After two days on the Galloping Goose Trail, we had decided to check out the Lochside Trail, another converted rail line that branches off from the Goose at kilometer 4, just over the freeway bridge.  We get an early start, which, after an overnight low of 4C, was a bit of undoing.  We immediately break out the glove liners and zip up jackets tightly, but even the climb up to the freeway crossing doesn’t help.

After splitting from the Goose, the Lochside crosses under two busy roads and soon opens up to an urban wilderness, flanked by residential back yards on one side and the Swan Lake nature preserve on the other.

A timber trestle crosses a marsh on the side of Swan Lake, a bit of bone-jarring trip on weathered planks.  We pass houses perched on pilings, hanging far over the steep sides of the ravine through which the trail climbs.

Then, suddenly, we are back in the city, cycling through the heart of Saanich.  The trail crosses busy streets with stoplights, then disappears at a busy intersection.  We dismount and walk the bike up the sidewalk to the top of the hill next to a commercial center, then pedal the city streets for a couple of blocks, following the small blue trail signs to a quiet residential street, where the trail restarts as the walkway before passing into the rural countryside at the end of the block.  Most of the local commuters duck through the parking lot that straddles the old rail line bed through this suburban commercial block.

Soon, the paved portion of the trail ends, at an intersection with a new greenway trail that leads east to the shore, past the southern flanks of 700-foot Mount Douglas.  We’re cold again, with the wind in our face, but press on.  Not far up the path, we come to the Blenkinsop Trestle, one of the highlights of this trail, spanning Blenkinsop Lake and skirting the east shore.

A bit further north, the gravel path enters a paved farm road, with fields of rich black earth covered with white frost covers, reminding us that it is indeed early in the season.  At the end of the paved road, we turn around and head back toward the city, stopping on the trestle to enjoy the views.

The statue of “Roy” represents the early settlers who carved out farms in this rich valley. We stop at the wide viewpoint near the statue for a snack and watch the ducks and geese on the lake, before heading back into the city and a hot shower.

Besides the cold, we have been concerned with the only mechanical trouble so far on our spring shakedown bike tour: The clasp on Judy’s helmet turned up missing when we suited up the first day. I was able to tie the strap to the remaining half, but this morning, the adjusting slide was also missing. While we could still secure the strap, there was some concern whether the helmet would stay where it belonged if needed. After getting warmed up, we took the car out, ending up, quite by accident, at Fort Street Cycle, where the helpful and friendly staff found replacement parts for Judy’s helmet and reminded us that it is getting time to replace our helmets. What a delightful find. These guys are definitely the place to go in Victoria for all your biking needs.

The rest of the day, we motored along the beach drive to Cordova Bay, ending up at Mattick’s Farm, a shopping center near the shore north of Mount Douglas, along the Lochside Trail, at what would have been our biking destination today had we not been turned back by the cold morning.

The next day promised rain all day, so the northern end of the Lochside Trail and the western end of the Galloping Goose trails will wait for the next trip. Thursday’s plan includes a drizzly trip to Butchart Gardens–by car–to take in this week’s spring blooms, though we’ve enjoyed the backyard gardens from the bike trails and the burst of color from the many flowering trees throughout the city. We’ll be back.

We’ve spent the last two days exploring the wonderful Galloping Goose Regional Trail, a rail trail that runs from Victoria’s Inner Harbour to Sooke and beyond.   Since it is early in the season–this is the first outing for our tandem since last summer–we decided to do the trail in sections of 30-45 km (18-26 miles).  Though we started from the Victoria end, we took photos on the return trips.

The trail starts at the downtown end of the Johnson Street Bridge, and follows the old CNR line.

The trail follows city streets for a few hundred meters, then winds along the waterfront, crossing the inlet again at the Selkirk Trestle, another lift bridge and heading north to the Switch Bridge crossing TransCanada 1.  The Goose turns to follow the highway west, while the Lochside trail heads north toward Sydney.

The day started cool, but sunny, turning warmer as we moved inland.  The old rail bed climbs gradually toward Colwood, while the highway dips down along Portage Inlet.

The trail crosses under the freeway, where there is a parking lot and toilet facilities, before climbing up to Colwood, through a relatively secluded wooded area south of Thetis Lake Park. A couple of days before our ride, tragedy struck, as the murdered body of a local teen-aged girl was found near the Mill Creek bridge. The area around the bridge was swarming with TV news camera crews, but they lost interest in us when they found that we weren’t local and (at the time) were unaware of the incident. We ended our ride near kilometer 13, returning to Victoria.

Our first day took us 19 miles total. We celebrated with lunch at Crepes & Cream, a tiny four-table restaurant on Menzies at Simcoe, possibly the best crepes to be had in Western Canada. We tried the vegetable curry crepes, which were wonderful, with a dish of mango ice cream for dessert.  The neighborhood restaurants are always best, and very reasonable, compared with the offerings in the downtown tourist areas in most destination cities, and Victoria is no exception.  On our visit last December, we found a fish-and-chips place just a few doors down the street that served up better than the much-ballyhooed fare in the downtown pubs–minus the beer, of course.

The Galloping Goose Trail is named for the gasoline-powered train that carried 30 passengers and mail between Victoria and Sooke in the 1920s and 1930s. A number of these hybrid rail vehicles were used in the American Southwest as well as Vancouver Island, built from a Buick or Pierce Arrow bus chassis grafted to a rail car. The old rail route was developed into a hiking/biking/horse trail early in the 21st century, and is paved for most of the first 13 km.  The rest is hard-packed crushed rock, which we found a bit rough, but easily managed by our fat-tired tandem, which usually becomes nearly un-steerable on loose surfaces.

The second day, we loaded the bike on the Jeep, punched in the address where we stopped the day before, and headed out to tackle the unpaved Metchosin section of the trail. The trail continued to climb past the Royal Roads University to the business center of Langford, then through neighborhoods and past Glen Lake before crossing Sooke Road once more and entering the more rural Metchosin district.

Past kilometer 25, the countryside turns more rugged, as the gentle grade weaves through wooded canyons with occasional views of farms, country estates, and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. At kilometer 30, the trail crosses Rocky Road and enters a narrow canyon leading to Matheson Lake and Roche Cove. At Matheson Lake, the trail drops steadily to Gillespie Road at kilometer 35, skirting the steep sides of Roche Cove, the easternmost reach of the Sooke Basin. We finish the last crumbs of our snacks and head back up the trail toward Colwood, 22km (13.5 miles) away.

Climbing out of the canyons, the mid-day sun finally dispels the morning chill that has followed us down through the shady trail. Back at the car, we load up the bike and head for the nearest all-day-breakfast restaurant to replenish 26 miles worth of calories. Afterwards, we take the auto route to Sooke, since we probably won’t ride the remaining 20 km of the Goose this trip. On the way back, we drive past the point we ended our bike trip, winding around the rugged coastline before heading inland to criss-cross an d parallel the trail. The roads are curvy and hilly, compared to the gentle, straight grades of the rail trail.

Next, we plan to ride the Lochside Trail, or as much of it as our tender bodies can stand, after 44 km of riding gravel trails today and a total of 75 km in two days at the start of our biking season.