(Photo by Kelly Linehan)A trip up to a train trestle on Vancouver Island can be the ultimate high.
Getting there is half the fun when it comes to an abandoned train trestle outside Victoria, B.C.
After driving an hour north of Victoria, you must somehow whip an U-Turn on a windy strech of mountain highway. The parking lot looks more like a highway shoulder.
Depending on what route you take from the parking lot, a hiker can either end up at the bottom of a steep waterfall in a shallow riverbed and try to clamor up an equally steep adjacent hillside. Or you may bypass this road-less-travelled for a designated route complete with steps and fencing.
While you are close to the highway, once entering into a darkened tree-canopy of mammoth old-growth that smell of dampness and moss, you are worlds away from civilization. Other hikers are few and far between, with a bigger and better known park right across the road.
(Photo by Kelly Linehan)
Graffiti mars the underside of the bridge, but apart from that conteporary reminder, the bridge is a beacon of the past in its unlikely resting place. Its tracks extend into deeper forest on either end, but few hikers bother to leave its extrodinary height.
This is where you will spot other hikers. You may see one woman sitting on an outcropping of the trestle, dangling her legs over the vertigo-inducing drop. More likely however, you'll find a younger couple lighting up a joint after offering you a toke.
Weed is the last thing you'll need. You already feel naturally stoned.
