Category: Capital Regional District

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Sooke Hills – Black Bear & Trafalgar Mountains

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.

Continue reading “Sooke Hills – Black Bear & Trafalgar Mountains”
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Run Ragged in the Sooke Foothills!

November 8, 2025

~ submitted by Jaime Crucil

Seven Island Mountain Ramblers met at the Sooke Hills parking area for a rolling stroll through the foothills. For those who know the area, the Sooke Foothills host a maze of intersecting and sometimes faint trails—so naturally, I managed to lose the route within the first 100 feet on a very wide and obvious trail. Fortunately, a quick correction had us back on track in no time. Continue reading “Run Ragged in the Sooke Foothills!”

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Tower and Meadow Cabin Loop

March 3, 2024
~ submitted by Evan White

We started the day by parking on Jordan Main when the snow levels were too high to continue.

We hiked to Tower Cabin where we met four ladies that were on their way out from an overnighter. From there we headed to Meadow cabin, breaking trail in up to 3 feet of fresh snow. We arrived at Meadow cabin, made a hot lunch while melting some snow to replenish our water supply.

From Meadow Cabin we broke more trail while heading out on Matty’s trail in more waist high snow.

Our day was a total of 9.5 hours with 6 hours of moving time over 19km. A good day was had!

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Monument Mountain to Grassy Lake

January 13th, 2024
~ submitted by Su Castle

The intended trail head (parking lot #2/Sooke Potholes) that would have us closer to our intended destination was locked (icy, windy, steep road); so we changed plans and started off from the Charters Creek trailhead.

Through -5 temps, clear skies, snow and ice underfoot; 4 humans and one dog tromped up Monument instead. We had a brisk pace with very short stops to stay warm.

Coming down off the hill towards the north, we caught icy winds in the face for a short time. We stopped to admire the frozen Grassy lake before returning down Grass Lake trail.

We wanted to include Devastation Hill, but the creek crossing was a little larger than we wanted to attempt.

Took us about 3 hours to hike 12.5 kms with 550 metre elevation gain.

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Ridge Rambler- Gowland Todd One way

–submitted by Su Castle

We left a vehicle at both trailheads and commenced the10km ridge hike at Caleb Pike, taking 3 hours with stops for photos and a detour to see both Cascade Falls and the extremely high tide at McKenzie Bight. While there was wind on the ridge, there was no rain! Elevation gain travelling in this direction was minimal, only 400m.

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Finlayson Arm 28k Route

September 1, 2023

~ submitted by Su Castle

We started at the Prospectors Trail in Goldstream and followed the route for the 28 km Finlayson Arm trail run route, at a hike pace.


Hike time was just under 8 hours, breaks about 40 min in total. Weather was fantastic.