Harvesting Spaghetti Trees

Pat and I were the only mainlanders following teagirl's call to harvest Spaghetti Trees in East Sooke Park this past Saturday. A shame really, as the scenery, trails and superb event hosting by Katie make this a must-do trip for any Fat Ass worth their trail shoes ;-)

The trip does require a bit of planning, but can comfortably done in a day.  For me, it involved getting up at 5:00am to catch the 6:30 Seabus from the North Shore to downtown Vancouver, then on via the Canada Line Skytrain to Oakridge station, where Pat's blue Happy Car just pulled around the corner.  I threw in my knapsack and we continued to catch the 9am ferry from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay on Vancouver Island.  If you plan to participate next year, you can safely leave a bit later.

The weather forecast had predicted a mix of sun and clouds, chance of rain and clearing in the afternoon.  The skies were threatening, but we were hopeful that the clearing skies would coincide with our run.  Just off the ferry, it started to rain... 

It took us a little longer than 1h to find Anderson Cove in East Sooke Park.  Katie's instructions on the website were stellar and we pulled into the parking lot with about 10min to spare (note to self, next year have everything ready in the running pack to avoid forgetting items or having them in wrong pockets).  We quickly semi organized our packs and greeted the Victoria contingent of Club Fat Ass around Katie and Carlos.  A nice bunch, I would have loved to chat a bit more with them, but we instructed Katie and Carlos, to not "chaperon" the turtle pacers, Pat and myself.  Last year, Carlos ran with the mainlanders and guided us along the course, but this year, I didn't want to slow down any body and felt confident to find the trails.  Pat and I were out to complete the course, not beat any speed records.  

As on cue, the sun came out and off we went, climbing out of the parking lot through a mossy forest.  We soon lost sight of the group around Carlos as we were still zipping up pockets and securing the wardrobe and packs... At the first intersection, I consulted the course description (where are my glasses), but at the second turn, I confidently veered left without looking at the written description.  The trails was very wet and more like a river in long stretches.  I mentioned to Pat, that I remembered the trail from the return trip last year.  I also mentioned that I didn't remember running down this wet single track last year.  As we should find out later, my memory served me right.  We continued on the zig zagging trail.  Pat was hoping to soon see the ocean, and I assured her that the approach to the ocean was a long one and we will first pass old copper mines.  

Eventually, I started to doubt we were on the correct trail and when the next intersection did not line up with Katie's trail description my fears were confirmed.  Time to dig out my reading glasses.  We determined that we were running the route in reverse.  Oops.  Running time was 1:20 at this point and there was no way we would loop back.  Decision was made to continue in reverse.  To our surprise we ran into Katie just a couple of metres up the trail, setting up an aid station.  Katie confirmed our suspicions, fed us some bananas and saw us off on our creative custom reverse course.  

The trail started to descend towards cabin point.  Did I smell salty air and ocean?  As discussed with Katie, for time reasons, we opted to cut off the Babbington Hill loop and headed straight for cabin point and the shore line.  Soon we caught glimpses of the ocean and greeted cabin point in the distance before continuing north west along a cliff high above the Pacific.  

My heart sank when I saw the climb down the mossy rocks... I do not like heights and this was too open, steep and airy for my taste.  Without Pat coaxing me down, I would have happily turned around and ran home ;-)  Thanks Pat.  Half way sliding down on my bum, we saw Carlos and his group climbing up towards us.  I instructed them to stay where they were, as I couldn't possibly squeeze by a bunch of bodies on this exposed stretch.  Everybody had a good laugh, and we congregated on a big rock for a group photo. Before parting, somebody mumbled something about another nasty, airy climb not to far further.  No way, why did I not have any recollection of this from last year?  Sure enough, I had a few more heart stopping moments descending towards the frothy ocean, but Pat's presence prevented me from turning around and bolting.  How could I have said to her that the trail wasn't technical at all, just much longer than anticipated and lots of up and downs...selective memories for sure.

The views were marvelous.  The sun was shining and the wind was whipping up huge thundering waves below us.  Picture perfect weather for a run along this shore line.  We saw a couple of mating cormorants and kept looking for whales (no such luck).  We also came across a few large animal prints and disturbed, dug up, moss... hm, the only other human we saw was a lone hiker... 

We passed the intersection for the short course and continued on the longer Coast Trail savouring the views.  Katie had mentioned another short cut option, taking the first instead of the second turnoff on the Copper Mine Trail.  Given that we were much slower than anticipated (and the ferry wouldn't wait), we cut off the last coastal section and said our goodbyes to the ocean.  

The return trip let us through Spaghetti Tree forests and past a couple of old copper mines.  More rivers to cross and wet trails to navigate, but lots of runnable terrain.  We even came across another aid station set up by Katie complete with oranges, bananas and arrows on where to go.  Nice.

We found a good rhythm for our last 5 or so km and happily greeted the car at the parking lot.  Katie had left another note for us requesting a check in at the pub or a phone call - my yes, we wouldn't drive past the pub without saying Hi...too bad that we  most likely would not have time for Burgers and some greasy fries.  Sorry Islanders, we would have liked to share a pint and some trail stories with you.  In the end, we probably could have stayed a bit longer as we arrived at the empty ferry terminal with 60min to spare.

To all mainlanders, you want to pencil this one into your calendar. It's doable in a day trip and if we organize a car pool in a mini van, the cost for the ferry comes down considerably.