BE AWARE THAT THIS IS AN ACTIVE LOGGING ROAD
AND MANY LOGGING TRUCKS TRAVEL VERY FAST UPON IT- PLEASE DRIVE
SAFELY.
This trestle
is a legacy of the CNPR railway which was meant to run from
Victoria to Port Alberni. This is the same corridor which presently
forms the Galloping Goose Regional Trailin
Victoria and the Trans Canada Trail through Shawnigan Lake
and Cowichan Lake.
Construction of the railway began in 1911 and the
route was planned through Victoria, Sooke Lake, Shawnigan Lake,
Youbou and Port Alberni. In 1917 though, the federal government
took over construction and downgraded the trestle building
materials from steel to wood. In 1921, the construction halted at
the south end of Cowichan Lake, only half the length of the
envisioned route. Finally in 1928, the railway was built up to this
point near Kissinger Lake (where there was quite a settlement at
one time) and the railway never went further than that. When cars
and trucks became more popular, the railway was decommissioned. The
tracks were torn up and only exist now as regional trails except
for the Sooke Lake portion which is now under water.
Kiwibirdman showed me the remnants of this grand old
trestle on the drive into to the Waterfalls of Rain cache and we decided that this
would be a great spot for a small lock & lock cache. I thought
that this was a tragic ending for such a fine trestle and that is
how it's name came to be - not because of a
tragedy.
When
your GPS says to, pull over and park off the logging road - there
is space. Follow 3 little bits of orange flagging into the woods to
the start of the trestle.
THERE IS NO
NEED TO CLIMB THE TRESTLE TO RETRIEVE THE
CACHE
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Congratulations to icdgirl and Dave D
who were first to find!
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