East Sooke Regional Park

East Sooke Regional Park is on the traditional lands of the SC’IȺNEW Nation, T’Souke First Nations and Pacheedaht First Nations.  

For this walk, I finally overcame my fear of Sooke. We drove out to East Sooke Regional Park in the early afternoon, and decided to hike the Creyke Point and Beechey Head Loop. We were expecting to do a short walk, so we were definitely underprepared for how the trail was going to be, especially with our shoe choices.  It was also on and off misting rain that day, and we happened to both forget our coats so we got a little bit wet, but that was okay.

I had felt stressed after a busy week of school. Assignments are starting to pile up in the next few weeks, so it will be lots and lots of work. With that, we decided to take use of our less academic weekends and make it worth our while.  We took off on our 50 minute drive to Sooke in the early afternoon, and the drive felt like we were on a whole different part of the island. We took the road that went through Colwood and Metchosin, and it was so interesting to see how fast the landscape changes. We were in the city, then the woods, then a dystopian city, then the country side, and finally the woods again. It was a very interesting drive.

During our walk, we spent a lot of time debriefing the semester, realizing it was coming to an end. We are both pretty stressed for our living situation for next year, so we needed time to decompress and take a break from stressing 24/7.  It was nice to actually spend time together that was not doing homework or going to events in a big group.

I had a really nice time on our little hike. We actually got out of the house on the weekend and saw a new area of the Greater Victoria area we had never been before. We had always talked about going to Sooke area, so it was nice to actually make the time to do so, before this school year turned into another “we will do it next year”, like all the things we had talked about doing last year.

Sleep and Stress Levels 

My activity score from the day 

My steps from the day (Which I am very suprised we did not get more)

My stress levels 

I didn’t feel mental stress, and felt very emotionally relaxed during and after our walk. However, my body must have been stressed during the walk. We were constantly going up and down, and were definitely unprepared for what the hike would be like.  

My Sleep Score 

The sleep after this hike felt like the first good sleep I have had in a while. I was able to fall asleep fast, and wake up on my own schedule. (My scores for the week ranged from 53-84).  However, I think it was only 82 as my Oura ring suggests I go to bed between 11 and 12pm for optimal sleep, but I went to bed after that time.

My readiness score for the next day

From an educational standpoint, knowing how nature benefits my mental and physical health is good to know, as it can be used as a calming resource for students. With better mental health, you are able to perform better in many different areas including focus and completing work to your best effort, so this could bring a little bit of peace to someone who is experiencing a mental block and lack of focus. When you get a good sleep, you are also able to focus better and have a good day, which ties into the nature reflection and physical activity.  

Resources

https://www.visitsooke.ca/main-directory/east-sooke-regional-park

Oura ring statistics