Cycling the Car-Free way from Downtown to Bird's Hill Park

[Anders Swanson]

Hi, 

Thought I should forward this interesting route and map prepared by my friend Don for the purposes of Folk Festival goers and anyone else looking to leave the city behind for a day. The recent addition of a new, but critical, section along the floodway has opened up tons of possibilities. 

What's unique is that, soon, it will almost be possible to cycle all the way to Bird's Hill Park from downtown Winnipeg in the almost complete absence of cars. 

I tried the route myself today with a cyclist who is somewhat less confident cycling in traffic, and we both found it fantastic. In total, 95% of the way from Hargrave/Assiniboine to the Park was travelled on a bicycle path. The only non-bike path sections were a few hundred meters down underused dirt roads, sections of residential street in North St.Boniface (see the official City of Winnipeg Cycling map for that route) and one 30m section on Bird's Hill Rd.  The addition of the Assiniboine Bikeway this year will add even more bike path percentage (for me anyway). 

The only "bad" parts are actually the intersections along the Northeast Pioneers Greenway, waiting to cross the perimeter if busy, and, in my case, traveling down Mission st. for a block. Overall, these inconveniences are overshadowed by the beauty and tranquillity of the route. The brand new asphalt path running along the west side of the floodway in particular is surreal and shockingly convenient.  

THE ROUTE IS ITS NOT QUITE READY YET DUE TO FLOODING OF THE DUNNING RD. CAUSEWAY. Unfortunately, I didn't read to end of Don's message and we got stopped by the flooding of Dunning road. It's a causeway, but it's currently about 1.5 feet underwater. (Why not try it anyway? I know, I know, but you have to see it. It's fast moving water, hard to see the bottom, mushy and very cold. No excuse, I know. I'm just lame, OK). 

Anyway, without that Dunning connection, you travel along the shoulder of 59, which is far less agreeable to the more timid cyclist.  BUT, in another couple of weeks, if the road hasn't been wrecked, the route should be good to go. To me, it looked like the road surface might be severely eroded. 

I've also attached a rather hard-to-interpret photo showing the submerged road. If you look carefully, you can see Dunning Rd. gently sloping into the water. On the left you will see the new asphalt path running into the distance. (The landscape is nicer than the it looks in the photo)

Please keep us posted if you find out that it is passable. Plenty of people like to travel to BHP in the summer.

 

Don's (map see attached)

Don's words: 

" . . . Keep in mind this route is strictly unofficial and has safety hazards which include:

 

1. Crossing the Perimeter at the north end of NEPG.

2. Dunning Road across the Floodway- I don't know when or if they are going to complete it. I know it was almost impassible by bicycle last fall but I haven't been out to look at it yet this year.

3. Crossing Hwy 59 at Dunning. I believe there are plans for a Bike/Ped flyover somewhere around here but I don't know when it will be built

 

The good news is the west side of the Floodway was paved with a wide path last fall from HWY 59 Bridge to Dunning.

 

The access point to the south west side of BPH itself is a very short path located 3.1 km from Lagimodiere on Dunning East of Lagimodiere (see map). It's a little hard to see but it's basically a deer path off Zora Road (top of the hill). It's probably only about 100 feet away from BHP South road.  I don't know if this is technically legal or not

 

Of course the longer route is to head north on Lagimodiere at Dunning to the official park entrance."

Cheers,

Anders

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Downtown Winnipeg Cycling" group.
To post to this group, send email to wpgdownto...@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to wpgdowntowncycl...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wpgdowntowncycling?hl=en.

[Warren Duplooy]

Any updates on this route?