This is a great little hike right in the middle of town. It starts behind the church (of the Nazarene) on Departure Bay Road, across from Brooks Landing mall - it follows a steep ravine down to the ocean right beside the Departure Bay Ferry Terminal.
The ravine is very pretty - there are huge big-leaf maple trees as well as tall conifers leaning out, or fallen across Northfield Creek - there's also a nice waterfall. There are boardwalks and stairs, adding to the woodsy atmosphere. The walk takes about 15 min each way depending on your pace. Warning, some spots are very uneven, or the path can be quite narrow above a steep ledge.
At the bottom of the trail, you will emerge on the beach directly beside the ferries (see image below taken from deck of BC Ferries vessel). This beach is interesting to visit as the ferries are so big, and you can watch the activity of the terminal, people standing on the decks, etc. The beach is rocky, so don't come here expecting to run around barefoot!
Explosives Factory History (1892-1913)
The Hamilton Powder Company (an Ontario outfit with a Victoria office) built a factory west of here in 1890, somewhere around Northfield Rd. They were making blasting powder for the mines, which made more sense than importing from England.
In 1892 they expanded, building another plant near the ocean - below the current site of Cilaire Elementary School.
This new plant was for making nitroglycerine. There were various mishaps including in 1896 when a horse and cart transporting materials were vaporised (along with the driver); the worst was in 1910 when a spectacular explosion killed five men and wrapped a steel rail around a tree 80m away.
Near the top of the trail at Beach Estates Park (close to the church, see photo below) there are the remains of a concrete foundation in the creek. This was a dam which created a headpond to supply water to the powder works below.
The only other remains of the powder works are the footings from the wharf, and the ruins of a building on the beach just north of where the trail emerges at the ocean. Plus a lot of weird scrap metal, bits of coal, and chunks of concrete.
The Hamilton Powder Company merged with others in 1910, the same year they announced closing of their Nanaimo operations, and became Canadian Explosives Limited (CXL) and then in 1927 they changed again to CIL (Canadian Industries Limited) branching out into things like paint (CIL is still a paint brand today). When the Cilaire subdivision was cleared in the 1960s, the name derived from this history.
Fun fact: Northfield Creek is shown as "Gold Creek" on the earliest maps. Did someone get colour in the pan back in the 1800s?
Where to Park
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