Galloping Goose Trail

[Claire Petersky]

We will be spending some time next week on Vancouver Island with our kids
and are looking to ride the Galloping Goose Trail. We will be on tandems.
We'll be based out of Sooke. How much of this trail is paved? Suggestions
for things we really ought to do while we're there?


--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
please substitute yahoo for mousepotato to reply
Home of the meditative cyclist:
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[[email protected]]

Claire Petersky writes:

> We will be spending some time next week on Vancouver Island with our
> kids and are looking to ride the Galloping Goose Trail. We will be
> on tandems. We'll be based out of Sooke. How much of this trail is
> paved? Suggestions for things we really ought to do while we're
> there?

THat's strange. The Galloping Goose was a bus/railcar of the RGS Rio
Grand Southern Ry, in Colorado. THis defunct railroad has more
written about it and lives in print more today than in its heyday.

http://www.gallopinggoose.org/
http://tinyurl.com/3zo56
http://rgsrr.home.comcast.net/rgs/goose_tline.html
http://steamcad.railfan.net/ (drawing)

Jobst Brandt

[Claire Petersky]

> wrote in message
...
> Claire Petersky writes:
>
> > We will be spending some time next week on Vancouver Island with our
> > kids and are looking to ride the Galloping Goose Trail. We will be
> > on tandems. We'll be based out of Sooke. How much of this trail is
> > paved? Suggestions for things we really ought to do while we're
> > there?
>
> THat's strange. The Galloping Goose was a bus/railcar of the RGS Rio
> Grand Southern Ry, in Colorado.

This Galloping Goose is a multi-use rail trail. From the website
http://www.gallopinggoosetrail.com/:

"Dedicated in 1989, the Galloping Goose Trail is named for a gawky and noisy
gas rail-car which carried passengers between Victoria and Sooke in the
1920's."

Sounds like there was more than one Galloping Goose!


--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
please substitute yahoo for mousepotato to reply
Home of the meditative cyclist:
http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm
Personal page: http://www.geocities.com/cpetersky/
See the books I've set free at: http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky

[Steve]

Keep going past Sooke to the Potholes http://www.sookepotholes.com/

Even though I don't think much of the trail is paved, it is still easy to
ride ... last time I was there anyway. Most of the trestles between
Victoria and Sooke have been removed so there are a number of road crossings
.... too bad they removed these great trestles.

If you have time, when you get back to Victoria, you can also ride the trail
to Sidney. Part of this route is on the road so it is a little hard to
follow.



- Steve






"Claire Petersky" > wrote in message
hlink.net...
> We will be spending some time next week on Vancouver Island with our kids
> and are looking to ride the Galloping Goose Trail. We will be on tandems.
> We'll be based out of Sooke. How much of this trail is paved? Suggestions
> for things we really ought to do while we're there?
>
>
> --
> Warm Regards,
>
> Claire Petersky
> please substitute yahoo for mousepotato to reply
> Home of the meditative cyclist:
> http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm
> Personal page: http://www.geocities.com/cpetersky/
> See the books I've set free at: http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky
>
>

[[email protected]]

Claire Petersky writes:

>>> We will be spending some time next week on Vancouver Island with
>>> our kids and are looking to ride the Galloping Goose Trail. We
>>> will be on tandems. We'll be based out of Sooke. How much of this
>>> trail is paved? Suggestions for things we really ought to do while
>>> we're there?

>> That's strange. The Galloping Goose was a bus/railcar of the RGS
>> Rio Grand Southern Ry, in Colorado.

> This Galloping Goose is a multi-use rail trail. From the website
> http://www.gallopinggoosetrail.com/:

> "Dedicated in 1989, the Galloping Goose Trail is named for a gawky
> and noisy gas rail-car which carried passengers between Victoria and
> Sooke in the 1920's."

> Sounds like there was more than one Galloping Goose!

No. That is one and the same. What the description failed to mention
is that this vehicle came from the RGS (Rio Grande Southern) railroad
and the picture shown is from a drawing I made of that car. If you
could enlarge the picture you would see that the RR logo is on the
side of the car as in the reference URL's I listed.

http://www.gallopinggoose.org/
http://tinyurl.com/6fvnd

Jobst Brandt

[Bravewolf]

"Steve" > wrote in message
m...
>
> If you have time, when you get back to Victoria, you can also ride the
trail
> to Sidney. Part of this route is on the road so it is a little hard to
> follow.


I live in Esquimalt and found the most difficult part of the trail is when
(coming up from Victoria) the trail ends at a crossroads (forget the name)
and there is NO sign telling you where to go next (you turn right, then left
on Lochside). Extremely annoying! However it is a very pleasant route to
and from the ferries at Swartz Bay.

Bravewolf

[Claire Petersky]

Trip Report -- I know you have just been waiting for it!

The day we rode the Goose, it took us a while to put ourselves together, and
by the time we had loaded up the car with the bikes and all our gear, and
drove to where the Galloping Goose was fully paved, we decided it was lunch
time. Our start was at a park near Thetis Lake, and we fell on our food like
we had already been pedaling for miles.

We then rode the Goose into downtown Victoria. The weather continued to
improve. After a few hairy blocks on Wharf, we were soon on quiet
residential streets. We rode past a breakwater that protects the city's
harbor, and then made it to Beacon Hill park, where we sat in the brilliant
sunshine and shared chocolate bars.

We continued around the coastline, and then at the Oak Bay golf course, the
girls wanted to switch bikes. We readjusted the tandem seats, and then
continued through Oak Bay to Willows Beach Park. The girls played on the
beach for a bit.

At this point, Emma was starting to flag, so we decided to cut through town
on Estavan and return to the Galloping Goose. I very much appreciated our
Cycling Map of Victoria that we bought at a downtown bike shop, that showed
us the best way to do this. We reloaded the bikes on top of the car, and
drove back to Sooke.


--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
please substitute yahoo for mousepotato to reply
Home of the meditative cyclist:
http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm
Personal page: http://www.geocities.com/cpetersky/
See the books I've set free at: http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky

[[email protected]]

Claire Petersky writes:

> Trip Report -- I know you have just been waiting for it!

Yes and it's nice to hear you made the ride but I didn't get the
details of the route, how were the hills and what did you see other
than downtown?

> The day we rode the Goose, it took us a while to put ourselves
> together, and by the time we had loaded up the car with the bikes
> and all our gear, and drove to where the Galloping Goose was fully
> paved, we decided it was lunch time. Our start was at a park near
> Thetis Lake, and we fell on our food like we had already been
> pedaling for miles.

> We then rode the Goose into downtown Victoria. The weather continued
> to improve. After a few hairy blocks on Wharf, we were soon on quiet
> residential streets. We rode past a breakwater that protects the
> city's harbor, and then made it to Beacon Hill park, where we sat in
> the brilliant sunshine and shared chocolate bars.

> We continued around the coastline, and then at the Oak Bay golf
> course, the girls wanted to switch bikes. We readjusted the tandem
> seats, and then continued through Oak Bay to Willows Beach Park. The
> girls played on the beach for a bit.

> At this point, Emma was starting to flag, so we decided to cut
> through town on Estavan and return to the Galloping Goose. I very
> much appreciated our Cycling Map of Victoria that we bought at a
> downtown bike shop, that showed us the best way to do this. We
> reloaded the bikes on top of the car, and drove back to Sooke.

The big question is whether you saw the actual galloping goose rail
car that came from the RGS railway in Colorado?

http://rgs.railfan.net/

First click on "GOOSE" then click on the picture.

I can't imagine that there isn't an actual Galloping Goose on display
there.

Jobst Brandt

[Claire Petersky]

> wrote in message
...
> Claire Petersky writes:
>
> > Trip Report -- I know you have just been waiting for it!
>
> Yes and it's nice to hear you made the ride but I didn't get the
> details of the route, how were the hills and what did you see other
> than downtown?

The Goose itself, like any other rail-trail, was basically flat -- the only
upsies/downsies was going over the Trans Canada on an overpass.

Rose described the Goose scenery as being a lot like maybe the Burke Gilman
here -- the sorts of things you see along bike paths in the Northwest --
scrabbly blackberry vines, alder trees, etc. There was a nice section where
we were on a wooden bridge across the water.

I think the unpaved sections of the Goose are probably more scenic, but our
purple tandem does not have adequate tires to cope. I think we'll be
replacing the tires on that bike with cross or touring tires in the near
future. The city section beyond the Goose was actually more scenic. The
Seaside Route runs through pleasant neighborhoods with occasional sweeping
views over the sound and gulf.

We went up only one minor hill on the Seaside Route, where we had to put it
into the granny gear and work it to the top. On the winding descent on the
other side, a double-decker tour bus was over the white line as it curved
its way up, and was a little too close for my daughter's comfort. I felt
like we were providing color (if not local color) for the tourists on the
bus.

> The big question is whether you saw the actual galloping goose rail
> car that came from the RGS railway in Colorado?

I don't know. I'm not really into trains. Sorry!


--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
please substitute yahoo for mousepotato to reply
Home of the meditative cyclist:
http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm
Personal page: http://www.geocities.com/cpetersky/
See the books I've set free at: http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky