Marc Kitteringham
An hour and a half down the trail I spied a nice curvy singletrack offshoot that didnt have a "Private Property" sign on it. After a long hooping skid on the gravel, I was turned around and pointed down the drop. The trail was a ripper, short, but with good turns and just enough loose gravel to make things interesting. I ripped around the trees in the drops, skidding out my back end tastefully. On my way back up the same trail -- after stopping to relieve myself, I started spinning to pop back up into the main Goose. Unfortunately, that was when my friction shifters decided to loosen a bit. The sudden loss in chain tension sent me sprawling and I ended up bashed, dusty and bloody out in the woods.
The one trail name that has kept coming up since I've been here is the "Galloping Goose." Locals definitely know this one. It is the main trail that connects victoria with anything else to the north west. People take their kids on it, they walk dogs, they commute by bike and generally use it everyday. It even has a counter on the Victoria end to show just how many cyclists use it in their day to day life.
It was named after an old 1920's gas powered rail car that acted as a kind of passenger transit car. Now the trail has been converted to a mostly paved, dual-wide multi-use path. The start of the goose is only a few km away from my place, and it stretches for almost 60km towards Sooke. I had a few hours to spare and I figured the Goose was the best place for me to take the Randobeest for a good long ride.
Back out in the woods, I pulled my bike up the hill and leaned it against a sign post. The chain was off of the rear derailleur and hanging loosely around the pedals. I pulled my gloves off and fitted the chain back in the derailleur (a nice thing about old rear mechs, the chain can come on or off without having to take it apart). The beest is a sturdy old gal, and she was up and running in no time. I wiped my hands on the grass as best I could and pointed her home, 30km away.
Properly, the Galloping Goose is 60km long in one direction. It stretches from downtown Victoria through View Royal, Langford, Colwood, Metchosin, Sooke and beyond. If you manage to ride straight through to the end you pass by the Sooke Potholes and end up in an old gold mining town named Leechtown. I didn't quite make it end to end, but I managed to take the Randobeest on one of its longest rides to date.
Being an out and back trip, and taking into account the fact that I left at around 3pm on an old steel 26er with racks meant that this wasn't going to be a run for speed or distance. It turned out that the Beest was perfect for this trip. After Langford the Goose turns into a gravelly dual track and that suited me fine. I passed a carnival, lots of dogs, lakes, baby rabbits, older rabbits, some bike-friendly cafes, a lot of "No Trespassing" signs (does anyone ever say "Yes Trespassing"?) and that one ribbon of singletrack by the side of the trail. The views of the forest and the ocean are to die for and are definitely worth a look at. The trail itself is a very easy ride.
Being an old rail trail there are no big grades to climb, but there are some long descents that let you open 'er up and go for a while. Descending into the 30km mark there is a good long rolling hill that takes you down into a swampy section of trail. It Looks like something out of an old Lovecraft story.
“does anyone ever say “Yes Trespassing”?”
I shook off the wipeout and snapped off a bit of cedar bough. I strapped it to my front rack as a kind of talisman against bad juju and as a thank you to the trail for the great ride. I took my time going home. I wasn't in a hurry. Rolling out of the old growth forest into the city again was a bit like coming out of a time capsule. With pavement under my wheels again, the spell of the trail was broken and I wandered into the coffee shop my girlfriend was working in. She gave me a drink to fuel me back up (the trailside Mars Bar was long gone) and I wandered home in the darkening evening.