Sweaty perfection. Armed with a shiny coat of chemical courage, thanks to a fresh can of Off!, the woods this morning were benevolent and beautiful. No drama. No flailing arms. I think the dragonflies were disappointed that I wasn’t walking in a cloud of mosquitoes, but they hung around anyway. Just like them to come for the company, even when the buffet is empty.

Also nice? The tall grass and wildflowers along the trails.

9:20 to 11:00AM/20C (up to 28 this afternoon)

Today, and for the rest of the week, and the rest of my short holiday, it’s going to be hot. Not sure I’m happy about this…22C seems hot enough. Walked early this morning, but the sun was still pretty intense. Luckily, the mosquitoes came along and provided ample distraction from the humidity. For some reason, they congregate in platoons near the Muttart, where there is no standing water. Mill Creek Ravine, full of fetid pools of slough water and larvae hidy-holes, is mostly free of the little blighters. To attack in wide open territory suggests they are well organized and confident…almost cocky in their ability to overwhelm the enemy (me.) Their confidence is well-founded. These are not the partisan snipers I’m used to in the woods. These are soldiers engaged in a bloody, and monumentally icky war.

So yeah, forgot to Off! my exposed bits before I set out this morning on a few downtown errands, followed by a walk through the river valley. Other than aforementioned challenges, it was a pleasant enough walk. To avoid the 26C + heat the next few days, and cognitively damaging levels of blood loss, I will continue to walk in the mornings for the rest of the week, covered in deet from head to toe. If this doesn’t work, I’m going to make myself a suit of hungry dragonflies. With their permission, of course.

10:48AM/20C (will be 26C)

An unremarkable walk in the sense that from one end of Mill Creek to the other, it was perfect. Hot but not crazy hot, with a cooling breeze and spectacular scenery all around. Even managed to capture a dragonfly sitting on a tree with my camera. Actually, that is remarkable. I’m usually too slow and indelicate to snap anything that moves, hence the 5,000 pictures of trees. It’s not for lack of trying. I’ve made many attempts to take photos of all the little creatures that flit around the woods, but with little success. Make that no success. Sadly, I’ve encountered very little patience in the bug and bird world for my awkward camera moves. Very nice of the dragonfly to stick around for a few photos. Thank you.

Nothing else to report. Stuck to Mill Creek Ravine, did some stairs, looked over a few bridges, listened to the swirling creek (still running fast from all the rain), met with a few kind dogs and an even kinder dragonfly, home an hour and half later. Typical summer walk.

1:58 PM/21C

The construction is gone, as of today, Canada Day. Finally. And boy, they did a nice job with the walkway, extending it almost all the way to the bridge, with a few new piers. Also, the Cloverdale Footbridge has been renamed (or named, Cloverdale might have been an informal moniker) to the Leilani Muir Footbridge. There is a even a plaque dedicated to the woman who challenged the eugenics policy in Alberta. Just to walk in this area is a history lesson. #Addendum: the ‘renaming’ of the Cloverdale Pedestrian Bridge may be temporary, a political statement or maybe part of The Works celebration, or something. Not sure, still investigating. The plaque is removable.

The walkway is the same one featured in the photo from my previous post. To extend this walkway to Riverdale on the east end and Rossdale on the west would be a wonderful thing, and presumably it would lure new people to this beautiful area of downtown Edmonton. As I’ve said many times, Louise McKinney Park, as is, is enough to bring people down to the river, or it should be, if more people knew about it. One could get the impression from reading the news that there is nothing down here, and all the good stuff is yet to come or still at the planning stage. McKinney is really a lovely park now, and the new walkway is a wonderful new addition.

Spectacular walk in and around that area, as well as Mill Creek Ravine. In the affable company of dragonflies, I did not see a single mosquito. So beautiful to watch their glassy wings criss-crossing in the air above the creek. After the monumental amount of rain in June, everything is incredibly lush. Best news, unlike last year, my iPod did not get trashed in the monsoons.

5:00PM/18C

…or so says David Staples from the Edmonton Journal. I say this too, and I agree with most of what he has written in the article, especially with regard to building footbridges in Terwilligar Park at the expense of developing a river valley walk in downtown Edmonton. The idea of a promenade from Louise McKinney (or Riverdale, for that matter) to Rossdale would be fantastic. I also like the idea of a previously proposed canal system. Any of those pedestrian-friendly plans are worth pondering. I am totally down with that. However…

Some of the things wistfully imagined for the river valley are aleady here, like a walkway along the river. “How fine it would be to take such a walk , to feel the breeze coming off the water, to get right up to the flowing river and look up over sparkling waters at the best views of the city.” Done and done. At Louise McKinney Park  you can get right up to the water on the lower path, and walk out on to a pier, if you choose. Granted, some of it is closed at the moment for development, and it’s not close enough to touch the water, but given our latest river levels, that might not be advisable, unless you have webbed toes. Also, it’s river water, not a mountain stream. I love getting up close and personal with the mighty North Saskatchewan, but I don’t need to get microbially close.

“In fact, we’ve allowed all kinds of inappropriate and/or ugly development along the river, while creating a fine trail system that does a good job of serving local joggers, cyclists and hikers but not the vast majority of ordinary folk.”

I realize I’m not one of the ‘ordinary folk’ referred to in the article. I prefer the non-paved paths and monkey trails of the river valley, and I’d rather pick up a scone at Wild Earth Bakery after my hike, not while I’m trying to burn off the calories from the previous day’s gnosh. I’ve been writing about the pleasures of Louise McKinney Park and the river valley trail system for years, and I embrace the idea of more people seeing what I see on a daily basis. It’s incredible, and it’s incredible because it’s unusual to have so much green space spanning the entire length of the city. I don’t wish for the things it’s not, I love it for what it is. Green, and free (in part) of the amenities I can find anywhere in the city. Even today, the mayor was imagining a new, revitalized Rossdale, with shops, cafe’s and pubs. Pubs? Surely you jest! Living near Whyte Avenue, I can tell you that drunks are no fun at all, and that’s with permanent port-o-potties and patrolling police officers. What I hear on a Saturday night I do not wish on the fine folks of Rossdale. But a new bridge, and a walkway? Cool.

Every couple of years, parts of Louise McKinney Park become inaccessible for further redevelopment projects. It’s a small park, really just a parkette, but in the last 15 years it has had to endure more than it’s fair share of ‘re-envisioning’…sort of like Nicole Kidman’s face. The main path down the centre of the park has been out of bounds for months, as well as an unpaved path that runs along the water. Although I’m not entirely sure what’s happening this time around, I believe it has something to do with extending the promenade that was built about three years ago. Also built three years ago? An inexplicably huge public washroom, which I believe falls into that category of “inappropriate and/or ugly development.” To be fair, the giant, cement crapper has a roof-top sitting area and pots of flowers at regular intervals, but I’ve yet to see someone sitting up there, or using the bathroom for that matter. People just ignore it.

The ugliest development has yet to be built: the southeast LRT, which as proposed will be cutting through the east end Louise McKinney Park in the very near future. So, while pondering a peaceful river walk, you’ll have to figure in the not so pleasant screech of a train slicing through the calm every ten minutes, not to mention the years of construction preceding it. Saddest of all, the wooden and steel Cloverdale footbridge crossing from McKinney to the other side of the river will be sacrificed for a newer LRT bridge. The current footbridge is open to the sky and offers a spectacular view of the river valley, with downtown Edmonton rising in the background. Visitors to our city take pictures of themselves on this bridge. A certain Blues guitar player in a sparkly jacket plays his music on this bridge. People meet on this bridge, and write their names in the wood. I often use our city’s only LRT bridge over by the University, and I have yet to see a Blues guitar player in a sparkly jacket playing his music on that bridge. It has no vibe. It does, however, vibrate.

I agree that the river valley needs to be more accessible, and that it could be a better version of itself. Couldn’t we all? I just wish some other city was planning it.

Here’s another post about McKinney...

And another…

And now, the Blues player…

Your beauty and especially, your appetite are appreciated. Commence feasting.

Who’s not welcome back? Worms. Green Ash Leaf-roller Caterpillars, or whatever the hell they’re calling themselves these days. Rossdale is already out, not to be visited again until July. But enough about the green menace, the dragonflies are back, and we can all rejoice. All of us except the mosquitoes.

5:14PM/18C