This path was covered in snow and ice not even two weeks ago. Now spring is definitely here.

If you look closely, you can even see the whitecaps on the lake. A southeast wind, bringing warm temperatures with it. I went out for a walk later in the afternoon and saw three guys parasailing in the bird sanctuary. They shouldn’t have been there–there aren’t supposed to be any boats in the bird sanctuary–but they were having fun, and who could blame them? It’s finally spring.

I wasn’t the only person taking a stroll through the park. Look! The grass is even starting to turn green.

Okay, I admit it: I’m a little late to this party. We’ve been having this weather for days, but I’ve been feeling poorly and unfit for anything other than reading and looking out of the window. But I’m better now and thinking about a return to the Saw Whet Trail later this week, to see how it survived the winter. Let’s hope I don’t forget my camera.

When the temperature gets close to the freezing point and the sun is out–for a while, anyway–on a Friday in January, you’d better get outside. You’ll regret if you don’t, because you can be sure that the weather will soon be a whole lot colder.

So I went out for a walk around Wascana Lake. It was lovely, even though it clouded over later in the afternoon (the weather forecast is calling for freezing rain, which is my least favourite form of precipitation). Now, after walking 16 kilometres, I feel like I’ve earned my dinner.

If the weather holds, I might go for a similar walk tomorrow. It’s early enough in the semester that I can afford the time.

When the temperature dips below the point where I’m comfortable going for a walk–that’s around minus 10 or minus 15 for me–I’ve been staying home. Like today: the most recent bulletin from Environment Canada says that it’s currently minus 26, with a wind chill of minus 39. But we’re going to be having those temperatures for the next three months, and what am I going to do, hide from them? No.

So I went for a walk around the lake. Now, I’m sure you’re wondering: what’s it like to walk 12 kilometres in a minus 40 wind chill?

Well, it’s not cold. That’s a surprise. I wasn’t wearing a winter coat–just layers under a gore tex rain jacket–but my body wasn’t cold. My feet were warm and, eventually, my hands warmed up, too.

On the other hand, it is cold. I was wearing long underwear and hiking pants and I needed another layer on my legs; they were freezing. And the only part of my face that was exposed to the cold–the area around my eyes–ached from the cold. My eyelashes gathered clumps of ice that threatened to freeze my eyes shut. Ice formed on my balaclava and that made the end of my nose cold. And the cold drained the battery in my camera. I only managed to get one photograph before it died completely.

There were sun dogs but I don’t think you can see them in that picture.

The wind had blown drifts over the path but they weren’t very deep. Usually the path is cleared by the park but their staff must’ve been given a long weekend off. I think I like it better when there’s some snow on it; I like the way the snow creaks underfoot. There were several other people walking, and a couple of cross-country skiers on the groomed trails by the Science Centre, so I wasn’t completely alone.

I thought about stopping for a cup of tea but decided not to. I didn’t want to warm up in the coffee shop and then face the cold outside all over again.

Will I go for a walk again when it’s this cold? Yes. Why not? I survived my walk today. And because the sun usually comes out when it’s this cold, the snow and the shadows look very pretty. But I’ll wear an extra pair of pants.

You couldn’t ask for a better day to celebrate the winter solstice: sun, a bright blue sky, and hoarfrost (thanks to last night’s heavy fog). Despite the breeze and the relatively warm temperature, the frost took a long time to melt–usually it only sticks around when the thermometer reading is somewhere south of minus 20, but that’s not the case today.

We walked the usual route, but we went around the lake clockwise, rather than counter-clockwise–not a huge change but enough to make things a little more interesting.

I thought the snowman’s nose was a carrot, but it’s actually a crushed Tim Horton’s cup.

A stop for coffee, and then home: another 12 kilometres. What a great way to spend part of the afternoon!

Now that the semester is over, I have time to walk. This afternoon I walked around the lake, again. In the last week I’ve logged 66 kilometres, all walked on the same path under the same leaden December sky. The lake route does have a couple of advantages, though: there are places to stop and get warm if I get too cold; the path is kept relatively free of snow and, more importantly, ice; and it can’t get any duller than walking on a treadmill, can it? Usually I don’t listen to my iPod when I’m walking–I try to practice being in the moment, with varying degrees of success–but I’ve listened to the entirety of the Serial podcast in the past week, and now that I’ve finished the last episode I wonder what I’ll listen to now.

I’ve been thinking about where next summer’s big walk is going to be. The Rideau Trail? The Grand Valley Trail? The West Coast Trail? All of the Canadian options are going to be harder than the Camino or the Cotswold Way because they’re going to mean carrying food and a tent and other gear. I know I’m going to have to keep fit over the winter if I’m going to be carrying a 60 litre backpack for two weeks next summer. So I’m going to spend as much time as possible this winter trudging around the lake, one step at a time.

There’s a big park on the south side of this city, built around an artificial lake. Or maybe two lakes, depending on how you look at it, since the lake is divided in two halves by a bridge, and the two halves are quite distinct. The smaller side is used for boat races, and on a sunny day October day like this, it has many people walking around it. The larger side is a bird sanctuary and fewer people take the time to walk around it. I don’t know why–maybe because it’s a longer walk. In any case, today we walked around both sides–a 12 kilometre loop from home and back.

I’ve walked this path many times. When I first started thinking about walking the Camino, I had a hard time getting around both sides of the lake. Later, when I was more fit, I would walk the big loop twice. Since I’ve walked this path so many times, I didn’t think I’d see anything new today, but I did. Several things, actually. The fall colours surprised me–I hadn’t thought about how much the park changes in autumn.

Also, beavers have been active, cutting down a tree near the university and damaging another so badly that it won’t survive. I know there are beavers living in the creek but it’s been a while since I’ve seen their handiwork up close.

A few weeks ago, First Nations University sponsored an event where teams raced each other to put up teepees. The poles have been left standing near their building. Yes, I should have taken this picture with the sun behind me. I don’t know what I was thinking.

Most surprising of all was the discovery of a footpath that runs along the north side of the bird sanctuary. I had no idea it was there. It runs behind the Science Centre, through a forested picnic area. There’s a sign that describes it as a winter footpath, but people are using it in other seasons, too.

Who knew that a route I’ve taken so many times before would still have new things to show me? I guess that you never know what you’re going to see if you just keep your eyes open.