While reading Becky Doig's “From this corner” in the Feb. 3 issue of the News-Optimist, I was in sudden and complete empathy with the situation she was describing of falling on the icy Battleford Trans Canada Trail on Riverbend Crescent. A few days ago, I had also fallen just a few feet from where she fell.
I often take our two dogs for a stroll on the trail at that location, and hadn't yet realized how difficult walking on solid ice on a steep incline could be. Of course, even walking on solid ice on the level, can be tricky, but on a steep incline, falling is almost a certainty. I had been lulled into a false sense of security by the fact that, prior the return of our cold weather, the ice had melted on the first few feet of the trail.
Fortunately, my wife was a few feet behind me, and was able to help me get up, so I didn't have to resort to any desperate measures, such as taking off my shoes, ala Becky Doig, to attain an upright position. Our dog-walking stroll came to an immediate end at that point, as we headed back to our car, thankful no bones had been broken.
Reading about her fall on the ice, gave me a greatly increased sense of Doig's fortitude, as she not only was able to recover her balance, thanks to those poles nearby and her socks, but was also able to complete her mission to photograph those ailing chokecherry bushes for the paper.
Russell Lahti
Battleford
