Despite challenges such as the warm December weather and thinner than usual ice, the Red River Mutual Trail at The Forks is opening on time.

The first portion of the trail opened today (Jan. 21, 2016) and stretches one kilometre in length.

Manager of Marketing and Communications for The Forks, Chelsea Thomson says there was a bit of panic when the weather was warmer than usual in December, but she says once the recent cold snap hit they were able to open on time.

Despite this, there were still some challenges.

“Even when the ice was freezing it still wasn’t thick enough,” said Thomson. “We had to thicken the ice before we could even get our equipment out there. So our building crew would poke holes in the ice and flood on top of what was already there in order to get the depth we needed.”

Thomson says now that they have the first section open, they’re hoping to eventually extend the trail to six kilometres.  

“We hope to open up all the way to Churchill Drive within a week of today and then hopefully we’ll head down to St. Vital Bridge like we did last year,” she said.  

 

The first part of the river trail is one kilometre, the forks is hoping to extend it to six in the coming weeks

Thomson says there aren’t a lot of new features this year, but there are still a lot of activities going on.

“There’s the Ironman curling bonspiel, which takes place the first week in February. We also have Rendezvous on Ice, which kicks off Festival du Voyageur. And we have pick-up hockey, and also the warming huts will head out onto the trail next weekend," she said. 

 

RAW:almond Ready to Go

Pop-up restaurant RAW:almond – which usually sets up on the river – also saw some challenges this year as well.

When the ice wasn’t strong enough to support the restaurant they had to move on land at the end of The Forks Bridge, which is also the end of the river trail.

 

The area at the end of the bridge where RAW:almond is located this year

RAW:almond custodian Andrew Courtnage says it’s been a challenge, but they were able to overcome the issues they had to deal with.  

The first of those issues happened on Saturday, Jan. 16. Courtnage says someone broke into the restaurant and stole some stereos, power tools and a piece of rental equipment worth $20,000.   

“There were some dour faces for sure because we weren’t sure we could get that money back,” said Courtnage. “But the next morning the thieves chickened out and left it in a parking lot so we were able to get back at it.”

Another issue they had to deal with was a way to build a base for the restaurant. Courtnage said they normally use hooks to dig into the ice, which creates a base stronger than concrete. After moving the restaurant on land, they had to build buttresses and use over 1300 sandbags to hold them down.

“The whole sandbag element was brand new but it’s such a Winnipeg thing,” said Courtnage. “It’s unbelievable, but we have the sandbags, we built the buttresses, we got our gear back and we are good to go.”

The Forks will also be home to The Great Ice Show as well as the kickoff event for Festival du Voyageur this winter.

“With all these things going on, Winnipeg is going to become a winter Disneyland,” joked Courtnage.