It’s gonna be a hot one, so Maggie and I stepped out early, just after eight. Even so, it was warm, but beautiful, with a coolish breeze and a sky full of blue. Amazing what a couple of weeks and a LOT of rain can do for a ravine. Our favourite path to the right of the bridge over Whitemud Creek has exploded with green. Almost needed a machete to cut through the foliage. (My body and face were sufficient to break apart all the morning spider webs.)

As an almost eleven-year old dog, Maggie is definitely slowing down a bit, but on a trail, especially a monkey trail with only a dirt path, she is like a puppy, leaping over fallen trees and snuffling about in the tall, wet grass. She was so drunk on morning smells and tastes, she almost missed a giant water hole, covered by grass. I spotted it first, and called her back. She threw herself into it, and spun around and around like a mad dog. Awesome. If a dog can express joy, and they can, then this is what I saw. Turns out, the water was cleverly disguising a foot of mud, but Maggie has never been one for personal hygiene. We went farther down the path, meeting up with the creek again, and although Maggie had a dip, it clearly wasn’t the same as the mud bath.

The sun was considerably hotter on the return trip. Happily we managed to avoid the bloodied carcass thingy in the park, which Maggie unhappily discovered on the way to the ravine. Not sure what it was. Maybe a mouse, greatly stretched by some previous snacker. It had a tail, I know that, but the species was indeterminate. The perils of early morning walks.

9:30AM/19C

Should have written this post last week. I’ve been sick with a cold, but I did manage to walk down to Louise McKinney Park and the North Saskatchewan River to take pictures of the water, but that’s all I did. It was Tuesday, the day after it crested (Monday, June 24th), so it wasn’t quite as spectacular. On the Monday, the river overflowed the lowest path at Louise McKinney, the promenade, which would have been cool to see in person. The following day when I was down there, the water had receded, but the stairs to the promenade were still blocked off.

The river was indeed running very high, with lots of detritus, mostly wood. A high, fast river is not abnormal for this time of year, as the mountains unleash their winter cache, but combined with all the rain, it was higher than usual. I walked as far as the little bridge in Henrietta Muir Park, just on the south side of the Cloverdale Pedestrian Bridge, but no farther. The heat, my virus-heavy head, and the hanging tree caterpillars turned me around.

Nevertheless, the river was still flooding the banks, including all the ground below the bridge. As I’ve mentioned before in this blog, there is a canal in that area which runs under the little bridge into the woods. It’s a good gauge of water levels because most of the time it’s totally dry, but during these peak periods, it takes on water. The further up the canal, the higher the river. As of last Tuesday, there was no canal…just river.

I feel sorry for all the little creatures and the birds who make their homes along the river banks, but I’m sure…even now, almost a week later, they’re rebuilding. Such is the resilience of nature. I did, however, manage to find this guy…a giant beetle…clinging to a caterpillar-ravaged leaf by the side of the bridge. Hope he made it.

…to quote Peter Gabriel. Not to be glib in light of the catastrophic flooding in southern Alberta, but the North Saskatchewan River is spectacular today. Supposed to crest this afternoon. Being looky-loo’s of the highest order (especially Maggie), we attempted to walk from Ski Valley to the river but were thwarted about half way due to the lack of trail. The trail didn’t disappear, it’s just submerged in a foot or two of water. Whitemud Creek has been squeezed to bursting from the high, fast-flowing North Saskatchewan. There is no creek bed anymore, just brown water, tall grass, and an ominous silence. The creek is as still as a lake.

Incredibly, it’s because it has been pressured, and ultimately dammed by water! There is no flowing or babbling today, just bloat. So, we piled into the van and rode over to the staircase that leads directly to the park below the Quesnell Bridge, at the Whitemud trailhead where creek meets river. At the bottom of the stairs, the parking lot has been flooded, including a walking bridge and any sort of access to the other side. We were able to walk along the trail that runs along the creek on the east side which crosses over to the river, but just barely. Had to skirt the water creeping near a berm built with sand to keep the water from running into the Alfred H. Savage Centre.

Once we were in the park, we could see that the lovely little bridge that lies between Whitemud Park, and the trail that runs around Fort Edmonton was cut off by water on the east side. It’s one big dirty lake. Worse…there was a fire truck with water rescue guys parked in front of the North Saskatchewan, and another firetruck on the Quesnell. Don’t know if someone fell in (tragic), or was kayaking down the river (dumb), but they eventually cleared their gear and took off to the High Level Bridge (or so the radio chatter suggested.) I was surprised the area wasn’t cordoned off, especially if something bad had happened, but no one said anything to the 30 or so people standing around taking pictures of the river. It may have been something to do with the triathlon going on in the city today. As I write this (two hours after the walk), there are no reports of injuries on the water.

It’s been a week of surprises. Who knew Calgary could flood like that? All the schools, including the university, will remain closed on Monday (as on Friday), and the downtown area is completely under water. There is heightened awareness in Edmonton because of what’s happened down south, but our river valley is deeper than in Calgary, and we don’t have the volume of mountain run-off, or the 100mm of rain to flood our city. Still, it’s awe-inspiring.

Nature, man….

12:30PM/20C

It’s been so rainy lately, not a lot of walks. Woke up to drizzle this morning, but ventured out during a reprieve. It was wet and deeply fragrant in the woods. Water diamonds on every leaf and wildflower. I could use some sun, but a cool walk in the ravine hit all the senses at once. Beautiful.

Too bad the spider web is out of focus.

A true water diamond, also slightly out of focus >:(

A leaf chandelier

Splendour in the grass. And in the woods. And in the Ravine.

12:30PM/12C

Perfect day

20C/3:30PM

Uneventful and shortish walk in Whitemud today. Maggie got attacked by a cocker spaniel (one of my least favourite mutts), but nothing serious. Got the usual, ‘he never does that’, but no harm done. Maggie was solely focused on eating grass. Eventually, she just stopped in the middle of the trail. I wanted to go up both hills (this part of the trail is in a basin), but the dog was not cooperating. She’d eaten her grass, had a dip in the creek, and successfully avoided a more serious melee with a spaniel, and she wanted to go home. Her walk was done.

On the way back up the hill, I saw a guy walking down the hill with a broom, sweeping the path in front of him. I thought it was my first ever Jain Buddhist, but no, just a painter clearing the way for a stripe. How disappointing.

Noon/18C