Mimico Creek Trail

The first signs of green on the trees after a long winter always sparks the youth in me.  Whether you had a childhood out of a Dickens novel or not, I imagine this is true for all of us in some way or another.  We have been through an unusually long winter in Southern Ontario this year which included one of the worst ice storms I ever remember.  It left us with tragically dying trees of old and robust trees with broken branch limbs and some uprooted and fallen.  Still it is wonderful to see everything coming to life again on the trails and in the forest.

The Mimico Creek Trail (bike/walking trail) starts from the north, about a block west of Martingrove off Eglinton Avenue W and travels southeast towards Lake Ontario.   The trail is about 12 km (7.5 miles) long so if you consider that the average person walks about 5/km an hour it takes about 2 and half hours to do the entire trail, possibly longer if you stop to take pictures along the way or for a drink and a snack.  

A little water feature along the trail

A sky tells no lies, time to run for cover

Holy Fungi

I should mention that the trail does break off a few times into residential neighbourhoods and at times you will find it tricky picking it up again as some parks are hidden behind schools.  Esthetically there are some really lovely parks and some hidden forested areas to cool off in when the weather heats up.  West Deane North and South are both brilliantly wide and spacious with few trees in the core which is why it is a popular meeting place for large gatherings for picnics.  Also great for kiting or recreational sports.   

Ravenscrest located further east is a little spot of parkland with a cooling forested area off the trail.  I still need work on capturing birds as I'm teased often about my 'wildlife pictures consisting of the elusive ducks and squirrs..." :)  When I do see a bird or a deer, I usually get panicky and fumble with my camera settings and miss the opportunity.  This is one of the reasons why I have always monopolized on landscape shot, because I can take my time.  

 

Hampshire Heights and Echo Valley Parks between Rathburn and Burnhamthorpe Road as you travel further southeast along Mimico creek will have you passing through some of the most beautiful and affluent neighbourhoods you'll ever see.   The water level was very low, surprisingly so much of the rock bed was exposed, leaving me much preferring the Humber River which is just east of Mimico Creek.

A few kilometres of Mimico Creek is shared with the Islington Golf Club so you'll have to omit the entire block between Kipling and Islington Avenue and pick up the trail again south on Islington to Dundas West.

As we were now off track, we called it a day as the skies looked like rain.  I couldn't get the idea of finishing what I started out of my head, so although the Mimico Creek Trail was inconsistent and confusing, I was still determined to follow the watershed down to the Lake.  So the next day I headed out by myself to pick up where we left off.

With a lunch packed and my trusty compass I was at a loss to find Thomas Riley Park.  Turns out I was passing it on Montgomery Road as it was actually hidden behind the Etobicoke College Institute.  Another break in the trail down to Bloor St W. You will need to do some walking north to Royal York Rd and south all the way down to Berry Road where you will pick up the creek again.  Once again Berry Road Park is hidden behind the Bishop Allen Academy where you will find a deep staircase in the back of the school that takes you along Mimico Creek once again all the way down through Jeff Healey Park (named after the beloved blind and talented Canadian Jazz-blues and Rock vocalist and guitarist who attained musical popularity in the 80's and 90's and who later became a popular radio personality in 2000.  He passed away in 2008.)

His park was a mixture of a children's playground as well as some pretty water features.  From there I walked under the Gardiner Expressway and ran out of trail so climbed up a narrow footpath to Park Lawn Avenue to the Lakeshore which brought me soon to my destination of Humber Bay Park West and East.  At this point it had already been a little late in the day so I didn't spend a lot of time here, but it looked familiar to me so I had been here before. 

While here you can see the Butterfly Habitat Centre and a pretty impressive view of the Toronto Skyline, but I would think it looks much nicer at night as the daylight really casts a smog fog on your camera lens.  The funniest thing I think that made me laugh today was when I saw a very large bird sitting on top of a wooden post near in the Butterfly Conservatory.  It did not move, and I had fumbled with my setting put on my zoom lens and took my shot.  The bird still did not move, until I realized when I looked at my photos that it was a decoy.  Great shot there anyways.

All in all the satisfaction was in finishing today, next time there are much easier ways to get down here to get to the lake and Mimico creek isn't one of them :)

Cathedral Bluffs Park

I think you'll agree that Cathedral Bluffs are the most beautiful part of Bluffers Park.  The overlook is dangerously stunning reaching heights of over 90 metres! 

'Cathedral' Bluffs obtained its name from the 'cathedral-like' spire formations created by erosion exposing evidence of five different glacial periods.

The Bluffs located in Scarborough Canada stretch over a span of 14km and were formed over thousands of years of glacial activity and erosion by the currents of Lake Ontario.


When you are standing up top here looking down, it is almost impossible to imagine the water level being this high at one time.   To give you an idea of high it is up here just look at the one picture here in this post where you can see a person down by the shoreline below.  Yes that little speck is a person!

You can gain access to the beaches below just off Kingston Road, via Brimley Road in Toronto Canada.  It's a straight down dramatic descent below which captivates the eyes in any season. 

Once down here, there's a private marina (now advertising water houses for sale currently in rows and docked for the season), a private marina, a Bluffers Restaurant and the park itself formed by landfill.  You really need to have a car to get down here, and in the busiest months, parking can be tough.  Of course you can walk down into the park, but its a good work out getting back up by bike or walking.

I wanted to mention that while down here I noticed a group of people around some trumpeter swans near the boat launch.  Since the swans had tags on them, I immediately formed the notion that they were involved in some race.  "The Great Canadian Swan Race"?   I am not sure what the tags were really meant for but I assumed MO01 was a swan representing Montreal and L64 could perhaps be a 'local' representing swan?




I've learned to research my ideas and laugh off a lot of them!  Seriously, the real reason for the tags are so that volunteers can track the swans' locations from a distance, especially during breeding and nesting season when the swans become too rowdy to get close enough to look at their ankle bands.  The wing tags last about 2 -4 years.

There are many birds at the park here.  It was too cold still for a walk today though, but anxiously awaiting sprung to spring (spring to sprung).

Birkdale Ravine

With winter taking a while to disappear, there isn't much in the way of colour in parks these days (which is one of the reasons I haven't been actively photographing the trails.)

However, I did happen to spot a colourful orange Bobcat off in the distance while walking through the Birkdale Ravine the other day.

Not just any colorful cat either: this one was busy at work cleaning up the damage caused from the recent Ice Storm in December 2013 that affected so many in Toronto over the holidays.  A local man walking his pup had mentioned that the damage to the park was catastrophic and sadly most of the larger trees were taken away already.


Birkdale is a 2 km walk which starts north of Lawrence off of Brimley and winds north west towards Ellesmere.

One of the paths of the park is marked by a tall, elegant light standard — self-sufficient, too, generating its own solar/wind power.  Now that's a great idea.  The same man who was taking his pup for a walk had mentioned that he has been out at 4 am and still saw the lights generating power.

There is plenty of wildlife in and around the creek.  This must be why it was chosen as the site of a village inhabited by Iroquoians around 1250 A.D.

Sometime in the early 1950's a group of University of Toronto students had excavated the area to discover varied clay tobacco pipes, tools and sharpened objects.  They also found pieces of pottery and long slender poles and bark used to build very large log cabins.   It appeared that each cabin had a centre line of fireplaces that were used for both their heating and cooking.  They lived off the land by fishing, hunting and growing basic agriculture of squash, pumpkin, corn and beans.  Later they found bones of mass graves on a hill side a little north of here called Tabor Hill.   (see this blog: Tabor Hill).

I thought I would share this falls view video of Birkdale Ravine bursting with colour, to brighten up the post with promise of better seasons ahead for those stuck in the grey blahs of winter.

Toronto City Hall

It was in the middle of the afternoon on a blustery Saturday, so not really expecting to find our illustrious Mayor Ford, but since it seems he does a lot of unexpected things, you never know.

Our walk began off Queen Street at University Avenue where we spotted the old historical Campbell House.  The owner of the house, Sir William Campbell was born in 1758 near Caithness Scotland.  He fought with the British forces during the American Revolution but was taken prisoner at Yorkton in 1781.  Three years later he was practicing law in Nova Scotia where in 1799 he was elected to the House of Assembly.  He later moved to Upper Canada in 1811 and accepted  a judgeship on the Court of King's Bench.  He did this until 1825 when he was made Chief Justice of the Province.  Four years later he received the first knight ever awarded a judge in Upper Canada.  He built this brick house you see in 1822.  It was originally on Adelaide where he lived but was moved in 1972 by the historical society to its present location on University.

Okay so on to the next interesting point of interest.  This very ominous shrine stands right in the centre median of traffic going north and south on University.  Impossible to miss, and it is in honour of the Canadians who died defending the Empire in the South African War between 1899-1902.


Moving now across the street you can see the opens gates of Osgoode Hall.  This is an absolutely stunning property of law and order.  It's a popular site for photographing at the 'Doors Open' in Toronto as they have a stunning library that was constructed in the famous Victorian Era.

Osgoode Hall began construction in 1829 and was named after William Osgoode, the Province's first Chief Justice.  In here are the Court of Appeals and other legal and judicial offices.   Years ago Osgoode Hall provided accommodations for young lawyers and students.  It was severely damaged during the six years in which provincial troops were stationed following the Rebellion of 1837.  Later in 1844-46 it was remodelled and new wings were constructed.

Today Osgoode Hall remains one of the first examples of Victorian Classical architecture in Canada.  I've added a few night shots I took as well which show a little more of the expanse of the building.  Walking through here is very nostalgic, at any time of day or night.

Once you leave the property at Osgoode, you can see the skaters off in the distance on the ice rink in the square, known as Nathan Philips Square which utilizes three quarters of the space dedicated to Nathan Phillips, who was credited with the vision to initiate the City Hall project in the first place.

Skating in the winter months has been an annual tradition of Torontonians as long as I can remember.   Along with skate rentals, hot chocolate and ice that is always perfect (I still fall down...)There are constantly festivities being held at the square including the festival of lights, and of course bringing in the New Year.  It is to Toronto what Times Square is to New Yorkers.

Now at last entering City Hall.  There are some interesting pieces of artwork both surrounding the 12 acres of land where City Hall lives.  Once you step inside the main saucer-like concourse you will immediately notice the low ceiling and wide expanse of the front foyer.  This section features the podium and the council chamber which appears to float above the podium.  It sits between 2 crescent shaped office towers.  It's hard to believe that City Hall is now almost 50 years old now, as it opened its doors on Sept 13 1965 and instantly became Toronto's identifiable landmark.  The building was way ahead of its time looking into modern architecture and was noted for its experiments with 20th century building technologies. 

Its unique design was chosen from an international competition held to determine the right choice and saw a multiple of design ideas from over 500 competitors in 42 difference countries.  In the end, it was an architect named Viljo Revell (1910-64) of Helsinki, Finland who won.

As of 1991, this was designated as a property of heritage significance under the Ontario Heritage Act, so even if an idea to rebuild does enter the minds of men, this place isn't going anywhere.

Just wanted to also mention Old City Hall, located at Queen at Bay Street.  It is still fully functional and used as a court house now.  It still has squeaky and noisy floors and hallways that echo which its massive ceilings as you can hear every footstep from your clackity high heels.  Edward James Lennox was chosen as the architect.  It took him three years to design it and over ten years to build it.  It served as both a City Hall and a Courthouse at one time and the cost to build was more than two million dollars.  It was completed by the late 1800's and at that time was the largest building in the city. 

Now that the quest to find Rob Ford was over, we found plenty of Rob Ford paraphernalia, his office, and lots of photographs of him, but no Rob Ford.  Not too surprising, but I think he can't be that bad of a guy: after all his office houses a fish tank in the corner and I've been told he makes a point to feed them everyday.