A National Historic Site Visit - Fort Rodd Hill - Part 1

 Hullo! Yes... we are at Fort Rodd Hill near Victoria.

Honestly, we had never heard of this place... but on one of our adventure days, we came across it... and thought... let's go!

This is the mascot, Parker. He is a beaver (of course).

It's beary nice and peaceful here, without a lot of crowds.

We learned that Fort Rodd was built in the late 1890s to defend Victoria and the Esquimault Naval Base.

It's a hidden little fortress... you can just see a wall peeking through the trees over there.

There are several batteries... and we are going to visit the Upper One first...

It's higher up on the hill (duh)...

Let's go inside!

I wonder if they ever had to defend themselves from the landward side?

That looks like an old bunker, maybe for ammunition.

We came here in late July (I know... too many adventures!)....

And the grass and wildflowers were unmown and those signs tell us...

... "Pardon the weeds... we are feeding the bees..."

That is an excellent idea!!

Oooh... this is cool!

Let's take a look around!

Gorgeous view from up here...

This is a smaller model of their main gun... it is a disappearing gun... it gets loaded when it is down below... 

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..and then there is a gizmo that lifts it up so it can shoot, and then it disappears again.

Fascinating...

This is the main gun here... the grating is the hole through which it went up and down. It's pretty big...

Let's see where these stairs lead...

Ah, down to the armoury where they kept the munitions...

And then there were other rooms where the crew hung out and ate meals while they were on duty...

Well, that was fun!! Let's go down and see the rest of this place.

TO BE CONTINUED

An Adventure to find an Old Mine

Hullo! Today, we are going on an adventure that has been on our To-Do Adventure List for months (ok... really... years)...  We are trying to find an old mine adit in Linley Valley...

We found a map and some directions on Reddit... so... park at the spot... then head down the main trail and at the main intersection... turn left!

That's here!! So we turned left and walked along looking for an opening full of ferns (not exactly the most technical description)....

But we think this is it... so we headed up this trail...

And then... the instructions got a bit confusing because they didn't match how it looked on the map... so we decided to follow the map... hmph...

This map... and we wandered up and around trying to find the opening where the red "x" was...

We got a good hike in... and kept looking and looking...

Good thing we had our All Trails app...

But we did not find a mine anywhere!!

But we did find some pretty flowers... this is Yarrow.

And some yellow flowers too!!

And then our All Trails map brought us down to a trail that paralleled the old trail... not too far from that fern opening and... we found a bit of flagging...

And then below the trail we saw this... which looks beary suspicious!!!

And look... down there!!!

I think we found it!!!!

From this angle... you can't really see anything...

But... wait for it...

Ta-dahhhh!!!!!!

We found the old mine!!!!

Kind of cool, don't you think?? It's not a coal mine... cause it's in volcanic rock. So maybe some exploratory gold or silver miner...

There was quite a discussion as to whether to go in or not...

We settled for a camera flash picture... it was wet in there with lots of bugs (and probably spider webs)...

Nope.... this little bear is NOT going in!

That was fun... except.... that map was a complete bollocks!!! So far off base it wasn't even funny...

On our way back to the car we heard robins scolding and looked up and...

There was an owl in the tree!!!

Pretty cool.

And we found some pretty columbines. All in all, a beary good adventure.