Skate on: Full 7.5-km Red River skating trail is officially open for the season

People have already been using it for weeksbut on Tuesday, Winnipeg's Red River Mutual skating trail at The Forksofficially welcomed skaters for the season.

The trail has been growing and open to skaters since Dec. 22, but its official opening wasmarked Tuesday when Mayor Brian Bowman,on one of the ice resurfacers used to groom the track,drove through a thick red ribbon.

"When you're skating on the river, you hear so many languages spoken, you meet people from all over the world that are here visiting and a lot of Winnipeggers just rediscovering the beauty of Winnipeg," Bowman said. "And of course, our rivers are one of our greatest natural assets."

The trailstretches7.5 kilometres from The Forks to Churchill Drive on the Red River, and all the way to Arlington Street on the Assiniboine River.

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"The exciting thing about this year and today is we're really back on theAssiniboine. We haven't been able to get this far on theAssiniboinesince 2009," said Chelsea Thomson, manager of marketing and communications for The Forks.

In that year, the trail was just over 9.3 kilometres long and went all the way to Assiniboine Park, Thomson said. Thetrail set the Guinness World Record forlongest naturally frozen skating trail the year before, at 8.54 kilometres.

Thomson said in recent years the trail has averaged around six kilometres in length, and has been as short as three kilometres.

"The best part about going seven kilometres means we're stretching to new [communities] or communities we haven't reached in several years," she said. "The great part is you can access it from your neighbourhoodcome down from your access point."

The trail has already reached last year's total number of days open at 33, Thomson said, and is set to welcome the annual warming hut competition on Friday.

It could still grow, but Thomson said that depends on the weather.

"We'll just have to wait and see. This could be as long as we go this year or maybe we'll go a little bit farther," she said. "Only time will tell."