That’s So 2020- Valley Loop

All photos taken during our October 26, 2020 walk.

While the weather was far from perfect, there was the promise of sunshine and temperatures above 0 degrees C (32 F). The afternoon promised increasing winds and clouds, so we set off for Edmonton just after the morning rush.

Our Covid conundrum with this loop has always been the pinch points on the 3 sets of wooden steps coming down from Rio Terrace. We opted to eliminate that portion by parking in the Riverbend area at the top of the bank West of Fort Edmonton.

Car safely parked, we set off East right at 10:00 AM. The fallen leaves lay thick along the curb behind our car.

in fact, you would not even know there was a curb here

The first part of our walk was along Riverbend Road and through some pretty connecting sidewalk paths toward the road down to the river bank.

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Descending down the hill, the reconstructed Fort Edmonton ramparts were easily visible, now that the leaves were gone.

Fort Edmonton was shuttered due to Covid, this year and is now undergoing major renovations

Before our main walk, we continued East at the bottom of the hill, so we could get close to river. Still flowing, there were early signs that t would be in a more solid state soon. Across the river, we could see that the 200 step wooden staircase was already seeing action. We were happy to be on our own, where we were.

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It was a short walk back up the road to the trail to Fort Edmonton footbridge. We passed a few other walkers, but physical distancing was easy. Along the way, some green leaves remained in suspended animation, on the shrubs.

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On the footbridge, we paused to enjoy the fine valley views, before continuing North across to join up with the main trail West. At the end of the bridge, the larch trees shone like a fall beacon.

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The haze continued to lift, showing an Alberta blue sky. Stark white tree trunks gleamed along the North river bank above the floodplain.

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Now in the open floodplain, it was like being on the prairie. The sun shone through weeds and grasses and others were out capturing fall photographs. I could not resist these shots of the golden larches.

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We soon arrived at the Terwilligar footbridge. No dewy cobwebs this day. Nonetheless, we took our time in crossing. It was only about 11:15, so not yet time for our lunch.

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Despite the dusting of snow, we opted for the hill climb rather than do the long loop through the dog park and up the road. We soon gained the upper path and headed East into Riverbend.

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We paused for our packed lunch at the “river bend”. It provided amazing views, but the colours were a bit more drab than on our last walk. We could see both footbridges and the small larch grove.

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A short stroll back along the city streets and we were back at the car. A walk of 7.1 km (just under 4 1/2 miles) in 2 hours. The temperature was still only about 2 C, but we were totally comfortable.