Lochside Trail, Friday Part Two

It was a welcome break at the McDonalds around waypoint 034, some fluids and a banana.

It was then back on track and we shrugged the extra three kilometres off and set on our way, and the next two hours walking were not that bad at all, lovely countryside, farmers fields, cows, horses, enormous pigs. I'm not making light of it however, that second ten kilometres was definitely more difficult than the first.

It was the final stretch that became increasingly difficult, when we reached the "Swing Bridge" which was the point the Lochside intersected with the already completed Galloping Goose trail, we were both spent, nothing left whatsoever. I would say that the last four kilometres, including an annoying diversion because of the Swan Lake Trestle being repaired, were torturous, both physically and mentally.

It was done, and so were we. It's an achievement, and certainly one that we will never attempt to exceed.

Statistics :

On the Thursday we walked 10.8 kilometres total including the afternoon and evening, on the Friday, a ludicrous 35.3 kilometres on the day, 29.7 kilometres on the Lochside and the remainder, painfully, and comically on an unenthusiastic pub crawl in Victoria.

That's if you count two pubs as a pub crawl....

Lochside Trail, Friday Part One

I'll post the waypoints first, and then describe the experience :

It was around 8.30am when we set off, a spring in our step to celebrate the twelth anniversary of our first official day off work and for the first two hours, ten kilometres, we enjoyed the experience and had a food and water break in a lovely park with a few dogs running around. The wasps were annoying, which they are at this time of the year.

At waypoint 029 we took a left, which seemed the way to go, unfortunately it was a bad assumption that provided a three kilometre round trip back to where we had been, this really took the wind out of our sales, so when we rejoined the Lochside trail, we stopped for another break.

So at that point, we had walked twelve kilometres, but only completed nine of the Lochside.

Lochside Trail, Thursday

We left the house early in the morning and took the bus into Victoria and then the second bus took us all the way to Swartz Bay Ferry Terminal. It was the 19th September 2019 and twelve years from our last day at work. The walk into Sidney took a little over an hour and was around six kilometres, we enjoyed a lovely break in the weather of the last week (torrential rain) and arrived fresh and enthusiastic at the hotel with perfect timing for check in (after a pint).

These are the waypoints along the way (numbers 001 to 015) :

Touching Base

"Everything will always be exactly how it's gonna be though I seem to worry every single day"

The 12 year Plan

We have a cunning plan to celebrate our 12 years of retirement, and that is to walk the Lochside Trail, when we first moved to Sooke on Vancouver Island, we set off to walk the "Goose" and did that, and more, in the first year, and that left the 29km Lochside Trail to conquer, so we do that next week.

Living on the Edge

In May of 1983, the album "Reach the Beach" by the Fixx came out, and over the following four years the title track became an anthem for me, something that resonated within me, a task that I felt I must complete.

I know everyone cannot do this, but living on the edge, on the coast and "by the seaside" is something that we all should consider, or strive to achieve, or dream about, because reaching the beach, and staying there, is truly all that I need, and to share that with my beautiful wife, Karen, is more joy than I could ever have dreamed.

If you're going to do something life changing, make sure you share it with someone.

Salmon, coming back to Sooke

It's that time of the year when just outside the Sooke Bay, various types of salmon are returning to await the right temperatures, and water levels, to come back up the rivers to spawn.

The local fishermen in Sooke go out to meet the fish, welcome them back, catch them and subsequently eat them, here are a few at the wharf, plus a harbour seal, waiting patiently for fish guts.

Left to right, pinks, coho and chinook.

An unexpected visit to a Cidery

While on Salt Spring we took quite the walk along upper Ganges Road, and I was oblivious, but Karen had remembered from our recent trip to Sidney Thursday market and done her research about the "Wild" cidery on the island.  The initial hour there was a tasting flight of ten of their ciders, and then we bought a big bottle of one we liked.

Again, it was a marvellous time, lots of smiling faces, lovely ciders with all sorts of nuances, and then an equally wonderful walk back to town down country lanes, with music bingo at the Moby pub to round out the holiday, two of those smiling faces being our own.

The Skeena Queen

It was decided last year that we would take a trip to Salt Spring Island and it was all planned out in July, we took public transport the entire way and that involved two Vancouver Island buses, the Skeena Queen, and a local bus on Salt Spring Island from Fulford Harbour to Ganges.

From our front door, a short twenty minute walk to the bus stop and it was a surprise that we were on Salt Spring island within three hours of leaving the house.

It was three nights on the island and I must say it was an absolute blast, great long days, good food, lovely beers and scenery, eventful nights at the Moby Pub in Ganges, all in all a fantastic first taste of a place we will go back to again and again.