Construction of new 13-kilometre Sooke Hills Wilderness Trail will start this month

Construction is set to begin this month after two companies were award contracts to build the new 13-kilometre Sooke Hills Wilderness Trail.

The new trail will provide a wilderness experience as it travels through remote areas, including bear, wolf and cougar habitat. Visitors will have views of a waterfall on Waugh Creek, the Goldstream River from the suspension bridge, surrounding mountain ranges and forests.

The trail will be developed between the Humpback Reservoir in Sooke Hills Wilderness Regional Park Reserve and the CRD-Cowichan Valley Regional District boundary. To the north, it will link to the Cowichan Valley Trail, being extended by CVRD, and to the south, it will link to City of Langford roads and trails, connecting it to the Galloping Goose Regional Trail, all of which are part of the TCT route.

The entire trail is estimated to cost $2.3 million. Western Watershed Designs Inc was awarded $1.4 million, and Copcan Civil Ltd. was awarded $253,500 to build a suspension bridge and trail approaches at the Goldstream River.