A long, hot walk yesterday through Whitemud Creek Ravine – starting at Snow Valley and ending at the northern edge where the creek meets the North Saskatchewan River. Dogless still…until Maggie is sufficiently recovered from her surgery. She wouldn’t have been able to walk this distance anyway, but definitely parts of it, and definitely in the creek.

At the river, there were people on horses (this area is near the equestrian centre), and several folks sitting on the banks, enjoying the view. One couple were fishing. Earlier, we saw a big, dead carp in the water. If the photo had been in focus, I would have included it here. Not sure what the couple were fishing for, but hopefully not dinner. There was also a canoe on the water. Lots of activity, in other words, even in the morning.

Spotted a goldfinch at a distance, and a Common Merganser duck, so striking in his black and white feathers. What an odd name. Sounds like an auto part, or a type of plane. The entire Merganser family, including the brown-headed wife, were doing a lot of diving, so many shots of duck behinds, and only a few (blurry) full body photographs. It was not a good photography day, but it was enough to be out in the warm sunshine and lush foliage, listening to the birds, and missing the dog.

23C/10:00AM to Noon (yesterday, Tuesday)

Just getting to this post now, even though my most recent walk was on Saturday…two days ago. Starting from the Strathcona Farmer’s Market, I walked over to Mill Creek Ravine, headed south to the trestle bridge, then north to downtown. About a two hour loop, since I stopped for about a bazillion photographs.

After all the rain, I thought it would be flooded in a few areas, but no, just humid. Lots of water in the creek though, enough for all the dogs who were out for walks to jump, splash, and play in. Wet dog smell competing with springs’ unfurling scents. An absolutely beautiful morning. An explosion in green.

May is even more changeable than September. Spring (the visible part) appeared to be running late because there was so little green, and absolutely no blossoms, even mid-May. My blog posts from previous years seemed to bear this out, but then the heat happened, and the rain. As of May 31st (Saturday), we had caught up in spectacular fashion. It’s as if nature has bench marks. With the right ingredients (sun, water), it will work overtime to get where it should be. We are the beneficiaries of spring’s work ethic these last two weeks, and nowhere was this more evident than in Mill Creek Ravine.

I had heard that there would be city representatives on the Cloverdale Pedestrian Bridge, but they were the only people who weren’t on the bridge. The river valley was packed, especially on the bridge and Louise McKinney Park. In a recent article, David Staples from the Edmonton Journal suggested that the river valley is underused, and all he ever sees is joggers. He even said that the river valley was a failure. It’s a heartbreaking, and monumentally inaccurate statement. I see every kind of people. On Saturday, it was the place to be. Sunshine, river, dogs, bikers, runners, walkers, amblers, photographers, old, young. And me.

22C/9:45AM to NOON

A hot week, and a weekend of rain, and we are transformed…

16C/3:30PM

With all due respect to the geese (who return far too early), spring in the river valley is largely absent until the second half of May, when the leaves unfurl and the dandelions appear, seemingly overnight. As I made my way down the staircase below the MacDonald Hotel, the morning already warm, the scene that greeted me was like a child’s drawing of nature: a band of blue, a band of green, and a bright sun in the corner of the sky. Broadly descriptive, entirely beautiful. Around the corner on the south side of the Low Level Bridge, the scent of the newly verdant river valley was intensely sweet, and unmistakeable. It is May. Late May. If only photographs were scratch and sniff.

The goal was to walk across the Cloverdale Pedestrian Bridge, like I’ve done a thousand times before, and will continue to do for the finite future of this bridge. In the recent past, I routinely crossed the Cloverdale as part of my commute to my Mill Creek/Strathcona neighbourhood, and yet I need no reason other than my own edification to venture into this part of the river valley. Today, however, I wanted to be counted. The City is monitoring activity on the bridge for a few days. Anything I can do to persuade the men-in-suits that this bridge and the incredibly gorgeous area of the river valley it serves is a key asset to this city, deserving of protection, not development.

Curiously, the counter is not on all day. There was a guy at the north end of the bridge changing the batteries, and he said the cameras are pre-programmed to go on and off, and that the cameras were now ‘done’ for the morning. I wonder if this program includes the lunch hours? Would it not be beneficial to the transportation department’s position on the fate of the Cloverdale Bridge to show under-usage by only tracking walkers, bikers, runners, and other river valley enjoyists before and/or after peak hours, when numbers are fewer? The meat of the day is between 11:00 PM and 1:00 PM, when downtown’s nature-starved masses pour into Louise McKinney Park and the surrounding trails and parks. Shoulders are lowered, muscles stretched, sore eyes are given unimaginable sights, and a peaceful, recreational time is had by all. I hope they count these people. Also, as a friend pointed out, with construction on the Walterdale Bridge, feeder trails in Rossdale and the Kinsmen are either completely out of bounds, or altered. This will surely have an impact on the number of people using the Cloverdale Bridge. I’m no conspiracy theorist, but it does make me want to know more about the City’s tabulation methods.

The ‘business’ of this walk completed, I was left with the magnificence of the river valley in late May. Not all the way there yet, but close. The dominate colour is lime, the leaves still weeks from the lush green of mid-summer. The curving rows of apple trees in Louise McKinney Park are in full blush, but have not yet blossomed. More heat, maybe a little rain, and the entire palette will change. It’s a beautiful time of year.

25C

Here is the original notification from the fine folks of the Save Edmonton’s Downtown Footbridge advocacy group: “The City has notified us they are finally setting up cameras on and around the bridge from May 20-25 to gather information on how many pedestrians, cyclists, and people using other modes are using the bridge. On May 27, 28, and 31, they will be on the bridge talking to people about which trails they use to access the bridge, how frequently they use the bridge, and whether they use the bridge recreationally and/or as a commuting link. They’ll also host an online survey from May 20-31 on the Valley Line project website.

HAVE YOUR SAY! Come out to the bridge and complete the survey to let the city know we demand a better way. Not only will their route close the entire area for nearly three years straight, it will permanently destroy a natural section of the river valley and one of our city’s best livable spaces. Save Edmonton’s Downtown Footbridge has come up with a route that enhances the city rather than degrading it and–will save taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars in doing so!”

YES!

I swallowed a seed puff, or an diaphanous-winged bug. Either way, it was involuntary, and it stuck in my throat. Stupid spring. I suppose I shouldn’t walk with my mouth open, but it all happened so fast. I did have a momentary thought that whatever was lodged in my throat was now laying eggs, but I opted for sanity. Hopefully if it was a bug, it died on the way down.

Other than the unintentional late lunch, the walk down to the creek via Westbrook was lovely and hot – 21 degrees and mostly overcast. Possibly too hot for the dog, who teetered at the top of a hill with the intention of barreling down to the creek, just a shimmering brown snake from this distance. Lucky for all of us she wisely heeded my slightly screamy warning after I assured her that we would find a better place to take a dip further down the path. About 10 minutes later, we found a gnarly trail through the brush, which opened into a sort of beach. A shitty beach, but what it lacked in ambience it more than made up for in murky (but running) water and sand. The creek is dark from organic matter (and unmentionable beaverish activities), but in 12 years of swimming in Whitemud Creek, Maggie’s never had a problem, other than some residual stink.

This was a new area of the creek for me. It’s a monkey trail, which will be obscured once it thickens with foliage, but it’s a better place for Maggie to cool off than below one of the bridges where the water is not as shallow. Also, it’s not too far from the trail head. You know, I’m thinking about these trails in terms of what the dog can handle, not what I need or want. I always have fun, and I love walking with Maggie, but it’s not long enough. Who’s gonna take me for a walk?

Oh, forgot to write about a bird I saw in Whitemud a week ago. It’s a Phoebe. Never heard of this bird before, and it took a concerted effort on Facebook to identify this pretty little guy with the beautiful voice.

2:00 PM/21C

The brown season will be coming to an end soon, but until then, yet another monochromatic walk through the woods. This is not to say it wasn’t stirring, and occasionally beautiful, especially near the creek, but I am looking forward to the lush green explosion that is the end of May. In my short walk yesterday (about 50 minutes) in Mill Creek Ravine, prior to an appointment, the sun shone hot on my head without the tempering of leaves. There are buds, but they are one or two weeks away from a full unfurl. I am impatient for green.

Yesterday, 19C