Very ice! River trail sets two records

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This article was published 28/02/2018 (2809 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeggers have been able to skate on the Red River Mutual Trail for the most days in its history.

The trail — which at its longest length this year went from the St. Vital Bridge on the Red River to The Forks and then up the Assiniboine River to Arlington Street — has been open for 69 days, starting Dec. 22, beating the previous record of 68 days set in the winter of 2015.

Some people, the ones who would look at a glass and say it’s half-empty, would say the trail been open so many days because of the long winter the city has experienced. But that’s not how Larissa Peck, co-ordinator of marketing and communications for The Forks North Portage Partnership, sees it.

“This has been a perk for the winter time,” Peck said Wednesday. “And, up until earlier this week, it was 10 kilometres long — which is also a record. 2009 was the last time it was over 6.5 km. We’ve seen a lot of people do the round trip and let us know they completed it.”

Peck said organizers don’t know exactly how many people have laced up their skates and hit the ice starting somewhere other than The Forks, but for those who took to the ice at The Forks, the counting machine on site tells the tale.

“We’ve seen, since we opened in December, 598,000 people passing through there,” she said, adding a warning that those who want to go for a skate on the trail better hurry.

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“The latest it has been closed was March 11, and on average it is between Feb. 27 and March 5.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Kevin Rollason
Reporter

Kevin Rollason is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He graduated from Western University with a Masters of Journalism in 1985 and worked at the Winnipeg Sun until 1988, when he joined the Free Press. He has served as the Free Press’s city hall and law courts reporter and has won several awards, including a National Newspaper Award. Read more about Kevin.

Every piece of reporting Kevin produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.