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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Lovely day lures crowd to Forks river trail

By: Mary Agnes Welch

Posted: 01/11/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

RUTH.BONNEVILLE@FREEPRESS.MB.CA Enlarge Image

Two year old Timber Johnson embarks on her second skate ever using a kitchen step ladder as her skate-aid as she makes her way through the crowds of skaters on the Red River Trail at the Forks Sunday.

TEENAGERS with hockey sticks and wobbly kids on new skates converged on The Forks river trail Sunday to mark the first warm day since the trail opened and the first full weekend of family programming.

"It's just beautiful," said Kathryn Malloy, who skates the trail nearly every Sunday for some exercise and fresh air.

As Malloy inched up the stairs to The Forks with her boots in a bag, families worked their way down to the first leg of the Assiniboine Credit Union River Trail, which so far runs from The Forks to Osborne Village.

Workers have already started clearing the snow on the next leg to Hugo Street, though it's supposed to be weirdly balmy Tuesday and Wednesday with temperatures just above freezing.

Several skaters said they were looking forward to the five imaginative new warming sheds The Forks has commissioned. The sheds, also known as "love shacks" because people have been known to canoodle in them, will be built by teams of artists and architects, include Antoine Predock, the man behind the Winnipeg's Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Designs include a warming hut that resembles a tinfoil igloo and one in the form of an ice-covered hanging orb. They'll start to take shape later this month.

Officials on the trail Sunday said the quirky idea has earned attention from all over the world. Artists and architects from as far away as Ireland have called to find out how they can participate next winter.

Malloy said the "love shacks" sound like a great idea.

"Anything that lets you warm up without taking your skates off is great," she said. "Once you get your skates off, it's pretty hard to get the willpower to go out again."

Skaters, including Brett Wasny, who was waiting for his 15-year-old son to catch up to him, said the new, wider trail is also a welcome addition.

Because there wasn't as much snow this year, The Forks was able to widen the trail almost from bank to bank.

But it's early days and parts of the ice were still a little rough, which made skater Barry Oswald wonder if The Forks couldn't use hot water when flooding the trail so the ice would be smoother.

"We're hardy Prairie people. We can skate on anything, but it's pretty crappy past The Forks," said Oswald.

maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 11, 2010 B1

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