Step by step: Couple walking through every Calgary neighbourhood

Couple discovering Calgary one step at a time A Calgary couple is working toward their goal of walking through every community in the city. Gina Martin explains.

To say Steve and Andrea Mauws have the travel bug would be an understatement. The couple moved to Calgary from Winnipeg in October 2021 and in just a few years they have already explored more of the city than some residents do in a lifetime.

“I love Calgary,” said Andrea Mauws. “It is a beautiful city. There are a ton of gorgeous parks and walkways.”

If you visit the Mauws' home, it likely wouldn’t take long for you to come across a map – or two, or five – with hundreds of roads outlined in highlighter.

“We retired in 2018 and decided we were going to do some walks,” explained Steve Mauws.

“We have an app on our phone that records where we’ve been and you can also use it to plan walks. So I started planning walks and next thing you know we’re planning all over the city and eventually we covered about 90 per cent of Winnipeg before we moved to Calgary.”

The Mauwses have already covered a lot of ground since they decided to complete a similar journey in Calgary.

As of Nov. 3, 2021, the couple has walked 118 of the city’s 205 residential neighbourhoods, which amounts to 2,294.88 kilometres.

The walks span about two to four kilometres depending on the season and there is no set timeline as to when the couple wants to hit their goal.

The focus, instead, is on being in the moment and documenting anything that catches their eye during their travels.

“I remember one particular yard in Bowness just filled with nick-knacks and interesting things,” said Andrea.

“So we started taking pictures and the man who lives there came out and started talking with us and next thing you know we are invited inside his house to see everything he’s got in there.”

These former Winnipeggers also got a glimpse of their old home during one of their walks, when Jets forward Mark Schiefele just happened to cross paths with them.

With Calgary’s many eye-catching sights, the couple has now started to document their journey on social media.

“I hadn’t realized we walk by a lot of cool, neat things and we should be taking pictures of them,” said Steve.

The Mauwses have 87 more neighbourhoods to check off before they plan their next adventure, which may involve exploring the city’s trails and parts of northern Alberta.

If you’d like to follow along, check out their X account: @WalkingCalgary.