If you ever wondered where all those hippies go when they get older? Come to Salt Spring Island and you’ll see. Apart from the hippies, the island is full of farms, lakes with naked people and positive energy. One of the best views you can get of the island’s beauties is from Baynes Peak (602m). So, we decided to check it out.
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East Sooke Regional Park is my favourite hiking destination within the Victoria regional bus network. It’s wild, hilly, with great ocean views and big enough for day long hikes.
Let’s be clear from the beginning: Sidney Island is not a hiking destination. If you try really hard and the tide is low, you can do a walk which is about 10 km long. But let’s face it, a lot of us go hiking because we want to get away, and in this respect, Sidney Spit is a very good place to get away from Victoria
We didn’t choose the best day to start the trail. It was Friday, 29th June 2018, the beginning of a long weekend thanks to Canada Day, by far the most popular camping weekend in Canada. But, we didn’t have much choice since we had been offered a ride to China beach on that day from Victoria and didn’t want to lose the opportunity.
The Juan de Fuca (JDF) trail is one of 3 classic, long coastal trails on Vancouver Island (the others being the West Coast Trail and the North Coast Trail). Unlike the other 2 trails, neither campsites or transport need to be booked in advance on the JDF. Furthermore, from what I’ve heard, all 3 hikes offer similar experience. So, for me the JDF was number 1 on my list for hiking on Vancouver Island.
Gowlland Tod Provincial Park is a hidden treasure, sitting unassumingly on the SE coast of Saanich Inlet. It’s relatively easy to get there by public transport but quiet and forgotten when compared to Goldstream which attracts carloads of tourists.
Goldstream is possibly the most popular area around Victoria for hiking. The longest hike you can do there takes you through the Western side of the park all the way to a trestle bridge, down to the highway, up to Mt Finlayson and back to a bus stop. That’s the loop that I’ll be describing in this article.