Wisdom and Advice : Calgary South to Calgary West

We woke up this morning to a very brief rain shower, but there was definitely a silver lining to the small patch of clouds.  When we began our return journey north back toward Inglewood, the sky was clear for the first time in weeks, and we got our first glimpse of the Rocky Mountains!  It has been 480 days on the Trans Canada Trail since we left Cape Spear, Newfoundland and we've walked 11,500 km.  Finally, there they were - not just the foothills, but the Rocky Mountains on the horizon! 

As we walked the trail, we were high up on a ridge with a gorgeous view down over the Beaver Flats and the turquoise waters of the Bow River.  Ahead rose the towers of downtown Calgary, and to the west stood the mountains.  Below us an Osprey was soaring, carefully tracing the river way and hunting for fish. Perhaps it was the same one we spotted yesterday? On the rocky shoals in the middle of the fast moving clear waters a flock of gulls were napping, most of them with heads tucked firmly under their wings. 

It was a cool, sunny morning with a wonderful breeze blowing down the river way.  A definite highlight during our first hour was passing back past the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary and Nature Area and seeing a coyote dash across the trail ahead of us.  Its fur was a beautiful light blond colour, and it had a small furry critter that looked like a ground squirrel grasped in its mouth.  Seeing coyotes within the limits of such a large and busy city is a testament to the abundance and high quality of the protected wildlife corridors and natural areas that have been established within Calgary. 

When we got back to the junction between the Elbow River and the Bow River, we continued west towards the downtown.  We crossed the Elbow River on a lovely pedestrian footbridge, stopping to watch a Spotted Sandpiper foraging along the shoreline.  Several Common Mergansers were also having a nap along the grassy shore. 

On the far side of the bridge we came to Fort Calgary, which Sean - a historian at heart - had been very much looking forward to visiting.  This historic site was a North West Mounted Police outpost that was built in 1875, and remained active until 1914. It was originally named Fort Brisebois, after its first commander, but it was renamed in 1876 after Calgary House in Scotland. 

Fort Calgary was established to curtail American rum and whisky runners in the region, and to create 'good relations' with the Indigenous Peoples of the territory.  It was built on land occupied by the Blackfoot Confederacy, the Nakoda, the Tsuut'ina People, and the Métis.  By 1874 the NWMP had stopped most of the illegal trade of rum and whisky between the Americans and First Nations Peoples.  In 1914 the site was sold to the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, and the fort was demolished to make way for the rail terminal. The site was purchased by the municipal government of Calgary in 1973, and it was opened to the public as a historic site in 1978. 

Unfortunately, we soon discovered that Fort Calgary is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, so it was added to the growing list of historic sites that have been closed when we've walked through.  This was very disappointing, and left us with no choice but to continue on towards downtown. 

By this time there were a lot of people out walking and cycling on the paved trail.  Calgary is the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in Canada.  It has a population of just over 1.3 million people, and its economy is based on energy, financial services, film and television, transportation and logistics, technology, manufacturing, aerospace, health and wellness, retail, and tourism.  The CMA is home to the largest number of millionaires per capita of any Canadian city.  Evidently this mix supports a healthy and very active outdoor community. 

We made our way towards the skyscrapers of the downtown on a very modern and trendy waterfront trail that was lined with benches, interpretive plaques, artwork, sculptures, and modern looking high-rise buildings. As with all urban centres our trek through Calgary's downtown would elicit a series of mixed reactions from those in the area.  Many walking would watch us and smile or nod as we passed.  Others including the well dressed businessmen or trendy ladies often look down their noses at us or make a disparaging remark. Meanwhile children and teenagers - whose curiosity and sense of adventure are still part of them - are often fascinated by us and our wheels.  While others simply ignore us striving to pretend that all that does not fit into their view of the world simply does not exist.  Today's venture would bring each of these reactions, curious questions, polite smiles, thumbs up, and the periodic disparaging comment to the 'homeless' venturing past. It is both a wonderful feeling to have strangers give you that encouraging smile and a humbling fact to also have those you don't know look down on you.  I am still not sure we are used to either extreme in these responses.  On the balance however, our trek across Calgary led to more positive encouragement than judgmental critique, which we took to be a reflection of Albertan's love of exploration, self sufficiency, and adventure.

As we wove through the business district of the city the delicious smells of baked goods and fresh coffee enticed us to stop for a short break at a lovely bakery/café along the trailside.  Two coffees and still-warm-from-the-oven napolitanas, consumed while sitting outside in the shade, made a perfect mid-morning snack. 

As we enjoyed our break, an elegant lady and her young son stopped to ask about our hiking carts and our journey.  The young boy ended up sharing stories of his adventures at summer camp, where he developed an interest in dragon flies, squirrels, and Indigenous culture.  It was wonderful to see his enthusiasm for nature and his pride at developing camping and outdoor skills. 

After this exciting conversation we continued along the waterfront trail, past the Reconciliation Bridge.  This multi-level, steal girded pedestrian and traffic bridge was named in honour of the fact that people have been crossing the Bow River at this point for millennia.  The crossing was originally part of the Old North Trail,  a transportation corridor used by First Nations Peoples travelling between Mexico and the Yukon.  It was later used by the NWMP, and then by early settlers in the Calgary region.  The bridge was renamed the 'Reconciliation Bridge' in 2017 to serve as a lasting reminder of the damage and trauma inflicted on First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children who were forced to attend the Indian Residential School System.  The bridge is intended as a reminder of our shared past and the promise of better future as we cross the river together.  

Shortly after this we found ourselves passing a bench occupied by three First Nations men who were out enjoying the sunshine, and seemed to be sharing each other's company and a good natured joke.  They stopped us to ask what we were up to, while it was us who told stories of our adventure it was these unassuming gentlemen who ended up leaving us with excellent advice and lots to think about. 

Together these three men were a fascinating group.  The first was Scott Brandon, a mountain of a person and one of the gentlest individuals we have ever met, called himself the 'Unoriginal Aboriginal'.  The second was his friend Chi-Chi and the third man presented himself as a renowned guide who had at one point held a world record for bow hunting after having killed a grizzly bear that weighed over 900 lbs. While the stories they wove and tales they told were wonderful, it was Scott who dealt out the most profound wisdom.  After asking about our own trek, he told us about his own quest following the death of his parents.  He was venturing out to see the world and gain perspective following the "old traditions which too few followed these days and too few knew about." As he began to conclude the recounting of his own amazing adventure he thanked us for "listening and in doing so becoming part of his story".  He advised us "that we needed to make sure to always be the main character of our own adventures and not become secondary characters of our lives".  He also made us promise to "enjoy every moment of our lives and trek because tomorrow is not guaranteed".  

As we said our goodbyes and set back off we would only get about 20 feet along the walkway before Scott called out, ran up to Sean and embraced him in a huge bear hug - pulling him and his backpack off the ground easily in the process.  As he set Sean gently back-down Scott bent over and whispered to him "to take care on his vision quest".  When Sean sought to correct the misconception that our trek was a vision quest or being down for spiritual reasons Scott patiently listened and then released perhaps one of the most joyous of bellowing laughs I have ever heard.  When we stopped he looked at the two of us squarely and with deep seriousness and bluntly commented "you are hiking 2/3 of the way around the world on your trek!  Of course it is a vision quest and of course it is for spiritual reasons!  You might not think so, and you might not have though you were on a vision quest.  But it is, nothing so large as this can be anything else. Take care of yourselves and good luck!  Remember that what you are doing is important."

Then just as quickly as we had met our ways diverged.  Stunned we found ourselves much richer in so many ways than we had been just an hour before hand.  Yet our day of learning was only just beginning. 

After our fortuitous meeting we found ourselves walking along the edge of Chinatown.  Red paper lanterns lined the streets, and the Chinese Cultural Centre, with its traditional architecture and brightly coloured decor (which was styled after the Temple of Heaven in Beijing) really stood out. The Cultural Centre is the largest one of its kind in North America, and it serves a population of just over 1,300 people, which is Canada's third largest Chinese community by population (#1 being Toronto, #2 being Vancouver). 

Chinatown Calgary celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2010, but that date marked the time since a community was established in its current location, not the time since it began.  The history of the community dates back to 1885 when the Canadian Pacific Railway was officially completed.  At that time the Canadian government reneged on its promise to provide Chinese rail workers return fare to their homeland. In addition, it effectively curtailed any further Chinese immigration by instigating a $500 per head tax on Chinese immigrants.  This left a large number of Chinese workers, who were mostly men, stranded in a foreign country without their families.  As a result, Calgary's first Chinese community was founded in the 1880's by workers seeking to form a protected and culturally supported enclave that was free from prejudice. 

 

As with most immigrants to Colonial North America and later Canada, Chinese sought new opportunities and wealth in immigrating to the region.  These hopes for prosperity were reflected by the fact that many of the Chinese, who in the 19th century spoke Cantonese, called Canada 'Gum San' or 'Golden Mountain'.  As noted by historical placards in Calgary, the term 'Golden Mountain' referred to the notion of hill of pure gold located in the Rocky Mountain range which is a metaphor for the wealth Chinese immigrants could make in Canada. 

We stopped by the Sien Lok riverfront park, which featured a very large stone cairn depicting scenes from Chinese Canadian history. It was sculpted from 15 tonnes of granite imported from Hopei Province in China by Chu Hosan, and titled 'In Search of Gold Mountain.'  The monument was circled by a ring of metal chairs, many of which bore thought provoking quotes or sayings that were in line with the Sien Lok Society's motto "Happiness comes through good works." 

There was a lot of construction around the Chinatown area of the waterfront trail, and somewhere in the closures I think there was a TCT Pavilion which we failed to find. Nevertheless, a pathway detour took us across a bridge to Prince's Island, an urban park located on an island in the Bow River.  

The park was named after Peter Anthony Prince, founder of the Eau Claire Lumber Mill. The 20 hectare island was donated to the city by the Prince family in 1947, and it is now linked to the hiking and cycling trails of the region by three bridges.  Today it is a well landscaped grassy park, filled with colourful flower beds, shade trees, art exhibits, and a pavilion.  Multiple festivals are held on the island throughout the summer, including the Calgary Folk Music Festival, Shakespeare in the Park, Afrikdey, and Canada Day celebrations among others. 

The island was full of people out enjoying the sunshine as we made our way across it on the paved cycling trails.  We crossed back onto the mainland on the far side of the river, continuing our journey west.  Down below us a steady stream of inflatable rafts, some in the form of huge unicorns, paddle boats, and kayaks floated past in the hot afternoon sunshine.  We began to think that if we'd been walking east, we could simply have floated this section of trail instead of walking it. 

A short while later we came to the iconic and infamous Calgary Peace bridge. This controversial bridge, which was designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, resembles a long, unsupported, ovular glass tube with red and white girders. It spans the Bow River, connecting the pathway systems on both sides of the river, and the community of Sunnybrae to Downtown Calgary. It has both pedestrian and cycling lanes, and is reportedly used by 6,000 people per day.  

To us the bridge looked like an elegant and iconic feature of the Calgary skyline, and we easily recognized it from a previous version of the Trans Canada Trail's website, where it was prominently featured.  However, it has drawn criticism due to its large price tag ($24.5 million) and the fact that it was not designed by a Canadian.  Detractors also feel it was unnecessary because there are five other bridges spanning the river, and/or it crosses the waterway but not the busy road adjacent to it.  These objections have made it a target for vandalism, and unfortunately a week before we arrived in Calgary 70 of its glass panels were broken out one night by a single individual, meaning the inside was lined with wire construction fencing. 

As we continued on down the shady, treed bicycle lane along the river way we were stopped by a man sitting on a bench, who asked about our carts.  It turned out he was from Newfoundland, making him the fourth person we'd met in Calgary who came from The Rock.  He had bicycled to Vancouver, and gave us detailed advice and suggestions about the route, sources of water, and places to sleep.  It was another source of well-intentioned and unexpected advice, which we greatly appreciated.

As we continued down the river we found ourselves traversing the City of Calgary's 'Memorial Drive - Landscape of Memory.'  This 9 km stretch of green space is shaded by poplars, which are descended from trees planted in 1922 as living memorials to Calgary soldiers who lost their lives in World War I.

Within this beautiful green space stands the large, white marble Calgary Soldier's Memorial.  The memorial features a row of large stone tablets that bear the names and regiments of Calgary soldiers killed during times of war.  These include The King's Own Calgary Regiment, The Calgary Highlanders, the current 10th Battalion CEF, and many others.  The memorial was unveiled in 2011, on the 94th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge. 

Adjacent to the Soldier's Memorial is Poppy Plaza, an 86,100 sq ft War Memorial that includes a folded wood deck that encircles an existing heritage tree, and a large, weathered steel wall that traces the contours and slope of the riverbank. The towering metal walls are intended to mark the passage of time, and they are engraved with quotations from world leaders and Canadians relating to honour, hope, sacrifice, and war time experiences.  The rust coloured walls of the memorial border the cycling path, and are intended to serve as a reminder, as well as invoke a sense of respect, awe, and introspection in the thousands of people that walk, jog, and cycle along the pathway every day. It was an effective and powerful monument. 

For the next hour and a half we continued down the treed cycling path, which meandered along between the Bow River and a relatively busy road.  Neighbourhoods stretched out to the north of us, and across the river conifer-covered slopes rose to ever greater heights.  The river was still full of floating rafts, inflatable floating unicorns, and kayakers, and the trail was full of people. 

Eventually we reached Shouldice Athletic park, which was a very large sports park, offering three artificial turf fields, four grass sports fields, and eight ball diamonds.  Here we were in for a real treat - a chance to walk a few kilometres of the trail with Lucie, a wonderful lady who frequently walks and cycles the Trans Canada Trail in this area, and who has been a huge supporter of our hike for several years. 

She accompanied us for a few kilometres, providing excellent conversation and extremely helpful local insights into the coming stretch of trail through Dale Hodges/Bowmont park.  She mentioned that she preferred exploring it on an eBike, and we soon discovered why!  Before leaving us, Lucie gave us some wonderful trail magic - a container of cool, juicy fruit pieces that made the perfect snack as the afternoon began to really heat up and we found ourselves in hilly terrain.  What a lovely gift from someone who has clearly been out on the trails on a hot afternoon.

We continued down the cycling trail, momentarily getting confused when the official (but unmarked) Trans Canada Trail route turned left, but the cycling path continued on down the sidewalk of a neighbourhood.  We backtracked a couple blocks and then followed the other stream of cyclists to a parking lot and trailhead at the bottom of a steep hill.

In the hot afternoon sunshine we climbed up to the top of the ridge, where we were rewarded with panoramic views down over the bow river valley below.  Dale Hodges Park is a 40.5 ha natural urban park, which is an expansion of Bowmont Natural Environment Park, and forms part of the wildlife corridor that extends across the city.  In addition to featuring a network of hiking and cycling trails, the park boasts a boardwalk, the Nautilus pond, a polishing marsh, a wet meadow, created streams, viewpoints over the bow river, and important habitat for wildlife.  Storm water from eight subdivisions is also filtered through the network of streams and wetlands incorporated into the restored quarry site.  The variety of grassland, wetland, riparian, and treed habitats supports over 168 species of birds, making it a great spot for urban bird watching within the city. 

 

It was a very hot afternoon by the time we found ourselves walking the undulating pathway through the park.  Up and down we climbed as the path meandered through the grassy hills and dips, following the course of the river below.  We walked a short stretch of the boardwalk, but didn't manage to spot any birds on the hot, still, afternoon. 

We trekked through the pleasant park for about an hour, at times walking along beside neighbourhoods at the top of the escarpment, and at others descending to the river, where there was a very slight breeze blowing.  Eventually we crossed over the Bow River on a beautiful pedestrian bridge beside a sandy beach, where quite a few people were swimming in the turquoise waters.  There was little shade on the trail, and at that point we would gladly have joined them in jumping off the bridge into the cooling waters below. 

We had chosen the most inexpensive place available in the western part of Calgary to stay, which was located right beside the Canada Olympic Park.  This site was one of the venues used for the 1988 Winter Olympics.  It was formerly known as Paskapoo Ski Hill, and it is now a ski hill and multi-purpose training facility, used for ski jumping, bobsledding, and luge in winter and for mountain biking and ski jump training in summer.  As we were hiking through Dale Hodges Park we could see the tall ski jump, sitting atop a hill, silhouetted against the sky on the far side of the river.  When we made the reservation my logic had been that ski resorts and Olympic villages are usually at the bottom of the ski hills, not the top, so we shouldn't have too much of a climb to get to our accommodations. I was only partially correct. 

We climbed up out of the river valley, wove our way along the sidewalks of the small town, and climbed up the other side of the river valley on the grassy edge of a busy road. We were extremely hot by the time we reached the top, and very grateful for the chance to cool off, take a shower, and do laundry. 

Our evening ended with a wonderful dinner invitation from Don and Lucie, who we walked with earlier in the afternoon.  They treated us to a delicious meal on the beautifully landscaped patio of a nearby golf course.  Best of all, they are avid cyclists and hikers, and came equipped with a pile of maps and a wealth of detailed advice and inside knowledge of the trails that lie ahead.  This type of in-depth knowledge is absolutely invaluable on a trek like this, and we were incredibly grateful for their generosity in sharing their expertise.  After dinner they even gave us a preview of our route through town tomorrow, and highlighted some of the features of the upcoming parks. 

When we returned to the hotel and saw the news, we felt even more blessed.  Apparently Innisfail, a town we were in just a few days ago, was hit by baseball sized hail yesterday.  In recent days many of the towns we've walked through, particularly those between Red Deer and Calgary, have been under severe weather warnings each afternoon, and several have been hit by tornadoes or extreme hail.  Our hike has given us a personal relationship to these places, and allowed us to picture what they looked like, and remember the people we met in each one.  It gives the news a personal feel, and makes us truly grateful to have walked through this stretch without serious injuries, or even getting caught in the worst of the storms.  We end yet another day on the  Trans Canada Trail with feelings of incredible gratitude.

See you on the trail!

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