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Great Trail event part of coast to coast celebration

Interactive displays and CRD Parks interpreters on hand Saturday
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The Great Trail is a network of multi-use trails stretching across the country, linking nearly 1,000 communities. (Photo contributed)

Rick Stiebel/News Gazette staff

Twenty-five years and 24,000 kilometres later, it’s time to join other communities across Canada in celebrating the completion of the Great Trail.

The Capital Regional District is hosting a drop-in event from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 26 for the public to celebrate with the volunteers, donors and partners who worked on the project, and to acknowledge the quarter century of work that went into completing the Great Trail system, which runs coast to coast.

Mike Hicks, chair of the CRD Regional parks committee, invited people from throughout the region to attend the event.

“Celebrate the CRD completing our portion of the Great Trail, a network of multi-use trails stretching across the country, linking nearly 1,000 communities,” he said.

One section of the trail is along a 15-kilometre portion of the Galloping Goose Trail from the Selkirk Trestle in Victoria to Veterans Memorial Parkway and Kelly Road in Langford, Hicks noted. The second section of 13 kilometres is in the newly opened Sooke Hills Wilderness Regional Park.

The event, sponsored by TimberWest Forest Corp., gets underway at the Sooke Hills Wilderness Regional Park parking lot off of Humpback Road. Participants can cycle or hike along a 2.5 km stretch of the Sooke Hills Regional Trail to the viewing platform.

There will be interactive displays and CRD Parks interpreters available to answer questions about the trail’s design, construction and the importance of protecting local watersheds along the way.

A half-kilometre further takes people to the suspension bridge across the Goldstream River.

CRD Parks advises that some sections of the trail are steep and challenging and may not be suitable for all ages and abilities, and sturdy footwear is recommended.

Visit crd.bc.ca/parks-events for more information.

reporter@goldstreamgazette.com