Lone Tree Hill

February 5, 2024

364m

Victoria, BC

Lone Tree Hill is one of the many officially-named pimples in the vicinity of the Greater Victoria that also boast over 100 m prominence. The hike is rather lame. Kate and I had had about 1 hour to do anything after finishing Mt. Finlayson. We had to show up at the ferry terminal no later than 10:30 am in order to secure our reserved spot, and the drive from Mt. Finlayson’s trail-head to the ferry would take roughly 40 minutes by any route. I was hoping for Mt. Work but it wasn’t realistic, so I made the final decision to tag Lone Tree Hill. The trail to the summit is well marked on my Gaia map so all we needed was to let Google Map direct us to the trail-head. The drive was through some local zones.

Lone Tree Hill hiking route. GPX DL

I was surprised that we were the first vehicle that parked at this official trail-head. There’s even a gate but the gate had already opened at least an hour ago. The hike was actually longer than I thought but the upper section had some continuous views. There was indeed a “lone tree” on the very summit so that explained the name of this hill. I was honestly expecting a complete trash-bag but the views actually made this summit worthwhile, especially considering the amount of effort needed.

Kate starting the hike
The hike was rather no-brainer
Kate arriving at one of the viewpoints on the north ridge
Me dashing for the summit, which was actually quite open
Kate making her way to the summit
Kate standing on the northern one of the two summits
This is Mt. Finlayson, our previous objective in the morning
Kate traversing between the two highpoint contenders
Kate on the southern summit
Kate with Mt. Work behind
Me on the summit of Lone Tree Hill
Kate posing with the “lone tree”

We did no lingering besides taking the obligatory victory shots, and then dashed back to the car in a single shot. I then immediately drove us to the ferry terminal and again we had to drive through a long stretch of single lane local zone. That was a bit weird. We made to the terminal with about 15 minutes of spare, and successfully got onto the 11 AM ride back to Tsawwassen. This got me back home by around 2 am and I even earned myself a short nap before showing up at work. I did have to work till 10 pm and that was a tad bit exhausting.

Kate starting the descent. This objective was short and sweet
As you can see, the terrain was quite open on the upper ridge
Kate jogging down the forested trail