From rail track to piece of heaven

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/03/2012 (4975 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was little more that a week ago that Kathy George-Moore was making her usual trek down Northeast Pioneers Greenway, wrapped up from the elements like a power-walking mummy.

“The wind was blowing,” she said. “There was snow all over. I was bundled up to the eyeballs. It was so cold.”

Indeed, the asphalt trail along Gateway Road doesn’t offer much protection from prairie winds. And in winter, the path can seem a rather desolate 5.5-kilometre stretch from Herbert to Talbot Avenue. But the spring thaw reveals another story.

In other parts of the city, the signs of the end of another gruelling winter are tradition: gatherings at the Bridge Drive-In for soft ice cream or sunbathers stretching out at Assiniboine Park.

In north Winnipeg, however, the coming of summer is heralded by the population on a thin patch of asphalt the locals call a refuge from months cooped up indoors.

“It’s beautiful. I adore it,” said Jacqueline Buffington. “There’s so many people out walking and strolling with their babies.”

So on this particular Friday morning, Buffington and her mother, Corrie Leach, made their first appearance of the season on the Greenway — a former Canadian Pacific Railway track that has been paved from Springfield Road to Talbot Avenue. The path, however, stretches to the Perimeter Highway, with construction plans in place to connect the trail all the way to Birds Hill.

It’s not much to look at, really, sandwiched between strip malls and residential lots along Raleigh Street. The scenery is scant. Yet it’s more than a piece of real estate for George-Moore. It’s a peace of mind.

“Walking is so fabulous,” she said. “It clears your head. I try and go every day. It’s a nice time to meditate and get rid of all the stuff you’re thinking of. It’s a great path.”

Going north towards the Perimeter, the trail enters the open prairie, leaving the strip malls and traffic lights behind. “You can hear the meadowlarks,” said George-Moore.

The Greenway belt has literally become a lifeline through the area. There were skateboarders in T-shirts, moms bicycling with toddlers tucked into side cars and joggers aplenty.

Age doesn’t matter. Joshua Johannson is just one week old, and on Friday he was making his inaugural journey on the NPG with parents Scott and Andrea, while sister Julia, 4, and brother Matthew, 2, rode their tiny bikes.

Explained Andrea: “You gotta get out.”

“We were saying how useless it was to have the train tracks here (after the railway was abandoned),” Scott added. “This is amazing.”

 

Dropping In is a ‘random act of journalism’ that starts with a thumbtack on a city map and ends with a story from the street

randy.turner@freepress.mb.ca

Dropping in