In Hamilton, our upper and lower city is separated by an escarpment and at various points along its edges, there are multiple sets of stairs traversing 90 metres of rock, trees, trails, winding roadways, and wildlife.
When I was younger, whenever I would get into the training spirit, I would run up and down the Wentworth steps. There are three major stairways, and Wentworth sits in the middle closer to where I lived.
In my late twenties, the company I work for used to rent a limo bus full of colleagues willing to brave the CN Tower stairs in support of cancer research. Before the event each year, I would jog the Wentworth stairs to train. The CN Tower has 1,776 steps and although you could walk, the competitive me wanted to break my own records each year. By my third and last year, I was able to climb to the top in about 17-and-a-half minutes.
Today, I ventured to the Kenilworth stairs which are a little closer to where I live now, and there is more parking for stair adventurers. It’s been many years since I have attempted any of these stairways in Hamilton. The last time might have been when I lived in the city’s west end and I used to train on the Dundurn stairs. That was over 17 years ago.
There was a lot of huffing and puffing and a couple of stops along the way, but I made it to the top and back down and am here to tell the story so that’s a good step. No pun intended.
This stairway is a bit different than the rest, with about a half-kilometre path between the bottom and top half of the staircase, but it’s a welcome breather for this half century body.
