Cruickshank Park

 Cruickshank Park (located west of Weston Road, North of Lawrence Ave West in Toronto) has some really breathtaking weeping willows (my fave tree ever). They pave the path as well as line the creek banks where the Humber flows. Heading north on the trail you'll end up right about well...where the trail ends (and I'm thinking oh yah this is when it starts getting interesting?)

Enter the new Phase of the Mid Humber Trail Project.  This will be a 600 metre extension which will link up the north end of the Humber Trail (currently at Cruickshank Park) to the Mallaby Park Steps.  If you're on a bike, this would seem the best place to stop right at the foot of a 300 step incline.  (Geez I really hate ascending stairs)

Since the construction workers will simply apply the 3.5 metre wide pavement over the existing dirt path, you are looking at a 4-6 week endeavoured project.  
 

Once you come to the top of the stairs you are just smack dab in the centre of a construction zone, and it just baffles me that I can go from the depth of a quiet, green forest to a noisy sea of cement and sirens in a matter of minutes.  For a moment there I want to turn right back around.  The Phase 2 plan of the extension of the trail will most likely take it from Mallaby Park to Fairglen where the trail continues.  This will be nice once finished as it'll alleviate the outside world and keep you down in the Humber Valley a little longer.
 
I couldn't believe the white fluff that covered most of the trail north of Fairglen Avenue.  It was everywhere, and felt bad for allergic sufferers during this type of cottonwood looking like a snowstorm in June.  You can expect this kind of pollen to be falling off of trees into the air in early spring and summer.  What I was surprised to find out is by the time you see this white fluffy residue, it is left over from the seed production process, and this doesn't contain any pollen BUT...it does contain some high levels of fungal spore for those people sensitive to that.  
 
Myself I thought Cruickshank was nice and large, but really nothing that really stood out other than maybe the 'bell' (circa 1967) erected by the Weston Horticultural society, and of course...the weeping willow trees.