by Tyler Laing –
For years I have been hearing from people about their experiences biking the Vancouver Island Circle Rout: friends cycling between wineries on the Peninsula, stopping in at farms and local grocery stores for fresh food; colleagues commuting through forests and over wooden bridges along the Galloping Goose.
Cyclists in the CRD are fortunate to have two railroads-turned-bike-paths that connect Sidney to Sooke. The Lochside Regional Trail, roughly 35km, begins at Swartz Bay and ends in Victoria, where it meets the 55km Galloping Goose Trail that spans Victoria to Sooke. Having never travelled any of the Circle Route by bike before, my girlfriend Kim and I decide to give it a try. The full circle route then goes on from Sooke to Port Renfrew and all the way round to the Cowichan Valley: too much for a day trip!
Our July morning is slightly overcast and breezy; ideal conditions for what is to be an 80km grind. Friends drive us out to Swartz Bay so our car won’t be stranded and we set off from there. We reach Sidney in little more than 15 minutes and then ride south along Lochside and past the historic artifacts of Heritage Acres to Michell’s Farm for lunch.
This year Jenni and Brendan Brown have opened Harvest Rd. – a food truck on the family farm that sources food from the surrounding fields. When we pull up, both bike racks are packed and more bikes rest on the ground. We order tacos and homemade fries and chips, all of it delicious, and Jenni tells us: “We’ve had tons and tons of cyclists coming through, the reception has been great.”
We ride the rest of Lochside, past people on horseback and others picking blackberries from the side of the hard-packed dirt trail. The trail takes us through residential areas and over the trestle bridge at Blenkinsop Lake. Neither Kim nor myself are particularly avid bikers, and our legs start to feel a bit tired by the end of this section. The Goose is quite a lovely ride, with varied landscape, views of Portage Inlet and Garry oaks. As we near Thetis Lake, the asphalt trail gives way to the compact rail bed of the past. The trail up until now has been flat and easy to ride; we get our first bit of hilly terrain as we pass through Colwood.
Through Langford we head into the rustic landscape of Metchosin. By now, closing in on 5 p.m., the intermittent company whom we have shared the trail with has almost totally dropped off. In this peaceful farmland we ride alone in the shade of the forest.
We hit Matheson Lake a little before 6 p.m. and the timing couldn’t be better – our aching legs call out for a swim and the lake is all but ours. A little girl splashes in the shallows with her father while a lone fisherman floats in his dinghy, flicking his rod in the low sunlight.
Just after Matheson Lake we come upon Roche Cove and the copper green surface of the ocean. The trail remains hard packed and the forest thickens on either side for a stretch until it opens up again to the west and the sight of the ocean breaks through once more. While our original goal was to reach Leechtown, site of a 1860s gold rush community, it’s after 8 p.m. by the time we approach Sooke and the sun has already dropped below the tree line. With much more yet to see, we’ll just have to ride out this way again.
For more information visit www.vicircleroute.com.
