You need an early start to make it to Fulford Harbour for a day-hike. So we met at the Ladner Exchange at 6:15 a.m. to carpool and catch the 7 o'clock ferry from Tswawassen to Swartz Bay. We had breakfast on board and reached Swartz Bay in time to transfer to the 9 a.m. Fulford Harbour ferry. The older historic buildings are at the end of the inlet but most of the commercial buildings have now centred themselves around the ferry terminal. We had coffee at the Rock Salt Cafe before setting off for a brief trip to Old Fulford. This took us past the old Stone Church and on to Fulford Inn before returning to the terminal.
We then set off up Morningside Road, admiring a number of large attractive houses hugging the shoreline which the starboard side of the boat had passed on our way in. The road ended at the entrance to Reginald Hill Estates, which welcomes walkers but not cars that park. We made our way uphill to the first corner where it levelled out and a trail sign indicated we should turn left; another left turn soon afterwards put us on to Reginald Hill Trail.The trail led steeply up before coming out to a short loop trail, where we branched right to reach the summit, returning later by the other half of the loop. The summit offered beautiful views over Fulford Harbour and across the isthmus to Burgoyne Bay on the western side. This was a good spot to take a long lunch and enjoy just being there.
The trail did not feel nearly as steep coming down and it seemed we were soon out. At the trail sign on the main road, we continued downhill to the left until we could go no further; the road ended in a turnaround loop - No Parking, Cars Towed. A road continued uphill, presumably to property up there and a gateway on the right was bounded by brick entry posts, one labelled Fulford House. It was clear that this was the home of Lord Fulford. However, as we had been told by a resident we had met on the road, a trail between a small shed and the Fulford House sign led further on. We followed it as it hugged a fence separating us from the private part of Lord Fulford's property (although we were probably still on his land). We passed the manor house and reached a stile over a fence that took us off this property and in to First Nations territory.
As we went down the hill, we met a sign announcing the Tsawout Indian Band; we were asked not to remove any artifacts we might find. Continuing, we followed an attractive winding trail close to Fulford Harbour's shoreline. Occasionally it reached completely open spots where we could enjoy the view, but we found the best was to come when we reached a point of land where we could step down onto a shell-covered beach for a second lunch.
We had to backtrack briefly and follow a faintly marked route before rediscovering the trail as it made its way down to a muddy, and clearly occasionally flooding creek. It then led up a hill and branched right where we saw we could have short-cut from our second-lunch beach at a low enough tide. The trail now continued clearly until it eventually emerged onto a road which we later found was called Menhinick Road.
We followed this road briefly to a sign on the right pointing to beach access which we took down to a small bay. After a short stay, we came back to the road and returned to our trail, but after about 100m where it turned downhill, we continued staight on. A woman on the Fulford ferry had told us of this and we hoped we'd found the right one. We had; it was reasonably clear and it came to an end at a wooden fence. Making our way downhill parallel to this we reached the stile betwen the Tsawout lands and Fulford House. We crossed the stile and retraced our steps to Fulford Harbour and the ferry home.