Sidney to Leechtown
via Lochside & Galloping Goose Trails 2022

 Well, virtually to Leechtown, as the former townsite is no more. The townsite area has been renamed Kapoor Regional Park in recognition of the Kapoor family's long involvement in the area. Leechtown came to fruition in 1864 when gold was discovered in the Leech River area, a tributary of the Sooke River. Nevertheless, gold mining was short lived and over time the town was abandoned.

 Why to Leechtown you may ask? Back in 1996, I was looking at a backroads map book along the relatively new rail to trail route, Galloping Goose (1989?). I could see that the trail proper terminated at Leechtown, but the map showed that an abandoned rail line continued north to the west side of Shawnigan Lake. Also indicated, was a gravel Provincial Highway,117. So, I loaded up my mountain bike with camping gear and set out to see how far north I could ride on the old rail trails past Leechtown. I coaxed my wife to drop me, bike and gear off along Highway 14 in Saseenos, where there was easy trail access for my ride on the "Goose."         More on this later on Page 2...

 

Back to present times...

 

 For one bike tour this year, I (and Basil) decided to ride on the Lochside Trail from my home town of Sidney south to the junction of the Lochside and Galloping Goose Trails in Victoria. Also at this point, the Trans Canada Trail (The Great Trail) shares the route of the Goose until Kelly Rd. in Langford, then the TCT continues north west to the Humpback Reservoir for access to the Sooke Hills Wilderness Trail heading north.

 

 

 

 

 As I approached the busier suburbs of Victoria, where I haven't ridden for quite a while, I was pleasantly surprised to see all the safety infrastructure and bicycle lanes created by the city. Much improved since my last visit to this area a few years ago. The smoother decking installed on a few trestles was a welcome relief from the previous worn wood planks that were quite the boneshakers for cyclists.

 

 Soon I was at the junction of the two trails and started off on the Goose to Sooke. The biggest improvement I saw on this section was at the McKenzie Ave. interchange with Highway 1. This took quite a few years in building and "mega dollars," but the result is a huge improvement from what was before for both road users and cyclists. Very impressive!

 

 Once again, this part of the trail was created from the disused rail line of the CNoPR and is relatively flat for most of the route to Sooke and beyond. A few tunnels and underpasses on the trail to Colwood where there is a tricky crossing across the Island Highway, which required a short ride on Wale Rd. to the traffic light. The photo shows where there are future plans for a pedestrian/cycling overpass here, but when is anybody's guess!

 

 After that crossing there is another one across Sooke Rd. with a traffic light when leaving Colwood, just before Royal Roads University. From there the trail carries on into Langford and is mostly hard-packed gravel at this point. The next large road crossing is at Veterans Memorial Highway and Kelly Rd., which requires crossing both roads to re-access the trail. Continuing on, Sooke Rd. needs to be crossed once more at Glen Lake Rd. and this is another busy crossing that requires a short ride on shared sidewalks to the traffic light that crosses Sooke Rd.

 After that busy crossing, the trail is quite peaceful now for the majority of the remainder of the route. There are still quite a few road crossings to negotiate but have much less traffic and some even have crossing lights.

 

 I mentioned that that the trail was flat, well it is, except for three or four places where the high trestles of the abandoned railway over creeks were removed (probably dilapidated or non-existent) and replaced with lower than original trestles; I would imagine as a matter of expense.
 Well, there are some short steep hills on both sides to negotiate to be able cross these lower elevation trestles, be forewarned, change gears!

 Shortly after Matheson Lake, the trail passes above Roche Cove and reaches Sooke Basin, where there are some wonderful views of the ocean and surrounding shorelines. There are some hiking trails down to reach Roche Cove if one desires to do so.

 Not far past Sooke Basin, I left the trail via Sooke River Rd. to spend the night at the Sooke River Campground, where I had booked a couple of nights in one of the rustic cabins there.

  After a hot and dusty 70km, I was glad to get off the bike, shower and relax for the rest of the day and evening.