The Galloping Goose Regional Trail is the trail every dog owner on southern Vancouver Island walks without thinking twice about it — flat, wide, mostly shaded, 55 km of converted rail bed running from downtown Victoria out to Sooke. That last part is the problem this week. An out-of-control wildfire on Mount Jack has forced the Capital Regional District to close the Sooke end of the trail, plus all of Kapoor Regional Park next door, right as fall hiking season with dogs is picking up.

The fire itself has moved fast. Discovered Sept. 20, it was still a couple of hectares that afternoon. By Sept. 22 it had doubled to roughly 100 hectares. By Sept. 23 it was 210.4. By Sept. 24 it was 276.19. That’s not a fire quietly smoldering somewhere out of the way — it’s one that’s grown every single day it’s been mapped, and BC Wildfire Service still lists it as out of control.

At a Glance: Sooke Trail Closures This Week

Question	Answer
How big is it now	276.19 hectares (Sept. 24), climbing from 210.4 the day before
When did it start	Sept. 20, 2026
Classification	Out of control, human-caused
Is my dog in danger from the fire itself	No — no threat to structures, critical infrastructure, or public safety
What trail section is shut	Galloping Goose Regional Trail, northbound from km 52 at Spring Salmon Place Campground
What park is shut	Kapoor Regional Park — all access
Is the whole Goose closed	No — only the Sooke end; the other 50-plus km is open
Do leash rules change	No — on-leash year-round on the Galloping Goose and in every Sooke regional park regardless of fire status
Where can my dog run off-leash instead	Carter Navarrete Dog Park, 2276 Church Rd., Sooke

This Is a Sooke Problem, Not a Victoria Problem

Here’s the thing people miss when a headline says “Galloping Goose Trail closed” — the trail is 55 km long. Closing kilometre 52 doesn’t touch kilometre 5, or 15, or 30. If you’re walking your dog on the Goose anywhere near downtown Victoria, Colwood, or Langford, nothing about your route has changed. The closure sits right at the Sooke end, from the Spring Salmon Place Campground northbound, which is exactly the stretch that runs closest to the fire.

That’s still a real loss if Sooke is your regular loop. It’s one of the few flat, dog-friendly multi-use trails on that end of the island, and it connects directly into Kapoor Regional Park, which is closed entirely — not a section of it, the whole park. If your normal dog walk starts at the Sooke trailhead, you’re looking at a detour for as long as this fire keeps BC Wildfire Service crews working the line.

How Fast the Mount Jack Fire Has Actually Grown

A fire that goes from a couple of hectares to 276 in four days earns some skepticism about whether “not currently a threat” will hold. It’s a fair question, and BC Wildfire Service’s own numbers explain both sides of it. The fire is human-caused and burning in terrain south of Mount Jack, a few kilometres from the Sooke River. Growth has been driven by prevailing winds, slope, and dry fuels — the same combination that’s pushed most of this season’s Vancouver Island fires, including the one we covered burning through Colorado’s trail towns further south this summer.

As of the Sept. 24 update, BC Wildfire Service said the east flank remains the most active portion of the fire, with growth described as “modest” over the prior 24 hours and fire behavior rated Rank 1 to 2 — low-vigor surface fire with some open flame, not the kind of crowning, wind-driven run that forces evacuations overnight. Around 60 ground personnel are on it, backed by heavy equipment and helicopters. Forecasters are calling for cooler temperatures and possible light rain, followed by some drying over the weekend. Rain helps. It doesn’t end a fire this size in one pass.

Do the math on those daily numbers and the pattern is more useful than any single hectare count. From Sept. 22 to Sept. 24 the fire added roughly 176 hectares in two days — call it 88 hectares a day on average, even with Sept. 24 itself logged as “modest” growth. A fire adding that much ground per day, four readings in a row without a single day of shrinkage or a plateau, isn’t behaving like something about to sit still.

Despite four straight days of growth, BC Wildfire Service maintains the fire poses no threat to structures, critical infrastructure, or public safety, and no threat to the Capital Regional District’s water supply area or drinking water quality. Those are two different claims — “not threatening homes right now” and “not growing” are not the same sentence — and it’s worth holding onto that distinction if you’re deciding whether to reroute a weekend hike or just wait it out.

What’s Actually Closed

The Capital Regional District’s closure, issued in consultation with BC Wildfire Service, covers exactly two things: the Galloping Goose Regional Trail northbound from kilometre 52 at the Spring Salmon Place Campground, and all access into Kapoor Regional Park. The CRD’s notice is blunt about the boundary: visitors are asked to stay out of the closure area and not try to reach it through other parks or trail connections — no using a side trail to get around the barrier.

As of this week, no other CRD parks or trails near Sooke are closed. That includes Sea to Sea Regional Park and Sooke Potholes Regional Park, both popular with dog owners on that end of the island. That could change fast if the fire keeps growing at its current pace, so treat “not closed yet” as a status update, not a guarantee that holds through the weekend.

Can I Still Walk My Dog on the Galloping Goose Trail?

Yes, on all but roughly the last few kilometres. The Galloping Goose runs 55 km total from Victoria to Sooke, and the current closure only affects the northbound stretch from kilometre 52 at Spring Salmon Place Campground plus the adjoining Kapoor Regional Park. Everything from downtown Victoria through Colwood, Langford, and most of the way toward Sooke remains open and unaffected by the fire.

1. Victoria to roughly km 50 — open, no fire impact.
2. Km 52 northbound at Spring Salmon Place Campground onward — closed.
3. Kapoor Regional Park — closed entirely, not just the trailhead.
4. Sea to Sea Regional Park and Sooke Potholes Regional Park — open as of this week, not part of the current closure order.

Small Footprint, Fast Clock

276 hectares doesn’t rank as a big fire by BC standards — the province has had single complexes burn well past six figures in a bad summer. What makes Mount Jack worth watching isn’t the size, it’s that every reading since Sept. 20 has been higher than the last, with no plateau yet. A fire that’s stalled at a much bigger number is, in a strange way, easier to plan around than one that’s still climbing at roughly 88 hectares a day. You know where the stalled one stopped. You don’t yet know where this one stops.

Practically, that means checking the CRD’s alert page or the BC Wildfire Service dashboard the morning you head out, not relying on this post’s Sept. 24 snapshot once a few days have passed.

One thing that won’t move regardless of how the fire behaves: the leash requirement. Dogs are on-leash year-round on the Galloping Goose and in every Sooke regional park — Sea to Sea, Sooke Potholes, Kapoor — under the CRD’s regional parks pet policy, fire or no fire. A week with detour traffic and unfamiliar routing for regular users is a bad time to test recall off-leash anyway. If your dog needs to actually run, Carter Navarrete Dog Park on Church Road is fenced, open 7 a.m. to dusk daily, and nowhere near the fire.

A fire that keeps adding hectares is also a fire that keeps putting smoke in the air. Check a real-time AQI reading before you head out rather than the regional forecast — our wildfire smoke and AQI guide covers the thresholds that matter for a panting dog.

Bottom Line

Right now, Mount Jack has closed one end of one trail and one regional park — a small slice of a 55 km route. What earns it a second look before your next Sooke trip is the trend line, not the current footprint: four straight days of growth with no sign of leveling off. Reroute past km 52, keep the leash on wherever you walk, and treat Sea to Sea and Sooke Potholes as open-for-now rather than open-for-good until this one stops climbing.

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Fire size, cause, and containment details from BC Wildfire Service reporting via Victoria News and CBC News, current as of Sept. 24, 2026. Closure details from the Capital Regional District’s official alert. This is an active, growing fire — confirm current conditions at the BC Wildfire Service dashboard before any trip to the Sooke area.