New horizons will open for hikers and bicyclists in July with the unveiling of the Sooke Hills Wilderness Trail through an area that has been closed to the public for more than 15 years.
“It will be absolutely magnificent,” said Mike Hicks, chairman of the Capital Regional District parks committee.
The 13-kilometre Sooke Hills Wilderness Trail is on schedule to be completed and officially open in time to mark the 150th anniversary of Confederation.
The trail runs between Humpback Reservoir and the Capital Regional District and Cowichan Valley Regional District boundary, forming part of the Great Trail, formerly known as the Trans Canada Trail.
Built over the past year at a cost of $2.3 million, the unpaved trail will open access to the Sooke Hills Wilderness Park Reserve, a 4,124-hectare section of wilderness that provides a buffer for the capital region’s water supply catchment area.
The area was held in park reserve until the region developed a master plan and had the funds for needed infrastructure.
The wilderness reserve was created in the 1990s from land deemed surplus to water district needs. It includes Mount Braden, which at 471 metres is the highest peak in the CRD Regional Parks system.
One of the trail’s features will be a 1.2-metre-wide, 41-metre-long suspension bridge over the Goldstream River and a nearby viewing platform facing the waterfall at Waugh Creek, a Goldstream River tributary.
Plans call for the Sooke Hills Wilderness Trail to connect at the north end with the Cowichan Valley Trail, which is being extended south of Shawnigan Lake.
At the south end, it will connect to Langford trails and streets and link with the Galloping Goose Regional Trail, all of which are part of the Great Trail route.
The cost of Sooke Hills Wilderness Trail is being covered in part by a $650,000 grant from the Trans Canada Trail organization and $600,000 from the Trans Canada Trail Relocation Fund, established by the province and the CRD.
