Sasha's Reality Dial On The Net

Saturday, August 04, 2007

I Finally Made It Around!

I moved to Calgary when I was six years old and grew up in the community of Cedarbrae. Since it is literally down the street the Glenmore Reservoir was kind of like a big lake to me when I was a kid. By the time I was about eleven in grade five or six I was allowed to go down there with a friend and ride our bikes down and sit on the docks and fish (I never caught a SINGLE fish!). The summer when I was twelve I decided to ride by bike around the whole reservoir... I packed a backpack with sandwiches and water and headed down the hill , onto the bike path, and away on my trek - all was good until I got to Heritage Park and totally lost the bikepath when it turned into the parking lot. I looked around bit and then just turned around and rode back the way I came. I tried again the next year too but could not find the damb path once I hit Heritage Park!

I got my new bike last month and have had fun riding it over to the 7-11 and up to the library and Wal-Mart but one of my goals for the summer was to go on a few good bike ride so I decided that I finally needed to get around Glenmore Reservoir and headed off down that same road this afternoon just after noon.

It was a nice ride and the first part of the path in South Glenmore Park had lots of shade in between the trees.

It is really neat to be in the middle of the city and have it feel like you are in the middle of the woods :)

The path climbed a bit and then there was a nice fast downwards hill that went down to the river and over a little bridge. That's where I saw a few people fishing and canoeing.

Then the path got pretty steep as it climbed back up on the other side. In the upper right hand corner of the next picture you can see the bridge I was standing on in the last picture.

My new bike has an electric motor on the back tire that really helps reduce the resistance on hills but you still have to work pretty hard on hills so when I got to the top I stopped for a little break to have some water.

That is where I saw this cute little gopher living under a picnic table :)

This is the big boat at Heritage Park sailing on the reservoir.
(I made sure to get a few pictures for my friend's daughter Meagan who works on this ship!)

It really was a beautiful day... not to hot and not too cold... just perfect!

This is the pathway thru North Glenmore Park.

This is Heritage Park from the north side of Glenmore Park... I love Heritage Park!

I got to the Glenmore road construction and the bike path was closed down so I had to cross Glenmore and follow a detour. Did you know that the new pedestrian overpass says FLOAT on the top of it??

The detour took me past the water treatment plant into the park near Sandy Beach and 54th Avenue where I used to live.


Then the path curved and went back over Glenmore up behind the Rockyview Hospital where there were tons of patients hanging outside enjoying the sun. If I ever have to hang out in the hospital I want to go to Rockyview - they have such a nice area and view at the back.

I almost got lost after the hospital when the path again disappeared into a residential street but I spotted another biker and then a sign that got me back to the path which ended up at the Heritage Park parking lot a few minutes later... I HAD FINALLY FOUND THE OTHER SIDE OF THE LOST HERITAGE PARK PATHWAY!!! I knew where to connect to the path on the south side of Heritage Park so I did so and continued on the path.

Right after Heritage Park the path is right beside the water so it was cool to be able to see all the sailboats and people in the water.

I made a stop at Glenmore Landing to grab a burger and then headed off on the final leg of the trek.

Here is another nice picture of the boat for Meagan taken from South Glenmore Park.


I got home just after 2pm so it was a good ride and a really fun day. Next time I might head north at Sandy Beach and head downtown or maybe over to my sisters :)