Garth Campbell made his Victoria cycling buddies jealous this week.
As the Capital Regional District’s project manager for the new Sooke Hills Wilderness Trail, he got to hop on his mountain bike and ride the new 13-kilometre recreational route — one that finally links Greater Victoria to the land beyond the Malahat — just before it opened.
Campbell did it in the easier direction, riding from the unpaved trail’s north end, high above the ’Hat, to its south end by the Humpback Reservoir, an elevation drop of 500 metres. The vistas were stunning.
The trail isn’t all downhill — there are some nasty little 16 per cent climbs that Campbell talks about as they’re a fun challenge, not a reason to lose the will to live — but it was waaaay more enjoyable than his white-knuckle, shoulder-of-the-Trans-Canada ride down the Malahat last week.
The new trail allows cyclists and hikers to dodge the sketchiest section of highway. In fact, Friday’s trail opening, along with that of a new nine-kilometre extension of the adjoining Cowichan Valley Trail, means users can stay off major roads all the way from Victoria to Duncan and beyond.
It’s all part of the vision for the 24,000-kilometre Great Trail. Formerly known as the Trans Canada Trail, the route is being pieced together with recreational trails from Victoria to Cape Spear, N.L. (or to Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T., if you’re willing to paddle).
That’s what had officials excited Friday at a ribbon-cutting ceremony up in Goldstream Heights, right on the border of the Capital and Cowichan Valley regional districts. Stitching those two new pieces of trail to each other and to trails at their other ends fills a significant gap in the Great Trail’s Vancouver Island portion, which runs from Victoria to Nanaimo (though work remains at the Nanaimo end).
Those at the ceremony (it was vaguely reminiscent of the Last Spike) spoke of the co-operation of the CRD, the CVRD and the Malahat First Nation in piecing together this jigsaw puzzle. They expressed gratitude for $1.2 million from the province, TimberWest and the Trans Canada Trail Foundation.
Foundation chair Valerie Pringle — perhaps most familiar as the onetime host of CTV’s Canada AM — spoke of what the trail means to mental and physical well-being. “It’s not going to cure people, but it’s going to make you feel better.” Surrounded by arbutus and conifers, with birds singing and the sun warming the back of necks for what felt like the first time in nine months, it was hard to argue.
The linked trails were advertised as good for multi-day tourism, offering a mix of urban, rural, small-town and wilderness experiences. Someone coming off the ferry at Swartz Bay can follow the Lochside Trail down the Saanich Peninsula, go west on the Galloping Goose from Saanich, work through the roads and trails that comprise the Great Trail in Langford and follow them to the new piece, which cuts through the 4,090-hectare Sooke Hills Wilderness Regional Park (the new trail includes a 41-metre suspension bridge over the Goldstream River; there’s a time-lapse video of its construction at crd.bc.ca.) The CRD plans to build a connector to the Sooke Potholes in 2019.
The CRD and CVRD trails join seamlessly north of the wilderness reserve. From there the 120-kilometre Cowichan Valley Trail meanders west of Shawnigan Lake to the Kinsol Trestle, out to Cowichan Lake, then back east to Duncan and north.
