It was a surprisingly warm fall day for the middle of October when the newest part of the Trans Canada Trail – the 12-kilometre Athabasca to Colinton Trail – held it’s grand opening Saturday.
“It’s a beautiful fall day, we couldn’t ask for better weather. A little windy maybe, but on the whole just fantastic,” said Lyne Jewell, the chair of the Athabasca Recreational Trail Association.
The trail is part of both the Trans Canada Trail – scheduled to be completed by 2017 – and the Historic Athabasca Landing Trail system.
A ceremony was held at the trailhead near Colinton with several municipal councillors from the Athabasca, Westlock and Sturgeon counties among the 70 or so people in attendance.
Following a number of speeches and presentations from the dignitaries in attendance, a sign commemorating the trail was unveiled and people were then treated to free wagon rides and cake.
Many of the speakers talked about the history behind the trail and that included Athabasca County councillor Warren Griffin.
“One hundred and thirty-eight years ago, the Athabasca Landing Trail was built to allow pioneering Albertans to open up North-Central Alberta and thus creating the communities of Colinton and Athabasca. Today, we are here to open and repurpose a section of this historic trail,” he stated.
This repurposing has been off and on for years, but really picked up speed in 2012 when the Athabasca Recreational Trail Association decided to make it their next project.
“The shovels to the ground for this trail began in 2012 and was just finished this week,” Jewell said.
“We were working on it yesterday and we still have a few things to do, but it’s pretty good. We still have some directional signs to be put up.”
According to Loren Winnick, a member of Athabasca Landing Trail Steering Committee, the trail itself follows as much as possible that historic route.
In the places where the land was too marshy to build on, they placed geo-tech fabric on the ground – similar to fabric used in oil fields to allow heavy machinery to go over bad terrain.
The trail also features several interpretive signs placed to “memorialize” its history.
Linda Strong-Watson, executive director of Alberta Trail Net, said, “It’s really one of the jewels along the necklace of what is actually our National Trail Initiative.”
Strong-Watson hopes that the trail will see a lot of use. “There’s a saying that if you build it they will come and that’s certainly our hope.
“It’ll give people the opportunity to get out in an off-road environment. I’m hoping that people will take advantage of the opportunity and responsibly use this new piece of the trail.”
