Location: Part of Edworthy Park to Cedar Crescent S.W. [map] Length: The trail is 2.5 km long
Park hours: 5 a.m. – 11 p.m. I miss Vancouver. It’s true. While I appreciate the sunny, expansive skies of Calgary, I still miss Vancouver.
I went back to Vancouver in early May last year, snow still covered most of my lawn in Calgary, what did show was dusty brown. When my dad picked me up at the airport, I couldnt stop talking about how green everything was. Sure the city is surrounded by rainforests, hence the rain, but everything was so green.
I miss the mountains. Calgary’s are gorgeous but they’re there, not right there. I miss the water. At 100m wide, the Bow hardly cuts it, although a walk alongside Glenmore Reservoir can help ease the soul. I miss the trees. The leaves fall off here.
There is, however, a place I can go and instantly drift off to the coast – The Douglas Fir Trail at Edworthy Park. I run a loop that has me on a path by the Bow River (not quite the Stanley Park seawall, but it will do) for a few hundred metres before ascending into a forest of tall, old, damp fir trees.
Instantly I feel like I’ve been transported to the North Shore trails in Vancouver. Old wooden steps, bridges and railings take you across the slope, similar to the paths of Lynn Canyon.
It’s not the Grouse Grind, but it’s a mountain staircase trail run that takes me off the prairies. The loop of the pathway and trail is barely 30 minutes, but it’s a 30 minute escape that brings me, well, home.
Dad. Broadcaster. Writer.
Three time Guinness World Record Holder.
I run the world for Team Diabetes.
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Thanks for posting this! I was born in Calgary but when to Van for school. When I was done, I moved back (husband missed his family and jumped through serious hoops to accompany me to Vancouver, so it really was only fair), but boy do I miss it, and it makes watching TV (like Fringe) or movies slightly bittersweet. I miss how beautiful it is, especially in spring, when you can walk out of a doorway and be hit with the scent of flowers. I miss looking out from main mall on the UBC campus and seeing Bowen Island before walking into an exam, and I miss how relaxing it is as a place to live. And how, in sharp contrast to Calgary, you could actually call nature “mother nature”. I didn’t mind the lack of sun at all, I just looked at the green grass instead.
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