Outdoor Report: Trail runners dash over quiet Lethbridge grassland coulees

For this week's Outdoor Report, we take a look south to the coulees around Lethbridge where a burgeoning community of trail runners is enjoying the landscape.

The hilly, hot and quiet area can be surprise to newcomers used to mountain hikes.

Tucked next to a city of 100,000 in southern Alberta, you can start your trek in the city limits — and once you get into the coulees, you don't see a soul.

The hardcore trail running community has known about this area for years because of the famed Lost Soul Ultra Marathon, where runners pound their way through a 50-kilometre, 100-kilometre or 160-kilometre race course. It happens every September down in the coulees.

There's also the shorter but still challenging Coulee Cactus Crawl held in June. Lethbridge offers an online map that shows all the trail options.

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'In the great wild'

Lethbridge local Larry Kundrik has finished the 100 mile Lost Soul an amazing 12 times. He ran three 100 milers last summer alone, so he has logged thousands of kilometres in the coulees over the years.

He invited the Calgary Eyeopener to check them out.

"It's got a beautiful view of the Oldman River and there's coulees all around and in the distance, you can see a few farmhouses," Kundrik said between some pretty stiff climbs.

"Here we are... just off the edges of the City of Lethbridge and in the great wild. I love it here."

Asparagus, sage and cactus

​It's a totally different landscape if you're used to hiking or trail running in the mountains, and much drier with a smell of sage brush in the air.

Wild asparagus grows in the river valley and cottonwoods thickly line the river banks, offering some welcome shade to the normally hot and exposed coulees.

Keep your eyes peels for picnic shelters to rest from the sun — and also the cacti waiting to poke you just off the trials. 

Some stops explain a bit of southern Alberta history too, like Indian Battle Park right outside of downtown Lethbridge. It commemorates the last big battle between the Blackfoot and Cree people living in the area in 1870.

The coulees would've been brimming with wild buffalo back in those days.

'Beautiful, natural terrain'

There's also Pavan Park, the old Pavan family farm right along the banks of the Oldman River. Back then, there were coal mines tucked into the coulees so big, flat river barges could haul the fuel away.

Kundrik grew up on a farm just on the other side of the river, back before the site became park land. Even today, the trials over the natural grassland remained quiet and uncrowded by runners and hikers.

"It's really a way to experience the Lethbridge Prairies with some hills," Kundrik said. "It's a good way to spend an afternoon, just wondering around and seeing some beautiful, natural terrain."

Paul Karchut publishes the Outdoor Report throughout the summer. You can send in suggestions for new hiking adventures by emailing outside@cbc.ca or by tweeting him @CBCOutside.

With files from the Calgary Eyeopener

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