Hot, mid-afternoon walk through Whitemud Ravine…without the dog. I took her on a much shorter walk earlier. She’s just not up to it. Not ill. Not exhausted. She just doesn’t want to go for long walks anymore, or at least, not everyday. I get that. I don’t like it, but I get it. On the plus side, I can walk much faster, and for longer. No stops to pee, smell the bushes, or eat rabbit shit (the dog, not me.) On the negative, no dog. It was about an hour into my walk before I saw another person. It creeped me out, and it takes a lot to creep me out in the woods. Usually there’s someone else around, and usually…I have Maggie. In Mill Creek Ravine, my former most frequented ravine, it never feels quite so isolated as Whitemud. Of course, the first person I did see was a guy in leather, with scraggly hair and a baseball cap turned backwards. At that point, I had been planning to turn back, but I decided to keep walking, to add distance between us. I’m sure he was harmless, but I try to err on the side of caution in remote areas of the woods. Seems like a reasonable thing to do.

So, I walked as far as Snow Valley. In total, my walk was about two hours long. We’re on track to have a record-breaking September heat-wise, and today seemed hotter than it was, even though I spent a lot of it in the shade. Still, the leaves are turning, and the forest floor is becoming crunchified. As long as I have blue sky, the temperature is irrelevant.

4:00PM/23C

Hey! A new trail. Not new to many, but to me, completely unfamiliar. Actually, it seemed weirdly familiar in a few spots. Gold Bar (off-leash trail) also has the Ainsworth Dyer pedestrian bridge which looks startlingly like the Cloverdale bridge across from Louise McKinney Park. It’s higher (I think) and longer, but very similar in appearance. There is even a ‘seagull island’ off the east end, which, in miniature, resembles one of those fake island developments in Dubai. This one would more appropriately be called duck island, however, as it was full of them. A bit weird to look over the rails on the other side and not see the Edmonton skyline. Met a nice fellow walking two pushed-in-face dogs, who kindly offered Maggie a cookie, which she slobberingly accepted.

Maggie was in HEAVEN. Down a root-lousy trail, over a creek (no more than a run-off from the hill but deep enough to soak a running shoe), we were able access duck island, and the river. Water really pulls out Maggie’s inner puppy. Usual routine: jumps in, sits down, jumps up, frolics, runs out, shakes it off, does the whole thing over again. We threw some rocks and sticks into the river, but incentives were not necessary. She was even making new kind of bark. Like a giggle. Only shrill.

Really a nice trail. There are other trails, and many more monkey trails to discover, but it’s a little far out. More exploration required.

4:32PM/27C

A beautiful morning walk in Elk Island Park. No elk, but a few bison way off in the distance. We also saw some wood frogs along the side of the trail. Autumn is beginning its descent, but it’s discombobulating because there’s no fall smell yet. The ground cover, with all the red and yellow leaves, looks like fall, but the sun is too warm and the woods smelled like rain, not rotting aspen leaves. Last day of August. Fall is just around the corner.

Lunch at a picnic table attracted a few wasps, who lost interest (oddly enough) in our feast of cheese and flattened bread (thanks Maggie) after a few minutes, and a dragonfly which sat on my brother-in-laws’ arm for half an hour. It was fantastic to be able to see such an amazing creature up close for so long, but we figured it was probably dying. The wings were ragged, and the poor guy had no oomph. It just sat there on the ground when we were packing up our things. Nice to think it spent its final hour in the company of those who appreciated its beauty and summer-long mosquito eating service.

15C (morning)/1:30 PM

A lovely, cool(ish) morning walk to the McMansion wetlands west of Whitemud Ravine. The pond was full of ducks, and duck weed, appropriately enough. Like sheets of green, with ducks. Beautiful, and calming. The ducks kept following us, expected food. Sorry duckies

.

9:30AM/16C (humid and cloudless)

Start here.

On…

And on…

The End.

An exceptionally long walk this morning, starting with stairs at the north end of Whitemud Ravine, followed by an hour and a half hike through the cool woods. Almost…almost fall-like. Splashes of yellow here and there, with a certain tang to the air reminiscent of an autumnal day. The humidity, however, dispelled those rumours, in spite of the mostly overcast sky. I’m always disappointed with my photos on cloudy days. Instead of capturing the subdued beauty of the landscape at rest, the pictures looked washed out. Gotta fiddle some more with the settings. Suffice to say, it was a sensually exquisite walk, full of birdsong, bubbling water, and squirrels racing up the dry and cracking trees, for no other reason I think, then to play. The sound of the morning was as beautiful as the sights.

11:00AM/17C