Legendary Ed

If you’re a member of the Calgary Outdoor Club (COC), and even if you’re not, you’ve likely heard of Legendary Ed, COC’s 6’4"-tall, 87-year-old lean mean hiking machine.

Ed can hike circles around many of us half his age (and often does), and his mind is just as fit as his body. When he’s not out on the trail (which is several times a week, year-round), he maintains his daughter’s Gastroparesis and Dysmotilities Association web site (www.digestivedistress.com) and is a Director and Webmaster for the Calgary Outdoor Club.

I first met Ed when he was a mere pup of 84. He showed up for a hike carpool and proceeded to tease me mercilessly because the COC web site didn’t allow him to select his proper age – he’d had to list himself as 64 when he registered. I’ve fixed the web site, but the teasing hasn’t stopped, although Ed has broadened his repertoir of teasing topics.

Most of the first summer I knew Ed, I rarely saw him as he was usually registered for the moderate-paced hikes while I was relegated to my slowpoke hikes. I started to get to know him that winter, though, when he started snow shoeing with me. He came on one of the more challenging trips that I do – an unofficial route up the back side of Blueberry Hill in Kananaskis Country. On the way down, the slope was very steep and treacherous to try to descend with the snow shoes, so many of us were bumogganing down the hill. Ed was behind me. After one particularly speedy bumoggan section which required grabbing a tree half-way down to deflect/fling yourself through a 90-degree turn, Ed missed the turn, although he didn’t miss the tree. I looked back to see him, upside down and butt-backwards with one leg wrapped around the tree. My first thought was "oh, great… I’ve broken 84-year-old Ed" (this was before he’d earned his "Legendary" nickname).

Ed, of course, was ok, and those of us who hike regularly with him have come to realize that it’s just not a full day of hiking with Ed if he doesn’t have some kind of fall or accumulate some kind of boo-boo along the way. Maybe that’s got something to do with why I like him so much… he can make me look positively graceful in comparison. Over the past few years I have enjoyed many hiking adventures with Ed, including the West Coast Trail in 2007, and 140km of the East Coast Trail in Newfoundland in 2008. He is notorious for trying to choose a birthday hike that pushes his limits, but I always have to rein him in as his limits lie far beyond my own, and I wouldn’t want to miss out on the birthday cake (oy, the candles).

Legendary Ed is but one of the fantastically colorful characters you may meet out on a COC event, and contrary to popular assumption, he has not been a lifelong hiker (he took it up at around age 80). If you want a glimpse of what your future may hold (if you’re lucky), come on out for a hike with Ed, if you can get one of the coveted spots on the event. We slowpokes are grateful that he’s willing to slow himself down to hang out with us. We’re not sure why he does, but we’re not asking and Ed’s not telling. Maybe he enjoys the fantastically colorful characters he meets.