During my first walk on the newly completed trail at John Phillips Memorial Park, I kept exclaiming, "Wow, amazing for those wet days. Incredible. I can't believe it."
My companion was speechless, but his body language expressed his joy too. My 20-pound Shih Tzu was busy exploring all the new scents as the foot traffic at the park had increased substantially with all the new footed scents.
I am hoping I can now retire my gumboots for the park excursions in the winter.
I had flashbacks to all the energy put into the effort by some community residents into ensuring we did not lose this easily accessible huge green space with views to the mountains to humps of gravel and dust a few years ago.
The bike park is where it makes the most sense now, at SEAPARC.
My two remaining hopes are that we see a sign naming the park and explaining why it is a memorial park so we can stop saying the "old golf course" or "where the mulligans restaurant used to be."
And with increased people, another garbage bin at the Townsend Road entrance at the park needs to be installed. The short trail behind the residential area between Townsend and Church roads has two bins, but the park has one at the parking lot steps. Fingers crossed this is on the parks committee checklist.
Thanking those involved in preserving this park as it is a precious commodity. As the saying goes, you don't know what you had until it's gone.
Carmen Neumann, Sooke