Lochside Trail Walks

Sometimes, when I`m feeling really ambitious, I`ll walk from my home downtown Victoria to Sidney via the Lochside Trail. The trail actually starts a little to the west of Uptown Shopping Centre, though I usually get on the trail where it intercepts Quadra St., immediately south of the Saanich Centre.  From downtown to Sidney it takes about three and a half to four and a half hours.  What makes it appealing to me is that the trail constantly changes.  Sometimes it`s a path through the woods, sometimes it becomes Lochside Road for a stretch.  There`s a lake early on in the hike, and later a pioneer-like shopping area (Maddicks Farm), an actual farm with pigs and roosters, and a pioneer-like museum.  Sometimes you`re in the woods, s sometimes in a residential district, sometimes in an open field, sometimes almost touching the highway.  Horses are common especially the closer to get up north.  So despite the long walk you`re generally hot too bored.