November 29, 2025
~ submitted by Evan Martin
Winter is coming, which for me means ski trips and gulley climbs. However, after coming off the summer high and dipping into the fall low, I needed to start getting out again to build the necessary fitness. The Sooke Hills are a convenient place to train and keep up the fitness for those of us on the South Island. I had spent a lot of time exploring the area a few years ago, but the North West corner of the park was closed due to the Old Man Lake fire of 2024. Hence, this trip gave me an opportunity to get out into one of the last parts of the park that I haven’t yet explored.
I was joined by three other Ramblers and a special guest from UVic. It was a good mix of participants – some seeking fitness, others checking off the Sooke Hills challenge. Our guest was gathering data on risk in outdoor activities as part of an Anthropology course, which led to some interesting discussions during the trip.
We headed up the Peden Lake trail, around the lake and onto The Lakes Carriageway, heading towards Trafalgar. There were a few logs down across the trail, but not nearly as many as I had expected. The start of the trail to Trafalgar was also much easier to find than I expected, but eventually faded away. The last few hundred meters to Trafalgar was a gentle bushwhack in easy vegetation.
After a short break we returned to the carriageway. We had noted several well beaten trails with flagging tape on our way in, and we decided to explore one of these. Our hope was that they’d link up with the Ridge Lake Trail that leads up Black Bear. However, after a short hike up we entered the burn area and the trail was no more. We believe that these trail were likely built by the wildfire crews. We returned to the carriageway and resorted to the original trail. There was more sign of wildfire work when we arrive at the small lake where the trail starts to gain the ridge.
The trail up the east side of Black Bear was difficult to find. It was lost amongst the burnt remains of the forest floor. We gained elevation until we came to a band a cliffs. We followed this to the North until we found a series a breaks that we could use to the gain the ridge. From this point up to the summit of Black Bear was more of the same burnt underbrush. Fortunately, where the undergrowth is starting to regrow its the Salal, not the Broom, that is growing.
We returned via White Rock (a disappointing blip on the ridge) to the outflow of Peden Lake. We had been concerned about this crossing on the way up, so had pre-scouted it. The crossing went smoothly and we proceeded at a good pace back to the cars along the Peden Lake trail.
We covered just over 15km, with a total time out of 5:20, just 20 minutes past my estimated time.