Tis the season for eating, visiting, and giving, among other things. I probably should say more about the festive season, but I’m feeling a bit drowsy right now. I guess it might be the feasting and the hiking today. On that note I’ll get straight to the day’s activity.
Today I drove out to Roche Cove near Sooke with a couple others and did a 10km hike into and around Matheson Lake. Matheson Lake can be reached by road, and the hike around it is only about 4km, which was the primary reason for starting a bit further out at Roche Cove. Based on the maps I had it looked like we were in for about 7-8km, but as mentioned, it ended up being almost 10km. The weather was cool, but sunny and overall it was a great outing aside from some moderately wet feet; the sign wasn’t lying about the seasonally wet conditions on the Cedar Grove Trail.
GPS Data: 9.8km / 2h10m / GPS route
A map of our hike route at Roche Cove and Matheson Lake near Sooke, BC. Click to see more GPS data on the Garmin website.
A sunny day in the forest. This photo was taken near the start of the Cedar Grove Trail.
Near the end of the Cedar Grove Trail (east end) where the trail was a bit drier than the earlier portions.
The view from a nice lookout point near the west end of Matheson Lake.
Most of the terrain around Matheson Lake is similar to elsewhere on the south island, but it does get hillier out towards Sooke with more prominent rock features.
A wee island in Matheson Lake.
Looking west from the beach at the east end of Matheson Lake.
On the south side of the lake the trail is much more interesting (twisty, undulating, varied surfaces). Granted we chose to walk on the Galloping Goose rail trail on the north side of the lake - I think one could stick to the more interesting trail if they wanted to.
A creek flowing out of Matheson Lake to the west towards Roche Cove.
Finishing up the hike on the Galloping Goose rail trail (heading west towards Roche Cove).
