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Our Town: Walking in a winter wonderland offers a "clean" look at nature

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People don’t notice whether it’s winter or summer when they’re happy.” Easy for Anton Chekov to say. The Russian playwright grew up near the Black Sea where the average low in January is -5.5 C. In this part of the world, however, a wicked wind chill can test the good cheer of even the most resilient short-panted postal carriers and other winter diehards.

Winter Walk Day, an annual provincial (and national) initiative, is designed to remind folks that the quest for happiness (and exercise) needn’t wait for warmer temperatures. Group walks will take place around Calgary on Wednesday, Feb. 7, organized by municipal groups, schools (last year in Alberta, 800 organizations and 100,000-plus people took part) and, in one special case, by the Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park.

Wayne Meikle is a consultant to Fish Creek, who served as its devoted park ranger from 1989 to 2008. There are few views easier on his eyes than the park’s frosty trees and the icy Bow River on a crisp winter day. “I know it probably sounds weird to some people, but I love the park when it’s covered in snow even more than I do in spring or summer,” he says.

Meikle is constantly amazed at how a well-known location in the park can look so completely different from season to season. “A lot of people come to Fish Creek in summer months, but never in winter,” he says. “One of my favourite things about it right now is how clean the park looks—there’s this feeling that it’s just waiting to be reborn.”

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Meikle will show all comers what he means on Winter Walk Day when he hosts an hour-long stroll through Hull’s Woods (1 p.m. to 2 p.m.;

$5/person). Among many other of the park’s charms, he’ll be sure to point out the non-hibernating animals such as deer, rabbits and weasels as well as owls and other birds. “I know every inch of that park,” he says. “We’ll just walk and see what we see, and I’ll talk about the history of the area.” Indeed, Meikle is deep into research for a forthcoming book on the topic.

Meikle’s own history with the provincial park dates back to a brief, abortive ranger posting in 1973 during which he lived in a mice-infested trailer near the Burns ranch house for three weeks. Three years later, he and his wife returned for a walk through its untamed paths on their honeymoon. Fish Creek has since grown from a few hectares to 14 square kilometres and become the second largest urban park in Canada (after St. John’s Pippy Park).

Rain, shine or wind chill, Meikle visits Fish Creek two to three times a week to see what’s new. He’d sure love some company next week.


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