Agenda - Spaghetti Trees

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Saturday, 30 March 2012
in the AM (depends if you're catching a ferry, & which one!) www.bcferries.com for schedules & reservations.	Have breakfast. Check the weather. Print off this agenda and your route instructions. Catch the ferry +/- get on your bike.
11:30a	Arrive at the start - Anderson Cove parking lot, East Sooke Rd (see map below)
11:45a	Welcome and final briefing
11:55a	Photo
Noon	Start
1:30p	First finishers of the ~13k route
2:30p	First finishers of the ~20k route
~3:00p	Post-run food, beer & awards at 17 Mile House Pub (www.17milehouse.com). Plan to take the bus home if consuming much alcohol! We can also continue the party @ teagirl & carguy's place, a map will be provided @ the pub
5:00p	Last finishers (hopefully!)

What to Bring?

Aid. (Whatever food, water or electrolyte drink you need for a 90+ minute run. If you expect and are prepared for no external aid, you may be pleasantly surprised... but do not count on it!)
weather appropriate clothing... layer, layer, layer.
PLEASE bring a foil emergency blanket just in case - it is light, costs less than $5 at mec / cdn tire, and you'll REALLY appreciate it if you need it.
Please bring a walkie-talkie if you have one that uses FRS (most do these days unless they cost < $10) - cell phones DO NOT WORK in East Sooke Park.
Official timing system. (A watch will do, even if the second hand doesn't work.) Please be sure to keep track of your finish time and to give it to the timekeeper.
CHANGE OF CLOTHES!
Sleeping bag & thermarest-type-thing if planning to sleep on Carlos' floor

Post Run Gathering

After the run we'll meet up at 17 Mile House Pub: you passed it on your way in, just east of the intersection of Gillespie Rd & Sooke Rd (Hwy 14). There is parking on both sides of the street, but I recommend parking in the small lot across the street from the pub so you don't have turn turn left out of the pub (it's a bit hazardous). Don't drink & drive - there IS public transit from this pub into Victoria if necessary. They have good food, a fairly good beer list (although not the BEST selection in Victoria, for that you have to go to Christie's pub in Oak Bay, or The Beagle in Cook Street Village, or even Crossroads Pub in Colwood which is on the way back to Victoria, in case you're left unsatisfied by 17 Mile House!), it's a really neat building built in 1864, and they have big warm bathrooms to change in :)

We'll do awards at the pub once most folks have gotten there.

How to Get To the Start, via various modes of transport:

From Swartz Bay ferry terminal / Victoria, driving:

Google Map

(If you Google Map this yourself it will give you some theoretically more direct back-road options but: the route described below and shown on the Google Map linked above is the EASIEST way to get there; taking back roads is a good way to get lost!)

Head south along Pat Bay Highway (Hwy 17 - you're on it as soon as you get off the ferry).

After about 25km, take the exit for McKenzie Road to get to Hwy-1 (Exit 7 towards Nanaimo / Sooke).

Turn right off McKenzie to head North on Hwy-1. If you're coming from Victoria, just get to here from wherever you are.

Take exit 14 towards Langford / Sooke. Stay in the Sooke lane. Ignore the confusing sign that says "Peake Rd to your R, Sooke to your L" - just keep going straight all the way through the strip malls and don't turn until you get to Sooke Rd at which point you'll turn right.

Drive along fun windy Sooke Rd for awhile. Eventually you'll see 17 Mile House Pub on your right - take note, this is where we'll purchase food & beverages after the run.

ALMOST IMMEDIATELY after 17 Mile House, you will be turning left - this comes up FAST so watch for it. There's a teeny tiny left-turn lane and a teeny-tiny signpost that says "East Sooke". If you miss this turn you have to come back to it 'cause it's the only way to get to East Sooke.

You'll now be on Gillespie Rd, stay on it until a T-intersection where you'll turn R onto East Sooke Rd.

Stay on East Sooke Rd until you pass a sign on your right telling you it's 200m until the Anderson Cove parking lot for East Sooke Regional Park; the parking lot itself will be on your left.

From Swartz Bay ferry terminal / Victoria by public transit:

Outside the ferry terminal foot passenger exit will be some busses waiting to pick people up. Get on bus #70, Downtown Express.

If you're hoping to get your bike onto the bus, ask a ferry employee when you're getting off the ferry how to get up to the bus stop (you ride your bike off the ferry with the traffic, but the bus stop is up on a higher level where the foot passenger exit is; there's an elevator but it's too hard for me to describe how to find it!).

Tell the bus driver you'll be wanting to catch the #50 for Langford and ask where you should get off in order to do that.

From Victoria you can catch a #50 bus on Douglas St downtown, heading north.

Catch a #50 Langford bus - they come every 15 to 30 minutes. Ask the driver if he'll be continuing as a #61 to Sooke (some of them do, some of them don't; if it does you don't have to switch buses again!). Take the bus to Langford Exchange.

Get on a #61 to Sooke. Ask the driver to drop you off at 17 Mile Pub. This is the closest you can get to East Sooke Regional Park on a Saturday on public transit - you are 8km away. We will organize a car or two to pick people up at 17 Mile Pub as long as we know you're planning to take public transit! Please note it when you register and we will get in touch to arrange details. PLEASE let us know ahead of time (eg. 2-3 days) so that we don't miss anybody!

From Swartz Bay ferry terminal on your bike:

Ride off the ferry along with the cars and follow the road out of the ferry terminal.

Just after you exit the ferry terminal, you'll see a small paved trail heading up to your right with a little sign for bicycles. (If you start heading downhill on the highway you've missed this turnoff, but you can get to the same place by turning right at the very first road - it's actually a highway entrance but you can ride your bike along the side). You need to get up to the overpass which you will have just ridden under. Go up and turn right onto the overpass, on the other side are signs pointing you towards Lochside trail, which runs alongside the road for the first part.

Keep following signs all the way along Lochside trail, it is well sign-posted. There is one confusing part where you'll turn right and be heading towards the highway with a McDonald's on your left; there is a tiny sign on the left-turn pullout about 25m before you reach the highway that indicates you need to turn left to continue on the trail.

On this trail you will never cross the highway at a stoplight; if you end up doing that you're not on the trail! It does cross at least one road with a stoplight (McKenzie Rd) but never a highway.

The trail sometimes follows roads and sometimes is really a trail.

Eventually (after about 25k) you will get to a place with multiple trail options, there will be a signpost showing the Centennial Trail system / Lochside & Galloping Goose trails You want to get to the Switch Bridge on the map - you won't be going over the Switch Bridge, instead you will turn right just before it to continue to Sooke on the Galloping Goose trail.

Don't turn off Lochside trail until just before the Switch Bridge - there is another signpost map at this location, and you'll know if you're going over the Switch Bridge because it's a steep on-ramp and you'll be up over cars! If you end up there, turn back & get on the correct trail.

Turn right to get onto the Galloping Goose trail.

From the Switch Bridge on your bike:

Stay on the Goose all the way into Sooke - watch for instructions at any road crossing. About 30km from the Switch Bridge (that you didn't cross!), the Goose will cross over Gillespie Rd where you will turn left onto the road (the bike trail will continue straight), you are about 5km from the trailhead at Anderson Cove parking lot.

Stay on Gillespie Rd until a T-intersection where you'll turn R onto East Sooke Rd.