Come Walk With Us on the Trans Canada Trail (TCT)

Walking into cities typically isn't an aesthetically exciting experience, but we were very pleased to discover that Calgary and its satellite cities have a wonderful network of paved cycling trails which we spent most of the day navigating.   We began by following a paved cycling pathway through a string of green spaces established along Nose Creek.  Today the creek is a small and quiet waterway that winds through modern subdivisions.  Interpretive panels along its length suggest that it originated when the Continental (Laurentide) and Western (Cordilleran) ice sheets receded several millennia ago, at which point it was likely much larger and more lively.   As we followed its quiet meanders through Airdrie we spotted a young Great Blue Heron fishing with great concentration along its shores.  In a small storm water drainage pond beside the creek a pair of Canada Geese with quite young goslings still in tow paddled past. A group of Mallards were napping out on a sandy spit, while a

Today was another tough one on the 'trail,' but it began with a spectacular sunrise across the field from our campsite.  Despite the distant roar of the highway, which didn't stop at all last night, we were reluctant to get up and leave the peaceful, cool, campsite when the alarm went off at 5:00 am.  However, with temperatures in the mid 30's predicted by noon, we needed to make an early start to avoid the worst of the heat.  With a gorgeous red sun just peaking over the horizon, I took an Advil to help with my still tender ankle and headed out.   As we navigated out of the campground and through Irricana the sky and the grain in the surrounding fields around us was spectacularly pink.   We followed the lovely crushed stone dust pathway of the Meadowlark Trail from the edge of the campground to its conclusion.  It had been an unexpected joy to find and walk this trail, and we were very sorry to bid it farewell.  We followed a curving, paved range road for the next kil

The alarm clock went off a little before 5 am, marking the beginning of another day on the Trans Canada Trail .   It turned out to be one of incredible beauty, history, trail magic, and unexpected gifts of the very best kind.  It began with a baby mule deer wandering up to the campground and sinking quietly into the tall grass at the edge of the pond to wait patiently for its mom.   We were soon heading out of Linden , which is a small community of around 700 residents. The first post office opened there in 1949, and Linden was incorporated as a village in 1964. The area surrounding the village was originally settled by members of the Mennonite Church, and there is still a strong community of their descendants living in the region.  As we headed out down its enormously wide main street we noticed the large wooden welcome sign, which bore the claim that Linden is the 'Rural Industrial Capital of Canada.'  Apparently this title refers to the large number of agriculture related