his Industrial Archaeological Remediation course?
I have to say, it is beary lush and green along this old road.
We can hear a creek babbling off to the left as well, which is nice.
Hah!! Old ruins!!
Not sure what purpose they served as they are quite far from the cement plant area but... we'll take some snaps!
Pretty cool! One online forum said these specific ruins are from an old clay mill up here...
These are beary interesting... maybe I should be taking that archaeological course??!
Farther along, we started finding lots of old building foundations in the bush to either side of the trail.
And then we came across this strange silo which... might be a cap on a well? Perhaps for environmental groundwater monitoring?
We started seeing old foundation walls everywhere!
Here's that tank again...
There was quite a complex here, with tonnes of worker housing... I found pics... Apparently people who grew up here as kids still come to visit...
Here we go... we are at the lower right end of the photo, working our way towards the mid-left side, where the wharfs are...
One of the old roads led here... which looks like a dead-end road for... where?
We looked at the map and that is the access road for Butchart Gardens!!! We are on the backside of Butchart Gardens!!! Go figure...
That would also explain all the chain link fencing and warning signs along this side...
Oooh... are we going to go to Butchart Gardens next???!
Right... let's focus on where we are...
There's a peek-a-boo view of the inlet... looks pretty.
We found some more significant ruins, that nature is taking back.
I think Beanie would like this place for all the funky graffiti...
What do you think?
Somebody's spent a lot of time being creative here!
Ooohhh... so old basins/sinks/things...
Fascinating! I wish there was a better map of this place saying what all these buildings were used for... sigh.
Apparently there were a lot of Chinese and Sikh workers back in the early 1900s, when the cement plant was going full bore.
That would explains several of the overgrown fruit trees we've been seeing here.
The inlet is gorgeous!!
We are going to meander our way up that way... to the old wharf...
We found this massive old maple!!
No buried treasure inside...
But another ruin...
Strange... maybe storage for explosives?
We found a map with numbers next to the old building sites but... no legend for what each number means! Although...
The map is from this book by David R. Gray... might have to see if we can track that down at the local library!
Right... I think we are almost down at the wharfs...
This place is soooo gorgeous!!! And this is what it used to look like...
Wow...
We learned that local groups have been partnering with First Nations people to begin ecological restoration of the area, including the marine lands.
There is still evidence of its industrial past, but slowly marine life is returning to the inlet.
There's a lovely beach down here, and people go swimming all the time...
And the old pilings of the wharfs are being used as housing for...
Swallows!! All those pilings have multiple swallow houses on them... for Purple Martins (largest swallow in North America).
And you see??
There's still a massive pile of old concrete pilings here in the bush...
I'm glad we came here...
Let's poke our way back up to the main road... with a few detours...
Hmmm... me thinks this is more Butchart Gardens signage...
Some of the fences go right across the ruins!
Huh... a serious gate!
And we could hear fountains from here!!! But we'll have to go into Butchart Gardens the regular way... no sneaking in through the back way! Hope you enjoyed the tour. We are beary glad we came here for a visit... it was fascinating!
