The Hills Are Alive: Vancouver Island’s original 300-kilometre randonnée

Esquimalt Start: Hills Are Alive 300, 2005

The Vancouver Island spring 300-kilometre brevet—known in recent years as the “The Hills Are Alive”—has a well-deserved reputation as a tough ride. With variations, it has been on offer for over 25 years.

In 2005, I returned to randonneuring after winning a battle with cancer in late 2003, and slowly restoring muscle to my wasted body over 2004.

The British Columbia Randonneurs Nanaimo Populaire 100K is where, in 1993, I first experienced this strange sport. In March, 2005, I rode the 50 km route, but didn’t feel I was ready for the official brevets that started the next month. I decided to volunteer.

For this version, the start of the 300 had been moved to Esquimalt, on the West Shore of Victoria. At 6am, riders crossed the Johnson Street Bridge, cruised around the historic Inner Harbour, past the iconic Empress Hotel and the BC Parliament Buildings, and headed off for a loop around the Saanich Peninsula. That’s the warm up.

From Saanich, the route climbs over the Highlands, northwest of Victoria, traversing the steeps of Prospect Lake and Munns Roads, before heading over the Malahat Summit to Duncan. It was on the tortuous descent of Munns, in the early nineties, that Alan Towe overshot one of the more hair-raising hairpin turns and ended up in the bush with a serious neck injury.

At Duncan, riders return south on the Trans-Canada Highway, until (at 215km) the route sheet commands a left turn, up the thigh-destroying grade of Humpback Road, in the direction of Sooke. Thank goodness, I said to myself, I’d had the common sense to watch from the roadside.

It was here that Robert Frankham admitted defeat and called in his sag wagon.

The final turnaround, with 75 kilometres to go, begins at Kemp Lake, just north of Sooke on the West Coast Highway. As this brevet is traditionally run in April, most humanoids will reach this control at dusk. As the store at Kemp Lake closed around 5pm, Amanda Jones and I set up a staffed control in the parking lot.

Ken Bonner and Keith Fraser flew through in mid-afternoon, with Jeff Schlingloff in hot pursuit, chasing an 11-hour finish (missed by 11-minutes).

Jim Fidler and Simeon Veldstra passed through next, pausing only briefly to sample our proffered melon plate, followed by Michel Richard and Karen Smith.

The final group included Melissa Friesen, Scott Gater, Stephen Hinde and Don Munro on his sleek, fairing-enclosed recumbent.

Ahead lay the 50 kilometre “sting-in-the-tail” of this scenic ride: a descent into—and corresponding climb out of—Roche Cove, the roller-coaster ride along E. Sooke Road and the endless grind up Rocky Point Road.

After those tests, the hills aren’t quite dead yet. In darkness, riders climb up Metchosen Road, taunted by the twinkling lights of Victoria across the Juan de Fuca Strait, descend steeply to Ocean Boulevard and climb once again to the outskirts of town.

At this point, if they don’t miss the turnoff to View Royal, the “smell of the barn” will inspire resilient randonneurs over the last lumps to Esquimalt in pursuit of their reward: the coveted green 300K pin.

The next chance to relish the hills of Southern Vancouver Island is April 21, 2012