Multi-trail walk

At the beginning of November, our group planned a walk along several of the Centennial Trails in Saanich. However, the weather took the day away from us and we had to cancel the walk. I'd like to try and get this walk in, folks, but I'd like to change our routing to make it a bit different for long time members of the group.

(FYI: This will be the last "regular" walk of the year. On Sat Dec 13th, we will have our "Annual Xmas Party" at Goldstream, however that event only includes a short walk. The Xmas Party is for "Purple Paw" members only to thank you for your financial contributions throughout the year. If you would like to join the "Purple Paw Donors Circle", and thus be invited to attend our fabulous Xmas Party with food, drink, music, warm fires, good cheer, and a big prize table (!!), please make a minimum $20.00 donation to our group either at the "Multi Trails Walk" on Nov 29th, or by etransfer at tidbitdog@gmail.com.)

On Saturday Nov 29th, let's meet at Copley Park West and do the walk in the following manner...

Meet at the corner of Parkridge St. and Parkridge Ct. This is the NW corner of Copley Park West, and it's accessible via Vanalman Ave. There are 59 parking spots here, so there should be room for everyone.

We'll start by doing a loop around Copley Park West, getting on to Colquitz River Trail in the process. We'll continue over to Copley Park East, cross Colquitz River, and then veer off to Old Joe's Trail.
The city has done a lot of work on this trail over the past few months, clearing out undergrowth, cutting off low tree branches, erecting cedar fences, and just generally making the trail feel more open and welcoming. We'll walk to the end of the trail at Glanford Avenue, and then retrace our steps to Colquitz River Trail.
Heading North now, we'll parallel the river as we pass through Colquitz Park, across Mann Road, and along to the intersection of Colquitz River Trail and Glendale Trail. We'll wander down Glendale Trail until it hits Wilkinson Road, and then wander back.
A few more steps on the Colquitz River Trail brings us to Royal Oak Trail, which is paved rather than the gravel trails we've been experiencing up until now, and we'll step out along Royal Oak Trail until we reach West Saanich Road.
This marks the furthest reach of our walk, and the remainder of our journey will be retracing steps we've already taken as we work our way back to Copley Park East.

If that sounds like a lot of walking, well, it kinda is. The whole walk is 5.7 km, so we may not have time to do the Glendale Trail leg. We'll have to see how we're getting on, what the weather is like, and so on. It's easy walking though, and if you want to attend, but only do part of the route, that's fine too.

As mentioned, there are a couple of road crossings along the way, so by all means control your dog as appropriate. Yes, there are some parts of this walk that are off-leash. Yay!

All of these trails are part of the Centennial Trails Loop, which is a 16.2 km trail system that loops around a large part of Saanich. If you want to see the whole loop, go here ...
https://www.saanich.ca/EN/main/parks-recreation-community/parks/parks-trails-amenities/trails/centennial-trails.html