Jul 25, 2011

Lower Don Trail

Taylor Creek/Charles Sauriol branch
Enter Lower Don Trail
Taylor Creek begins branching off at the Charles Sauroil Conservation Reserve Parking lot (Don Mills southbound/DVP). If you pass over the white bridge you can head to north Toronto through the E.T. Seton Park, and Wilket Creek and end up at Edwards Gardens.  The aternative is to head south and accompany the Don River to the Lakeshore. 

Cement pants!
The first thing you may notice on the trail, is what a lot of Torontonians consider to be a bit of an eyesore.  It is an elevated man-made concrete wetlands sculpture known as “The Teeth”, but they look more like a pair of cement pants ! 

Pottery Road Crossing
Pottery Rd crossing

Trail sights
Leaside Bridge
As you continue on the trail you will have to cross Pottery Road.  I have no idea what they are working on right now, but it is a mess with construction, CATs, gravel and broken lanes.  They have a portion of the path fenced off for trucks and I am really hoping they don't plan on allowing vehicles down into the Valley but I guess I haven't been asking the right questions to the right people.  Once you pass Pottery road, you will continue southbound under the Leaside Bridge (Toronto's alternative "suicide bridge" to the Prince Edward Viaduct (or the 'Bloor Viaduct").  They erected a "luminous veil" which costs millions of dollars to prevent people from jumping 
Lower Don Valleywoods
to their deaths.  The only thing it did do was to cause more people to commit suicide in alternative ways or places.  (I will be covering the "suicide bridge" in greater depth in another post on my blog.)

Prince Edward Viaduct (aka "Bloor" Viaduct)
Further southbound you will see the Prince Edward Viaduct bridge.  I wanted to show you the inner structures of this brilliantly built bridge.  A lot of men lost their lives in the construction of the bridge before it was fully erected. It's really an amazing structure!

You will soon pass under Queen Street (there is a pedestrian bridge above if you want to get off the trail and carry your bike up the stairs to check out the "The Beaches" . The now defunct Eastern Avenue bridge (circa1933).

The defunct Eastern Avenue Bridge (1933)
The old Unilever brothers soap factory has been shut down due to bankruptcy since 2009.  It was a 120 year old factory and ended with a 12 million dollar debt.  Future plans still unknown.  The shut down hasn't seemed to have affected the wildlife around.

Unilever Factory and Lakeshore bridge (east/west trails)
Just up and over the hill and you are at the intersection of Lakeshore Blvd and Cherry St.  From here you can go eastbound on Lakeshore towards the Martin Goodman Trail (see "Martin Goodman Trail" on this blog) or Tommy Thompson Park ("the Leslie Spit").  Alternatively if turn right you follow the trail westbound towards Queens Quay and the Harbourfront (Waterfront trail). 


3 comments:

  1. Anonymous7:03 PM

    Great post! I went through Ontairo place on the weekend to check outthe Jazz festival on Queen. Did you cover that too? :)
    Jason Moran , Scarb ON

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  2. Anonymous7:25 PM

    John says that you were supposed to be doing the Jazz Festival on the weekend? !! OMG! too much there..I couldn't believe the crowds!! and so hott! never do it again..the music acutally wasnt that great, so you didn't miss much1!!
    Ken and Carol (B's)

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  3. Anonymous11:11 AM

    Luv it! Its an amazing trail! Got a 30$ bet with my bud to do trail form top of TO to Westend in under 2 hours..hes in top form..
    Gil Rathburn, GTO

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