Forks of the Don

Saturday May 20 2017 - Victoria Day Weekend. A gloriously beautiful Spring day, perfect for a hike. I have been meaning to do the Forks of the Don Hike for a while now and today was the day. The "Discover the Don" website is a great resource and has detailed hikes for walking the Don -http://www.discoverthedon.ca/walkthedon
I chose the Forks of the Don guided hike https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_OaGG2NQsIrTUFpT0lRWDM2NUE/edit
and pretty much stuck to it.
The starting point is the east end of the parking lot at the north end of the ET Seton Park. From here I took the path to the right which immediately crosses a concrete bridge

The concrete bridge over the West Don at the start of the trail

The bridge crosses the West Don River as it flows downstream from your right to the left. The water was clear and there was a good flow.

The West Don - view from the left side of the bridge.

As you keep walking the railway line crosses high above you

When you cross a second bridge you see where the Don has been diverted to prevent erosion and a little further along you cross a wooden floor bridge with the diverted West Don flowing beneath it.

The diverted West Don River

The trail so far has been on paved road, but now it becomes a real compacted mud one which closely follows the river for some distance.

I came across this tyre jammed in between the trees. Someone probably had a very good reason for doing it; maybe a make shift life saving device.

I found the Phragmites mentioned in the guide on the far bank. Phragmites are a species of perennial grass and are one of the invasive species causing much damage to native vegetation here in Ontario. Check out this great link to find out more about them http://www.invadingspecies.com/invaders/plants-terrestrial/invasive-phragmites/

Those pesky Phragmites

As the guide mentions, I soon came to a fork in the trail and sure enough there was the life-saving post on the right with the orange ring and a long hook to fish out anyone who gets trapped in the river (a bit more reassuring than the earlier tyre!!!)

Life saving post

I kept walking but did not find the giant burdock plant or the archery range mentioned in the guide. This part of the ET Seton Park seemed to be part of a golf course. I crossed the trail under Overlea Blvd and went past the two parking lots. This stretch of the trail is the paved road that cuts through the middle of the parking lots. There were lots of families picknicking and children running around. I finally came to the path on the left which took me away from the West Don. This is the last we see of the West Don. The path parallels the railway line and then goes under the Don Mills Road and continues as a ramp which goes up. Cyclists were rushing past in both directions.

Looking back at the ramp. See the railway line on the left of the picture

The Don Valley Parkway from the top of the ramp

Once you cross the ramp you are on the other side of the railway track. I am impatient to see the river again. Soon you come to a parking lot and at the south end is a plaque to Charles Sauriol

The elongated shape of the conservation area.

Once you pass the plaque, you come to a rounded concrete bridge and you get your first glimpse of the East Don which flows under it.

Bridge over the East Don

The East Don - view from the bridge

As soon as you cross the bridge you see some weird looking structures straight ahead. These are the elevated wetlands.

The board explains what they are. Basically solar pumps lift water from the Don into these structures where it is purified using waste plastic and the water is returned to the Don. Within these structures native plants are grown to create a wetland.

You then cross a ramp upwards and cross under Don Mills Road and on the far bank was what looked like pieces of a canoe embedded in the wall.

And now we come to the Forks - this is where the East Don and the West Don meet and form the Lower Don. 

Fishing at the Forks (he did not see me)

The West Don at the top right meets the East Don at the bottom right and the Lower Don is born.

I continued along the trail which moves away from the river a bit. I could hear the roar of the DVP on my left. It felt surreal to see this in front of me while cars roared past the DVP which was just a stone's throw away.

I had walked a little more than 4 kms and the picnic bench by the side of the road was a welcome sight.

A brief rest and a banana and some water later I was all set to continue. I could see the DVP from the bench.

One of the gazillion cars that roar across the DVP

Almost as distressing as the DVP was the sight of a virtual field of garlic mustard stretching from the side of the path. Garlic mustard or Alliaria petiolata is another dreaded invasive species which threatens native vegetation including Ontario's provincial flower the Trillium.

I left the paved path and took the trail along the river.

Soon I crossed Milwood Bridge with some colorful art work at its base.

There were a lot of cyclists and the odd walker on the paved paths. But I was mostly on my own whenever I stepped off on to the earth pathway. All of a sudden I came across a sea of grass which rippled in the wind.

A sea of grass.

I kept hopping off the paved path on to the trail as it went along the river. I found some mushrooms along the way

I finally came to a turn off - to the left it said Beechwood and to the right Pottery Lane and Riverdale Park. I was a bit lost by now as my usually trusty iPhone said that Pottery road was 4.4 km away. I had already walked 6 km by now and could not bring myself to walk that far. Luckily I ran into a very nice woman who was on her walk who reassured me that Pottery road was only 15 minutes away. And so I kept walking and lo and behold I came up to it and the end of my afternoon hiking.

In all I had walked 7.4 Kms over 2 and a half hours. And the Don kept me company most of that way.

The Lower Don - Queen Street to Lakeshore Blvd

May 6 2017

As part of the Jane's Walk Weekend I went for the " Discover the lower Don River Valley" walk. We started off at the North East corner of Queen and Broadview and crossed the Don at the Queen St Viaduct. Just before the Viaduct is a plaque which states that the Scadding House used to be near this site.

View from the Queen St Viaduct - South Side

The Queen St Viaduct

The Queen St Viaduct is a steel Pratt Truss bridge which was built in 1911. The art installation at the top was laid down by Eldon Garnet in 1996.

A series of steps leads down from the south end of Queen St to the Lower Don Trails. The trail is a narrow paved road that runs along the river. The Don is far from mighty. It is channeled and tamed and flows like a well behaved child quietly on the left side of the trail. Any sound it could make is drowned by the traffic on the DVP which runs right alongside. To me this whole section of the Don was disheartening. The one bright spot was a pair of swans that were nonchalantly swimming in the river.

Looking back north from here I could see the Bloor viaduct in the distance.

We soon came to a disused bridge which had a wire fence blocking the entrance. But we were able to get through a hole in the fence. This was the Old Eastern Avenue Bridge. There are actually two bridges. To the north is the concrete arch bridge which is used by Enbridge to carry a gas main and to the south is the Howe Truss bridge, which is a Truss bridge like the Queen St Bridge. It was closed off in 1964 after the DVP was built. It was not demolished because that would have been too expensive.

The Howe Truss bridge with the concrete arch bridge on the left

The trail leads up to a fork in the road. To the right is the Corktown Common. This is supposed to be the highlight of the West Donlands development project. I am not a huge fan of built up parks but considering that this area was an abandoned industrial area, I guess it is an improvement.

The Pavilion at Corktown Common

The Splash Pool which was empty

If you continue along the trail, bypassing the Common, you have the Don on your left again.

There is a lot of street art here. There is a small bridge which crosses the river and at this point I stopped my walk as there was a railway crossing between me and the river. By now all the noise of the DVP and all the built up areas with the Don struggling through it all had got to me. It was time to go back home and explore a less urbanized area of the Don on another day.