A national Canadian walking group is wrapping up a major gathering in Yellowknife that organizers say attracted well over 300 attendees.
Every two years, the Canadian Volkssport Federation holds a walking festival somewhere in the country.
From June 12-14, after the pandemic forced the abandonment of a previous attempt in 2020, that festival took place in Yellowknife.
“When I first joined, all I heard people talking about was: ‘When are we going to go to Yellowknife again? Do you have any idea when Yellowknife will happen again?’ So I was thrilled to know it was coming here,” said Mary Almond, president of northern Alberta’s Northern Lights Walking Club, who chaired the festival.
The Canadian Volkssport Federation exists to promote non-competitive walking, with clubs across the country. While some also offer activities like cycling, cross-country skiing or snowshoeing, “the essential sport is walking,” said Karen Venema, president of the Ottawa Voyageurs walking club.
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“My first impression is the rock and the trees and the big sky, and the brightness of it,” Venema said of Yellowknife when Cabin Radio interviewed her late last week, early in the event’s weekend-long itinerary.
“I knew there would be birds that have migrated already that I don’t see in my home. And it’s very multicultural, there are very many cultures present in Yellowknife. I wasn’t expecting that.”
Almond previously lived in Yellowknife for five years. Planning the festival took multiple trips back to the territorial capital and plenty of assistance from residents and businesses.
“The bedrock, the Canadian Shield, that’s what we’re really noticing,” she said.
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“When I came back up to start planning this, what I noticed was all of the trails Yellowknife has now that they did not have then. There are just so many. I lived out in Frame Lake South and I had to walk on the road to walk in, there was no path of any kind to get into town.”
David Hall, a past president of the national organization who lives in Edmonton, said even people in the closest major city to Yellowknife had been excited when the NWT capital was chosen to host the annual gathering.
“So many of them have not been here, right?” Hall said. “This is our opportunity to get there. I think they’re more excited about this one than almost any of the others.”
When you live in Yellowknife, you might not pay much attention to the artwork by many city streets. The art is what struck Almond.
“What I’ve noticed on every walk is the artwork everywhere of all different kinds, and we always stop and look at everything,” she said. “It’s all over the city.”
Venema said the group even organizes special programs featuring walks dedicated to exploring art, history or similar cultural themes.
“You get a little booklet, and you write in the name of the artist and the name of the mural, and it allows people to learn a little bit,” she said, using murals – of which Yellowknife has many – as an example.
“It allows you also to see a little bit beyond the trail,” she said. “So we’re looking for murals, sometimes we’re looking for famous Canadians, sometimes we’re looking for a railway that’s turned into a trail. Marking those features in our environment that are beyond the walk, that’s what makes it very unique.”
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While some people registering for the Yellowknife event had to be gently informed that the northern lights aren’t a thing at the height of summer, Almond said the sheer amount of daylight at this time of year brings its own benefits.
For example, there were two midnight walks on this year’s schedule, she said.
“There’s no other location that we would ever do that in,” said Almond. “But we’ll certainly do it in Yellowknife.”
