Highland Creek Trail (and Colonel Danforth Park)

  The Highland Creek Trail is a paved trail that starts from Old Kingston Road and Highland Creek and ends at the shores of Lake Ontario then along the bluffs and into East Point Park.  

The trail follows through Colonel Danforth Park along Highland Creek where there is some of the most gorgeous scenery in the city.

Another hidden gem, I've never seen before and has become one of my favorite parks in the east end.  You will be amazed by the tall, aged-old cedar trees, oaks, maples and willows everywhere.  

You are never far from the Highland creek as it basically follows the trail on the right.  

The Highland creek river bed has a rocky bottom and water channel on the far side which provides a watershed for most of the central part of the city.


I would imagine Colonel Danforth park is stunning in the fall.  Incidentally, "Colonel" Danforth was named after Asa Danforth, who was an American and was commissioned by the Government of Upper Canada over 200 years ago to build a road from King Street east to the Trent river.  Asa was never a "Colonel" but he was a hard driving task master as noted by his workmen, so it is speculated, this title was given to him because of his military style of commands on his men. 


The park has the standard picnic tables with barbecues and washrooms opened in the summer.  Plenty of people come here to try their luck on casting out a line or two catching fish in the Highland creek.  Several species are native including trout, carp and bass.  Its a meandering river which like most rivers in Toronto, travel through a glacial ravine formed after the last Ice Age. 

As you leave the Colonel Danforth Park behind, you'll notice some wild fields before and some overhead 'silver-lining' pipe structures which form the mechanics of the watershed.  Finally up ahead a bridge which will take you directly south to the beaches of Lake Ontario.  

The waters shoreline is a mixture of sand and pebbles making it relatively comfortable on your toes as you wade in the waters, which I certainly did with the humidity at almost 100%.   You'll notice lots of driftwood along the shores as well.

At this point you can go east to the Port Union Trail or west through East Point Park.  That was an awesome experience, and as well a missing link from my trail list in the east.  


Nature is found all around us in any city and if you can be enjoyed by everyone so if there's no money in the bank or gas in the car, you don't need to travel far to see the same thing you'll enjoy in your own back yard if you look deep enough.

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.