Like most of us, I have been cooped up at home and not getting out to explore as much as I would like—which is great for my word count, but not so great for my blog—however, not too long ago, I managed to get out for a romantic hike with my husband along the Sooke Flowline.
I have known about it for years. I had the vague idea I would like to check it out, but like often happens, the places that are closest to me are the last to be explored. For some reason, local things just don’t seem to hold the same fascination as the far away places. It’s like we get inured to them, and they lose their magic.
I live in a tourist destination, but I don’t always understand what all the fuss is about, until I have a truly wonderous experience, and then I remember. Luckily, through research for my romance novels, I have been focussing on exploring the island I live on—Vancouver Island.
Which is how I ended up on a romantic hike on the Sooke Flowline.
WHAT IS THE SOOKE FLOWLINE?
You might be wondering what the heck the Sooke Flowline is? And why I am making a romantic fuss about it.
The flowline itself might not sound like the kind of thing to inspire a romantic hike. It is basically a giant concrete pipe that runs 47 kilometres (27 miles) from the Sooke Hills to Victoria, BC. The aqueduct supplied Victoria with water from 1915 until 1970 (although some sections weren’t decommissioned until 2009).
Not a particularly romantic history.
The aqueduct proved to be trouble right from the start. It was vulnerable to leaks and prone to damage from landslides and fallen trees. And it required constant maintenance. To deal with this, caretakers lived in small cabins along the route—some of these are still there, although I didn’t see any during my hike—and rode recumbent tricycles with special rear wheels to keep them on the tracks.
So, what does this have to do with romance novels and hiking?
WHAT ABOUT THE ROMANCE?
As romantic as men living in remote cabins tending to the water supply on bikes might be 😉, you probably aren’t reading this to learn about the intricacies of the Victoria water supply, even though we do have beautiful water. So, I will direct you to Wikipedia, if you want to learn more about this interesting piece of Victoria’s history.
After the waterline was abandoned, residents started using it as a hiking trail. It snakes along through dense salal and rocky areas that would not be accessible any other way.
In some places the rubble leftover from blasting is a little reminiscent of a castle wall… Swoon…
A WALK ALONG THE WATERWAY
As I mentioned earlier, I have known about the Sooke Flowline for decades, but I had never hiked on it. Nor did I really even understand exactly what it was. It is seriously just a giant—1 metre diameter—concrete pipe, which is hard to imagine until you see it. Or where to access it.
Enter my husband.
For those of you who have been around for a while, you will know that it isn’t by accident that I write romance novels. I devour books in the romance genre, and I watch every romantic comedy that I can. I am basically a romantic at heart, and while I wouldn’t classify my husband as the romantic type, sometimes he does it exactly right.
All he told me was that we were going for a hike. I was excited, because we were going to be near the Sooke Potholes—which are featured in a slightly altered form in the romance novel Saving Shelby—and I needed pictures for a blog post. You can read about the debacle that turned out to be here.
He surprised me with a waterfall, and then a hike along the Sooke Flowline. You can read about discovering the waterfall here.
ROMANTIC HIKE
Now, I will admit that our hike might not have been the kind of romantic hike that you have been dreaming of, because we had our kids along with us. And if there is one thing that kids are good at, it’s killing romance.
But where real life may have been lacking in romance, my writer’s brain kicked in to fill in the gaps.
I have done a substantial amount of hiking through the lush forests of Vancouver Island, but I was completely stunned by the beauty surrounding me as I walked along the pipe, I couldn’t help but get lost in dreams about lovers walking along the same route, discovering the magic of this romantic hike together.
I don’t quite know when or where a hike along the Sooke Flowline is going to pop up in one of my novel, all I do know is that it will. If not the real location, then a fictionalized version of it. The atmosphere of the hike along the moss covered aqueduct is just too romantically perfect to resist.
The pipe isn’t wide enough to walk side-by-side, but I can just imagine a couple just discovering their feelings for each other hiking along it. One of them is in front, leading the other along. They are smiling and laughing.
And maybe they get stuck out overnight in one of the caretaker cabins…
Or maybe she is lost, and he discovers her.
Or better yet, she is the caretaker, and rescues him…
You’ll have to stick around to find out 😉.
MORE WANDERING to discover ROMANCE
I have big plans for more exploration of the island. There are a few locations in my romance novels that I still need to chronicle here on the blog. There are also location that I have blogged about that need to be written into novels, like this one, Cape Scott, and Sidney Island.
And there are places that I need to revisit and ones that I haven’t discovered yet. So, I will keep writing and keep wandering.
In the meantime, keep reading and stay safe,
This adventure took place 7 November 2020
