News does get around in the underground community that represents this area's ravine walkers. For months the major topic of conversation has been the removal of the five bridges that link the trails in the ravine, permitting passage over the creek and its tributaries that run through the ravine. With their absence, all the habitual hikers of the trails in the ravine going through the forest (protected from 'development' by the very fact of the geological layout with deep valleys interspersed with heights made it unlikely that property development could take place, and ensured the ravine in its length and breadth throughout the area would be protected by law) have been forced to take awkward alternate measures.

The ravine is beloved of a certain segment of this society we share. Mostly not the young and energetic, although sometimes young people use it to bicycle through using it as a short-cut to a destination. Mostly, the walkers are older people, including the elderly like ourselves, who exert themselves physically for the pleasure and the challenge of temporarily basking in nature's inner preserves. It is an environmental treasure, a place where area wildlife can live out their lives, where migrating birds find haven, where urban dwellers seeking some relief from the strictures and stresses of their lives can find a place of renewal, inner peace and appreciation of nature.

Finally, yesterday, we ventured down to the trails that lead to the first of the two bridges that have been under reconstruction, and glory be! they're in the late stages of completion. Concrete poured over the huge wire nets full of rocks and rough gravel, over the areas excavated of clay and soil so given to deterioration through erosion, the steel laid over, the wood floor and sides have been installed on the two of the bridges, and although they're still officially off limits since the approaches are extremely rough, we were able to duck under the wooden restrains on the bridges, cross over and venture with relative ease toward our old trail jaunts where formerly we'd had to bushwhack and undertake much longer approaches to attain them.

And as it happens, as we were re-discovering ease of approach to our old trail circuits so too were others of our trail-walking community and yesterday we came across old familiar faces, all sporting the same grin of appreciation that we did. It was a day of beautiful weather, the sky fully blue, sun glancing through the naked branches of the overhead trees, and relatively mild at minus-one degree, the treacherous ice conditions now nicely covered by the 25-centimetres of snow that had fallen a few days earlier.

And now we can be assured that the bridges will all be completed and open for use within a week or two, after a long, frustrating wait during which time we were certain that work would be abandoned for the winter months, not to be resumed again until the following spring. It's most gratifying to be wrong on occasion, in instances such as these.