Our familiar, valued ravine is undergoing massive changes. The place we so much depend upon to enhance the quality of our lives through the opportunity to get out daily and appreciate nature close up and personal has been altered, in some places beyond recognition. Almost. This is not a felicitous thing, in our opinion.

It's been well over a year since the municipal public works and recreation department had conducted some engineering reviews to determine the state of the bridges in the ravine. There are quite a number of such bridges because the ravine is just that, an area comprised of countless hills and valleys, with a main creek running through, along with a number of smaller tributaries.

The area is also used locally as a sewage protection system where water runs off through large-diameter concrete sewer pipes, not where we tend to ramble about but in several places down there in the ravine, so it serves as a very practical solution to avoiding storm-caused floods in the locality, as well, because of its forested aspect, as a recreational area, although with a limited number of locals taking the opportunity to make use of it, as we are fond of doing.

Right now, the ravine appears at about its most autumn-attractive since the maples and beeches, birches and poplars have turned colour and they're at their best and brightest. The trails are well covered with a deep confetti of bright leaves that have loosened their grip and fallen to the forest floor. And it's all quite beautiful.

Underfoot, and access to the trails, however, have become dreadfully compromised. Three of the major bridges in our part of the ravine have now been removed and are awaiting replacement. The job, a rather large one, was last done with each bridge removed sequentially, each bridge being rebuilt before the next was demolished. And they had all been built to highway safety standards, large and robust. And the entire enterprise had taken not much more than a month to accomplish.

To us, the regular trail-users, the bridges looked as though they were reliably stout enough to be used for another decade; it's not yet quite a decade since the current ones had replaced an earlier set that were themselves the second set we had ourselves seen in our time using the ravine. But for over a year obstacles had been placed at either end of each of the bridges with warning signs that the bridges were unsafe. All of us, all the ravine hikers simply ignored the signage and hauled ourselves over the blockages to access the bridges and in so doing access to our regular hiking trail circuits.

All of that has been made impossible now. There was no local consultation, and the engineering department made their decision although the company given the contract to conduct the work in replacing the bridges saw no reason why the bridges wouldn't logically have been removed and rebuilt one by one, they were given instructions to the contrary. Approaching the matter from a consumer-client-taxpayer point of view gave no satisfaction; the municipal department involved was adamant that it would be done their way, period.

Now, we try to bushwhack as much as we can to link up the trails we're most familiar with. We also make use of hitherto little-used trails which haven't been impacted by all of the demolition and tractors and heavy equipment roaring through the ravine. We end up spending longer on our trail walks and experiencing no little amount of frustration in seeking out alternatives. We consider ourselves to be privileged to have such access to natural surroundings, but the current situation does try one's patience.

And patient is what we have to be; the municipality stated the work would be completed toward the end of December; more likely it will stretch into next spring, since no work will be possible once the snow begins to fly and icy conditions prevail. At the rate the work crews are going; one week on the job, two weeks elsewhere, it seems a moot point that December is the end-date.