~ submitted by Mary Hof
April 20, 2019
A beautiful day for a hike on Empress Mountain in the Sooke Hills.
Six of us set off at 9am, by 10:30am we arrived at Grassy Lake. After a snack, we headed up to Mary’s Peak, then Puzzle, Dumbbells, then steep down and up again to Empress.
On the return, we went up Screen Hill, Burt Lake, Grassy Lake and decided to return the Plateau Trail System which was an hour longer but so much nicer with lots of views. The hike was 18.5km, 1264m and took 7.5 hours.
Thanks to the group that came, we all had the same pace, which made for a very enjoyable day.
