Transcona Trail & Bioreserve

I normally try (really hard) to avoid Transcona. It's not that anything bad ever happened to me there. It's just that dislike driving in and around Transcona and I have a possibly unwarranted negative perception of Transconites as unsophisticated Camaro-driving mullet-wearing bumpkins that just don't fit in with the rest of the city.

Despite these prejudices, I chose a trail in Transcona for my inaugural post in this new blog of mine. As I train up for a half marathon in the fall, I hope to try out many of the city's trails and paths. For whatever reason I chose this one tonight.

DESCRIPTION
Paved and 6.7 km in length, although I only ran a portion of that. It is very straight and follows a rail line and power lines for much of it's length, but it is also treed and has relatively few road crossings, which is important. The busiest crossing at Plessis has crosswalk buttons to stop traffic.

REVIEW
I parked at one of Winnipeg's rare off-leash dog parks, near where the trail crosses Plessis. I think there was a drug deal going on when I pull up. There are two things in this park: a play structure for kids and a open space for dogs, and the teenagers in their urban wear had neither, but they buggered off after I parked and I got on with my run.

The trail is well used by couples going for a walk, cyclists, dog walkers and rollerbladers, all in vast assortment of sizes and apparel. It's not a bad place to go for a little people watching as you jog.

1.3 km down the trail from where I parked, I diverted off the path, across the rail tracks, and around the Transcona Community Bioreserve -- a naturalized old industrial site that made the news a little while ago when local residents fought against a planned concrete plant near by.

The trail through the bioreserve is crushed limestone, and follows a loop around a swamp. It's quite pleasant, with a soundtrack of frogs and birds, mixed in with the traffic from the Perimeter Highway to the north. I definitely recommend it, unless it's after dark.

Overall score: 6/10.
Highlights: Good condition, easy parking, connections to other parks and short trails including the Bioreserve and the Cordite Trail. Also, the possibility of a rare caboose sighting as the Central Manitoba Railway train passes by.

Lowlights: Straight, marginal scenery, in Transcona.

At the end of the day, when I got in my car and followed a Camaro (true story) out of Transcona and into the setting sun over Winnipeg, I left pretty good about my evening. The excellent weather certainly had something to do about it, but the trail and Bioreserve are certainly worth exploring if you're a runner or walker and don't like too far away.