Another favourite and beautiful trail run that is worth the pain of running steep hills simply for the stunning views. Because this run starts up hill pretty quickly, we took a short detour south on a wide trail for a warmup run first. There is a loop we could have done that would have brought us back to the trail lower down. We chose the out and back mainly to keep it short, keep it on the wide easy trail and to allow us to do a final check for late comers in the parking lot.
The trail is easy to follow. From the parking lot, it drops down for several metres before coming to a junction, marked "Ridge Trail" - go right here and just follow this trail. At any unmarked junction always go to the left. It starts climbing steeply pretty quickly and you'll be at the peak of Holmes in just over 1 km from the parking lot. Beautiful views from the top.
The trail continues down the other side, dropping steeply, then more gently and rolling for a while, before beginning a series of steep climbs as we head towards Jocelyn Hill. Again, at any junction always go left. Around 4km mark, we come to a sign pointing to Jocelyn Hill to the left, we go right here and enjoy a long down hill run - taking the left fork at the bottom and keep going. After a sharp left and crossing a bridge, the trail climbs very steeply and comes to a signed junction. We go left here and this takes us to the top of Jocelyn Hill for the views. Continuing the trail goes around Jocelyn on a very rocky section with a sharp 430m drop to the sea below. This is just stunning to see on a clear day. Follow the trail markers over the rocks and eventually this brings you back to the signed junction where we turned right on the outbound run. Going back, simply take all of the right branches in the trails.
At Holmes Peak, there is a bypass to avoid the steep hill over the summit. But the bypass has steep hills on it too so is just as much work as going over the top. But it makes a change.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Stewart Mountain - May 26, 2012
One of the best trail runs in the Victoria region is the Stewart Mountain run. There are a variety of trails to take you from the lakes to Stewart Mountain and a variety of routes to go up the mountain. For this run, we ran out on Trillium trail then along the north side of the lake and up the trail to McKenzie Creek. Most of the run is hard packed. McKenzie Creek trail is very rough and therefore a lot of fun to run on. This connects us up to the trail to Westoby near the north swamp. We leave the park here and ford a stream and follow a foresty trail that takes us back into the park. Here we ignore the "Private Property" sign (it doesn't say no trespassing) and follow a wide trail that leads direct to the top end of Westoby. This is actually a shortcut, the park trail would add close to a kilometre to the run going up the mountain from the east.
At the end of Westoby Rd we join Westoby trail a short distance then cut right onto an unmarked trail. This is very muddy. The ascent up Stewart begins abruptly and is unrelenting. On the bench we catch our breath then continue on the unmarked forest trails and then undefined trail over moss covered rocks to reach the summit. Our return is via the west trail to the power lines, then along the power lines east to an unmarked fork in the trails, going right we follow a beautiful forest trail downhill back to Westoby Trail. A short distance brings us to the T-junction with the park trail back to Thetis Lakes. We stay right at all junctions until we reach Bellamy trail, then follow that to the Gunner Shaw swamp. Tired, we take the easy way back via the south side of the lake. In all, this route was 14km (shortened by the detour through private property).
At the end of Westoby Rd we join Westoby trail a short distance then cut right onto an unmarked trail. This is very muddy. The ascent up Stewart begins abruptly and is unrelenting. On the bench we catch our breath then continue on the unmarked forest trails and then undefined trail over moss covered rocks to reach the summit. Our return is via the west trail to the power lines, then along the power lines east to an unmarked fork in the trails, going right we follow a beautiful forest trail downhill back to Westoby Trail. A short distance brings us to the T-junction with the park trail back to Thetis Lakes. We stay right at all junctions until we reach Bellamy trail, then follow that to the Gunner Shaw swamp. Tired, we take the easy way back via the south side of the lake. In all, this route was 14km (shortened by the detour through private property).
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