Komorebi Walk*, South Saskatchewan River Komorebi is a Japanese word for the way light filters through trees. Memories of sun and shade, a thousand gestures of green leaves, and the feel of shady woods in the summer. Here, in the middle of winter: the leaves are dead and down, the sky is overcast, and the trees are bare bones. But there is light in the snow, the river, the grey sky, and walking while paying attention to trees and light is a way to find beauty everywhere. * I am grateful to walk at a distance with Walking the Land land arts collective, who were walking in Gloucestershire and elsewhere in the world today - Komorebi Walk is their First Friday Walk prompt.
Location: Along the South Saskatchewan River, Medicine Hat, Alberta Length: 3 km Companions: none Date: 4 February, 2022
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South Coulee Walk A warm January day, and quiet. Walking with grasses and rocks and ghosts and sky. The absence of wind is remarkable. Location: Farm coulee, Southern Alberta
Length: 2 km Companions: Tom Date: 22 January, 2022 Boardwalk, Marsh and Bridle Trails Boxing day after the second pandemic Christmas, and just happy to be together for a muddy walk. The chickadees, ducks, and squirrels are all looking for their share of the feast. Darkness sinks into the valley before we get back to the car. Location: Grindstone Marsh Trail, RBG, Burlington, Ontario
Length: 4 km Companions: Tom, Anna, Isabel Date: 26 December, 2021 Georgian Bay trail Our favourite walk to our favourite spot. This time we wore swimsuits and stopped to float in the inlet and lay like seals on the rocks. The most peaceful place I know. Location: Secret bay behind Edge Island, Georgian Bay, Ontario
Length: 4 km Companions: Isabel & Anna Date: 24 August, 2021 Burlington, Ontario Summer walk with my father and his walker, three driveways down, three driveways back. Location: Burlington, Ontario
Length: 3 driveways Companions: Dad Date: 15 August, 2021 Brantford, Ontario A long walk through town on a hot day; iced coffee at the Blue Dog, dreaming of our lives in the 100 year old mansions, down along the Grand River, and back home in a thunder shower. So much green, so much love. Location: Old neighbourhoods of Brantford, Ontario
Length: 8 km Companions: Anna & Isabel Date: 13 August, 2021 Maligne Canyon, Jasper Deep canyon walk in the mountains, but the most remarkable thing is this was my first trip away since pre-pandemic days. So grateful to explore, see friends, be introduced to new terrain, and for the black bear sightings. Location: Maligne Canyon, Jasper National Park, Alberta
Length: 6 km Companions: Dithering Harold & Tom Date: 19 June 2021 Summit Lake, Waterton First mountain walk of the year, and first walk in this part of Waterton since the 2017 Kenow wildfire. Summit Lake was iced in and the snow too deep to get close to it. The continental divide and the U.S.A. were in sight. The poor burnt trees. Location: Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta
Length: 8 km Companions: Tom Date: 6 June 2021 Six-mile Coulee, Lethbridge An after-work walk in the coulees, down to the river and south, a climb up for the view, and returning along the six-mile coulee creek. The valley is gradually greening, and wildflowers are blooming close to the ground. Buffalo beans, prairie smoke, prairie crocus, and bigger plants where there is more moisture - golden current, wolf willow, buffaloberries, Saskatoon bushes. Us walkers are outnumbered by the runners and mountain bikers on the trails, but I think we see more. Location: Six-mile Coulee to the Oldman River, Lethbridge, Alberta
Length: 7 km Companions: Troy Date: 12 May, 2021 Cemetery Circumference, Lethbridge First Friday walk - we took the trail known as the Boneyard Link along the coulee edge around the cemetery as the sun was going down, and wondered why we don't do this every evening. Location: Around Mountain View Cemetery, Lethbridge, Alberta
Length: 4 km Companions: Tom Date: 7 May, 2021 First Friday walks - a project by Walking the Land arts collective. “The potential of an activist art practice that raises consciousness about land, history, culture, and place and is a catalyst for social change cannot be underestimated, even though this promise has yet to be fulfilled. Artists can make the connections visible. They can guide us through sensuous, kinaesthetic responses to topography, lead us from archaeology and land based social history into alternative relationships with place. They can expose the social agendas that have formed the land, bring out multiple readings of places that mean different things to different people at different times.” Lucy Lippard, 1997, The Lure of the Local: Sense of Place in a Multicentered Society. Hardieville Evening walk through the Hardieville ruins, all colour and crumbling concrete, and out to the bluff above the river. The pushy wind sent us back along the contours of the hills, sculpted in light and paced by runners. Location: Hardieville to Pavan Park, Alberta
Length: 4 km Companions: Troy Date: 28 April, 2021 Medicine Hat Bridges We threaded our way back and forth across the South Saskatchewan River, stopping downtown at the Station for a coffee on the sunny sidewalk patio. Chatted with the women at the next table, with chihuahuas on their laps dressed up for the outing - these are the small daily connections that are missing during the pandemic, part of the heart deficit that makes many of these days seem so heavy. Location: Medicine Hat bridges, Alberta
Length: 3 km Companions: Tom Date: 17 April, 2021 Writing On Stone, Alberta It was more of an amble and a scramble than a hike. We climbed among the hoodoos and walked along the river, making plans for summer camping and kayak trips, and confirming again and again how good, how important, how sane it is to be away from screens for the day. Location: Writing on Stone Provincial Park & UNESCO World Heritage Site, Alberta
Length: 3 km Companions: Tom Date: 27 March 2021 Down to the River Again The blue sky was undeniable. We met on 11th St. and walked the usual neighbourhood to coulees to river and back, having the loveliest conversation. Walking and talking. Location: Southside Coulees to Oldman River, Lethbridge, Alberta
Length: 7 km Companions: Helen Date: 7 March 2021 Pavan Park, Lethbridge A slate grey day, with a cold wind, but we were all game for a walk and some art talk. It's a rare pleasure to hang out with people - still at a distance, outside - after a year of pandemic. restrictions. I have always combined walking and socializing, but as the only way to visit in person, walks with people have taken on an importance that is hard to articulate. I've been trying to, and can't quite name it, but I know this: connection is essential. Location: Pavan Park, Lethbridge, Alberta
Length: 4km + a hill Companions: Troy, Gary, Bekk Date: 6 March 2021 |
Author
Sandra Cowan likes to walk on trails, paths, and city streets. She is based in southern Alberta, Canada, as a visitor in the land of the Siksikaitsitapi (Blackfoot Confederacy). Archives
September 2022
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