~ submitted by Mary Hof
June 3, 2018
Seven hikers set out at 9:30 am Sunday June 3rd from Burnt Bridge past Shawnigan Lake. The weather was calling for showers but we had none, which made for a nice hike.
We started up the bluffs. Two weeks ago we spotted 25 different varieties of flowers, this week there were very few. The motorbikes have left this trail in terrible condition, and it will only get worse with the dry weather. The views were good, and going through the old growth was very nice. We had a nice lunch break looking over to the Islands and the Victoria airport. We were surrounded by wild onions, the smell was wonderful. Some even picked some to put on their sandwich. We visited the horse monument plaque, and carried on with more nice forest, and logging roads.
Coming down we went through a very short clear cut area with a trail through it, and then there were the trails with scree, and again motorbikes ruining what were once really nice trails. We were done in 4.5 hours, faster then I had done it before. It must be because the hikers were troopers and kept a good pace. Hike was around 14.5k. We found a trail that horses are using, must go back and scout it out, as that may be better then those motorbike trails.
A very enjoyable day with great people (I did have 4 cancelations between Saturday night and Sunday morning, I think they thought it was going to rain, but not so!).