I'm always impressed when members of our group who live in Sooke and Metchosin travel all the way to Sidney, Tod Inlet, Mt. Doug and Haro Woods for our walks. Well done, folks! On Saturday Oct 4th, you're the ones who get to sleep in a little longer as our group comes your way for a beautiful walk in and around the area of Latoria Creek Park.
For those of you who don't know, Latoria Creek Park is about 9 minutes from the entrance to Royal Roads University.
Latoria Creek Park is a 23 acre parcel of forested land located on the border of Colwood and Metchosin. Latoria Creek babbles along beside and below the trail, and several bridges crisscross the creek. The trail features a fair number of stairs, so be aware of what you're signing up for. Most of our members will do fine on this walk, but those with joint issues may struggle with the stairs on this walk.
We'll start at the SOUTH end of the trail, and work our way north. (If you enter "Latoria Creek Park" in your GPS, it may take you to the north end of the park, so be forewarned.) On this part of the walk, we'll encounter 22 up stairs, then 20 down stairs, then 80 up stairs.
When we exit the north end of Latoria Creek Park, we'll change our route a bit from last year to avoid going up Wishart Road, which tends to get a bit busy. Instead, we'll head up to Outrigger Loop, and take Promenade Crescent up to Promenade Park. This is a small park in the heart of the upper Royal Bay neighborhood. Our short walk through its forested trails yields a birds-eye view of Royal Bay and across Esquimalt Harbour to Victoria.
After that, we'll dart over to Murray's Pond Park, and enjoy more great views as we take a gentle downhill trail to Latoria Road.
Crossing the road takes us to the next part of our walk, along Quarry Street and up Producers Way to the new Quarry Park. This recently opened 16-acre park is a boon for young families as it features a really cool kids playground, a bike park, walking trails and much more, some of which are still under development. For us, it provides a way to access the seldom used back entrance to Latoria Creek Park.
From there, it's about 200m to get us back on to the main trail, and then we'll walk back through Latoria Creek Park, encountering the same steps we climbed on the way out, this time 80 down steps, then 20 up steps, and finally 22 down steps.
If you're wondering, our walk includes 144 up steps and 146 down steps for a total of 290 steps in all. Just call this the "Stairmaster walk". The walk is slightly longer than last year, 4.6 km in total, 2.7 km on forested trails, 1.9 km on sidewalk.
As long as your dog is kept under control, it's okay to let your pup off leash in the forested sections of our walk.
As mentioned previously, please meet at the SOUTH entrance to Latoria Creek Park. Do not go to the North entrance. Take Metchosin Road to Pelican Drive. For your GPS, the closest house is 389 Pelican Dr. That's about 75 meters from the trailhead. Street parking is available on Pelican Drive (or you could park right on Metchosin Road, if you prefer.) Look for my Victoria Small Dog Walk and Play Group signs.
