This blog may be called “Go Outside Today” but I have to admit that my running injury changed my routine a bit. For a week or so I didn’t move around much. It’s feeling better now but between that and the colder temperatures (windchills now often get down to -15°C) I’ve been less motivated to actually GO outside today even as my foot is feeling 100% fine. Instead, my bike sits on a smart trainer ready for my daily ride on imaginary roads with people from around the world. I miss going outside but I also am really enjoying being warm, and sometimes even hot when exercising. It will be some months before that happens outdoors here.

But last weekend Daegan and I did get out for a walk despite the cold and wind. We’d both been intrigued by a pond we could see in the distance about a kilometre and a half away and decided to head in that direction. I put on multiple layers, snow boots, a warm jacket, hat and gloves and out we went.

The cold was noticeable immediately with the wind blowing strongly between the highrise buildings. It stayed strong as we crossed the bridge over the ravine we were going to go into. But then we both noticed it: turning on to a snowy path in the woods the wind died down.

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After trekking through the woods we found ourselves in the park proper where more people were. I was interested to note that even outdoors and physically distanced, people were wearing masks. After coming out of the forest, we too put ours on. With the cold weather it was actually nice to have our faces covered more.

We cross a field and enter another grove of trees. When we come out the other side we’re at the pond.

Today it is frozen enough that people have cleared the snow off the ice and people are playing hockey – all properly distanced and wearing masks. A man skates alone with a snow shovel enlarging the rink. It feels like a timeless Canadian scene, and in fact, it is.

Patinage, au parc Lafontaine, Montréal
Adrien Hébert
c. 1936 pic.twitter.com/gDUOxTOCHO

— Canadian Paintings (@CanadaPaintings) January 30, 2021

We skirt around the game and go north to where another patch of ice has been cleared. We have no skates but enjoy the experience of walking on water.

Then, enjoying the ability to walk across the lake we head to the other side. We reach a point where, thanks to the sides of the ravine, we can barely tell we are in Canada’s largest city. In the time it took us to walk here, we could just as easily have taken transit to the most dense part of the city.

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It’s getting cold so we decide to turn toward home, taking a different way through the forest on the right in the photo above.

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We get back to the busier part of the park, put on our masks and head back up to street level. The wind picks up and we briskly walk home, appreciating the mask for keeping us warmer. Back up to our apartment we go and look down on the city. People are still skating on the pond. Tiny specs darting back and forth across a tiny pond.