On the night before the Rideau Canal Skateway
opened for the first time this season
, I was laying awake in bed as restless as a little kid trying to fall asleep on Christmas Eve.
I couldn’t stop thinking about the sound of my blades digging into the ice. The feeling of the wind nipping against my cheeks as I picked up speed. The uniquely superhuman feeling that comes with skating uninterrupted for kilometre after kilometre.
Nothing brings out a sense of child-like giddiness in me quite like the
Rideau Canal Skateway
. I skated more than 100 kilometres on the canal over the course of
last year’s 52-day skating season
. And I was dying to get back out there again.
A 3.4-kilometre stretch between Bank Street and Somerset Street West was the first section to open to skaters this year, with BeaverTail and rest area locations open at the Fifth and Concord locations.
The windchill brought the temperature below -20 on Wednesday morning, but that didn’t deter the hundreds of Ottawa residents and visitors bundled up in toques, mittens, scarves and sometimes ski goggles, as they welcomed the new skating season.
Ottawa residents Toby Kirwan and Barbara Martin were eager to kickstart their winter tradition of getting out on the Skateway as often as possible. Martin, who Kirwan described as a “chronic skater,” is out on the canal five or six times each winter.
“I’m impressed that they got it together so early (in the winter) this year,” Martin said.
The New Year’s Eve opening day marks the earliest the Skateway has opened since 2018, according to the National Capital Commission. Last winter, it took an extra 12 days for the Skateway to open partially on Jan. 11, with the full 7.8-kilometre length opening a week later on Jan. 18.
As I started gliding down the frozen canal, I was instantly reminded of what kept me coming back again and again last season. It’s a quintessential experience that gets people outside during a brutally cold and isolating winter. People went out of their way to exchange smiles with me as our paths crossed, and I felt so embraced by this experience that’s so uniquely Ottawan.
Some people were experiencing the magic of the Rideau Canal Skateway for the very first time. Lionel Eba has only been living in Canada for two months after moving from Cameroon, and said this was his first time ever on skates.
When he saw the announcement that the Skateway would be opening, he said he knew he had to get on the ice and try it out.
“It’s not easy, being on skates,” he said with a laugh. “I’m trying.”
It was also the first time on the Rideau Canal Skateway for the Paquet family, who were in Ottawa for a New Year’s vacation after driving down from Quebec City.
Wearing matching pyjama pants and family jerseys with a spinoff logo from the defunct Quebec Nordiques NHL team, the family was quick to embrace the experience. The five kids grew up playing hockey on their backyard rink, and mother Patricia Bluteau described skating on the Rideau Canal Skateway as a childhood dream.
A skate on the Rideau Canal wasn’t originally on the family’s itinerary, but when they saw the announcement that the Skateway would be open during their visit, their New Year’s Eve activity became a bit of a no-brainer.
“We were so lucky. The timing was perfect,” said Gaele Paquet. “We drove across a bridge yesterday and saw the ice and knew we needed to go.”
It’s stories like these that make the Rideau Canal such a magical place. Every so often, I’d slow down to listen and take it all in. I’d hear laughter behind me, followed by a gentle thud as someone lost their balance and hit the ice.
I skated the full 3.4-kilometre section twice on the Skateway’s opening day, and some sections are bumpier than others, which will require some extra caution. Even for someone like me who grew up on hockey skates, I had to catch myself from falling a couple of times.
By the time I decided to unlace my skates, I could no longer feel my cheeks or my toes. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. I was already planning the next time I could go back and rack up my kilometre count again this year in what hopefully turns into another long skating season.
Seven kilometres down, many more to go.
