EVCco
Senior Member
My pleasure, cc46!
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Urban Wilderness!
- Thread starter EVCco
- Start date
EVCco
Senior Member
Here & There - missing pieces
Despite cc46's earlier comment, there wasn't actually a lot of hard work on my part this time around. I pretty much took it easy this week, though I do have an excuse. On my last trip, you see, I managed to poke a hole in one of my boots while climbing a fence, thus completely compromising its waterproof nature (and the last thing you need while wandering around in sub-zero weather is a soaking wet foot). So I set off this week to pick up a tube of plastic adhesive with which to mend my boot - and, along the way, I also was able to shoot a tiny portion of the Curity Ravine, between O'Connor Drive and Glenwood Crescent, that I missed before:
Well, that's it I'm afraid. But, while we're on the topic of hopping fences and heading through people's backyards (as with last week), I might as well post a few more pics that I never got around to posting before, from another quick trip a few months back. This time it's what appears to be a continuation of the Glen Stewart Ravine, running between Benlamond Ave and Glen Davis Cresent. I started heading up this way during my original Glen Stewart trek, finding a little path leading from a laneway off Kingston Road:
However, I quickly found myself walking right into someone's back patio, with no way on except through their livingroom. So I headed back to try again a few weeks later, this time mounting my assault from an apartment complex on Benlamond (I may have been "beating around the bush" that day, but they certainly weren't in naming this place!):
I begin to sense that this area is not so much a ravine, but simply one side of a steep slope:
I keep to the top of the incline, hanging on to a series of back fences, before making my exit through Norwood Park:
...I should have something more substantial to post next time, I promise!
Despite cc46's earlier comment, there wasn't actually a lot of hard work on my part this time around. I pretty much took it easy this week, though I do have an excuse. On my last trip, you see, I managed to poke a hole in one of my boots while climbing a fence, thus completely compromising its waterproof nature (and the last thing you need while wandering around in sub-zero weather is a soaking wet foot). So I set off this week to pick up a tube of plastic adhesive with which to mend my boot - and, along the way, I also was able to shoot a tiny portion of the Curity Ravine, between O'Connor Drive and Glenwood Crescent, that I missed before:
Well, that's it I'm afraid. But, while we're on the topic of hopping fences and heading through people's backyards (as with last week), I might as well post a few more pics that I never got around to posting before, from another quick trip a few months back. This time it's what appears to be a continuation of the Glen Stewart Ravine, running between Benlamond Ave and Glen Davis Cresent. I started heading up this way during my original Glen Stewart trek, finding a little path leading from a laneway off Kingston Road:
However, I quickly found myself walking right into someone's back patio, with no way on except through their livingroom. So I headed back to try again a few weeks later, this time mounting my assault from an apartment complex on Benlamond (I may have been "beating around the bush" that day, but they certainly weren't in naming this place!):
I begin to sense that this area is not so much a ravine, but simply one side of a steep slope:
I keep to the top of the incline, hanging on to a series of back fences, before making my exit through Norwood Park:
...I should have something more substantial to post next time, I promise!
EVCco
Senior Member
Berry Creek - substance
To compensate for last week's truncated trip, I thought I should put in another double-header. I would hesitate to call this week's trip a true double-header, though. Firstly, because the first creek on the itinerary is even shorter than the one posted above; and secondly, because it's not even really there to begin with. It shows up on my street map, heading into the Humber from the north end of Pine Point Park. However, on the ground, it's all under-the-ground:
So much for that, then. Thankfully, just to the north of that alleged creek, the primary focus of this week's trip is very much still in evidence. So I head back west from the Humber, through The Elms Park, along the above-ground Berry Creek:
Some interesting goings-on, on going under Norfield Crescent:
More of The Elms, to Islington:
Out into the hydro corridor, then in under Redwater Drive:
Redwater to Drumheller:
Around behind Rexdale Park, then through Berry Creek Drive, to Kipling Ave:
My camera finds more of interest under Kipling than the whole of Pine Point Creek:
The Berry now runs its last length along a honeycombed creek bed, south of Jeffcoat Drive, to end at Martin Grove Road:
To compensate for last week's truncated trip, I thought I should put in another double-header. I would hesitate to call this week's trip a true double-header, though. Firstly, because the first creek on the itinerary is even shorter than the one posted above; and secondly, because it's not even really there to begin with. It shows up on my street map, heading into the Humber from the north end of Pine Point Park. However, on the ground, it's all under-the-ground:
So much for that, then. Thankfully, just to the north of that alleged creek, the primary focus of this week's trip is very much still in evidence. So I head back west from the Humber, through The Elms Park, along the above-ground Berry Creek:
Some interesting goings-on, on going under Norfield Crescent:
More of The Elms, to Islington:
Out into the hydro corridor, then in under Redwater Drive:
Redwater to Drumheller:
Around behind Rexdale Park, then through Berry Creek Drive, to Kipling Ave:
My camera finds more of interest under Kipling than the whole of Pine Point Creek:
The Berry now runs its last length along a honeycombed creek bed, south of Jeffcoat Drive, to end at Martin Grove Road:
EVCco
Senior Member
Dufferin Creek / G Ross Lord II - rush job
A bit of a rarity for me this week as I had to meet someone at noon, placing a bit of a time limit on my trip. No problem, though. This trip was not expected to take very long. A measly little creek, a bit of the western shore of the GRL Reservoir, then another little creek and I'm done. 2 hours - tops! Plenty of time. Never mind that it was an hour away by subway/bus...and that I was half an hour late in leaving. I left myself some wiggle room. Even enough to account for finding out the bus I needed to take didn't run on Saturdays, once I got up there. Still, there should be enough time - though I was beginning to cut things a little close. Something of an irony, then, that I start my hike by the grounds of the old Dufferin Street Incinerator, as now I really didn't have much time to burn:
I make good time through the first leg of my trip, but under Dufferin Street I hit a snag. I walk all the way through the culvert only to find a steep drop into deep waters at the end. So I'm forced to head back and cross over on the surface. At least this gives me time to re-admire some of the vintage graffiti under Dufferin - the oldest dated that I can recall seeing (1985). And it certainly speaks of that era - though, I must admit, I'm not familiar with one of the 4 acts mentioned:
Out into Garthdale Park, where I discover why the water got so deep. Instead of flowing under Finch Ave into the GRL Reservoir, as my map suggested, the creek dams-up at Finch, forming its own reservoir - forcing me to skirt around this massive frozen marsh, adding even more time to my trip!:
Back at the big pond now, in G. Ross Lord Park - as seen from the other side of my last trip here, along the West Don and Fisherville Creek:
With time running out, I hurry up the last little creek that heads into the northern tip of the reservoir:
[Killjoys! That sounds like a party to me...]
One last turn and I spot what looks to be the terminal outfall - and with not a moment to spare!:
But what's this? The creek keeps going!:
Well, it only went on a little further, and I'm only off schedule by a little bit...but, wait - it can't be! This is like some sort of bad dream!:
The creek finally ends by the grounds of Environment Canada - a heavily fortified compound allowing no direct access back to civilization - forcing me to track back another good ten minutes to where, at last, I reach Dufferin Street - just in time...to watch my bus go flying by.
All-in-all, I end up 35 minutes late for my meeting...
...the person I was to meet up,
he was 45 minutes late.
Hurry-up and wait.
A bit of a rarity for me this week as I had to meet someone at noon, placing a bit of a time limit on my trip. No problem, though. This trip was not expected to take very long. A measly little creek, a bit of the western shore of the GRL Reservoir, then another little creek and I'm done. 2 hours - tops! Plenty of time. Never mind that it was an hour away by subway/bus...and that I was half an hour late in leaving. I left myself some wiggle room. Even enough to account for finding out the bus I needed to take didn't run on Saturdays, once I got up there. Still, there should be enough time - though I was beginning to cut things a little close. Something of an irony, then, that I start my hike by the grounds of the old Dufferin Street Incinerator, as now I really didn't have much time to burn:
I make good time through the first leg of my trip, but under Dufferin Street I hit a snag. I walk all the way through the culvert only to find a steep drop into deep waters at the end. So I'm forced to head back and cross over on the surface. At least this gives me time to re-admire some of the vintage graffiti under Dufferin - the oldest dated that I can recall seeing (1985). And it certainly speaks of that era - though, I must admit, I'm not familiar with one of the 4 acts mentioned:
Out into Garthdale Park, where I discover why the water got so deep. Instead of flowing under Finch Ave into the GRL Reservoir, as my map suggested, the creek dams-up at Finch, forming its own reservoir - forcing me to skirt around this massive frozen marsh, adding even more time to my trip!:
Back at the big pond now, in G. Ross Lord Park - as seen from the other side of my last trip here, along the West Don and Fisherville Creek:
With time running out, I hurry up the last little creek that heads into the northern tip of the reservoir:
[Killjoys! That sounds like a party to me...]
One last turn and I spot what looks to be the terminal outfall - and with not a moment to spare!:
But what's this? The creek keeps going!:
Well, it only went on a little further, and I'm only off schedule by a little bit...but, wait - it can't be! This is like some sort of bad dream!:
The creek finally ends by the grounds of Environment Canada - a heavily fortified compound allowing no direct access back to civilization - forcing me to track back another good ten minutes to where, at last, I reach Dufferin Street - just in time...to watch my bus go flying by.
All-in-all, I end up 35 minutes late for my meeting...
...the person I was to meet up,
he was 45 minutes late.
Hurry-up and wait.
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EVCco
Senior Member
Looks like I wasn't the only one being held up this weekend:
http://www.thestar.com/yourtoronto/...s_to_a_dead_end_at_fallen_tree_the_fixer.html
...slow news day.
http://www.thestar.com/yourtoronto/...s_to_a_dead_end_at_fallen_tree_the_fixer.html
...slow news day.
EVCco
Senior Member
Morningside, Etc. - into the unknown
Back from a bit of a spring break (only to find it's still very much winter out there), and back to Scarborough in my continuing quest to document all of Toronto's wilderness areas. As my check-list now grows ever shorter, the spots which I'm lead to investigate become ever remoter, and lesser known (at least to me) - such as this iced-over pond, found tucked away behind a city maintenance facility off Morningside Avenue, just south of the 401:
Above the pond I stumble across what appears to be Toronto's strategic wood-pile:
Just on the other side of the 401 is another rather unknown water feature (unknown in that I don't know of its name, if it has one) - a stream that begins at Milner Ave, running north between Grand Marshall and Auto Mall Drives. It starts as just a trickle of a thing (though it's deceptively deep, as I discovered while crossing it), and you'll mostly have to take my word for it that it's there amongst all these reeds:
A couple of culverts and outfalls converge in one of the shortest stretches of any of my trips, between Sheppard Avenue and the driveway to another municipal facility. It's so short, in fact, that you could take it all in with a single picture (but you know me better than that!):
Past the driveway the stream-bed suddenly runs dry...when, off in the distance, a strange wall looms out in the middle of an empty field - behind which lays another culvert, from whence the water re-appears:
Stone bricks now pave the resurgent stream, which flows on into a thick wood, only to disappear once again at the foot of a towering vertical megalith:
Up across a pathway, then down into a deep ravine where the stream evenually meets up with the Morningside Creek:
I now head northeast, up the Morningside, to where the creek takes a dramatic plunge:
Out, at last, into some familiar territory as I eventually meet up with the old Metro Zoo monorail, which I encountered on a previous trip to the Rouge River:
Just south of where the monorail crosses the creek I find what looks to be an abandoned animal stable (either that, or something to do with ice cream?):
A last little bit of the Morningside remains before it enters the Rouge, where I take my 6,000th photo for Google Earth (6,340th Panoramio pic, for those keeping score):
Not one to retrace my steps, I'm now left with a bit of a problem as to how to get back to street-level. I'd already done the rest of the Rouge heading east, and I just came all this way from the west. Fortunately, my map showed another nameless little stream heading south into more unknown lands, from right around where I was standing. Locating it on the ground, however, proved a little difficult. I found what seemed to be evidence of it heading back under the monorail line...:
...but then I quickly lost it again in this large, frozen marsh:
At last, I pick it up once more and follow it home - or, at least, to the back of someone else's home in the Ecopark Gate subdivision:
Back from a bit of a spring break (only to find it's still very much winter out there), and back to Scarborough in my continuing quest to document all of Toronto's wilderness areas. As my check-list now grows ever shorter, the spots which I'm lead to investigate become ever remoter, and lesser known (at least to me) - such as this iced-over pond, found tucked away behind a city maintenance facility off Morningside Avenue, just south of the 401:
Above the pond I stumble across what appears to be Toronto's strategic wood-pile:
Just on the other side of the 401 is another rather unknown water feature (unknown in that I don't know of its name, if it has one) - a stream that begins at Milner Ave, running north between Grand Marshall and Auto Mall Drives. It starts as just a trickle of a thing (though it's deceptively deep, as I discovered while crossing it), and you'll mostly have to take my word for it that it's there amongst all these reeds:
A couple of culverts and outfalls converge in one of the shortest stretches of any of my trips, between Sheppard Avenue and the driveway to another municipal facility. It's so short, in fact, that you could take it all in with a single picture (but you know me better than that!):
Past the driveway the stream-bed suddenly runs dry...when, off in the distance, a strange wall looms out in the middle of an empty field - behind which lays another culvert, from whence the water re-appears:
Stone bricks now pave the resurgent stream, which flows on into a thick wood, only to disappear once again at the foot of a towering vertical megalith:
Up across a pathway, then down into a deep ravine where the stream evenually meets up with the Morningside Creek:
I now head northeast, up the Morningside, to where the creek takes a dramatic plunge:
Out, at last, into some familiar territory as I eventually meet up with the old Metro Zoo monorail, which I encountered on a previous trip to the Rouge River:
Just south of where the monorail crosses the creek I find what looks to be an abandoned animal stable (either that, or something to do with ice cream?):
A last little bit of the Morningside remains before it enters the Rouge, where I take my 6,000th photo for Google Earth (6,340th Panoramio pic, for those keeping score):
Not one to retrace my steps, I'm now left with a bit of a problem as to how to get back to street-level. I'd already done the rest of the Rouge heading east, and I just came all this way from the west. Fortunately, my map showed another nameless little stream heading south into more unknown lands, from right around where I was standing. Locating it on the ground, however, proved a little difficult. I found what seemed to be evidence of it heading back under the monorail line...:
...but then I quickly lost it again in this large, frozen marsh:
At last, I pick it up once more and follow it home - or, at least, to the back of someone else's home in the Ecopark Gate subdivision:
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EVCco
Senior Member
With regards to the "dramatic plunge" pictured above (and elsewhere in previous posts), I've often wondered if these things had a technical name - and it appears they do: "energy dissipation structure"...
http://www.ontariostreams.on.ca/morningside.htm
...the two pictures following directly after the EDS in my post would show the fishway, I beleive.
http://www.ontariostreams.on.ca/morningside.htm
...the two pictures following directly after the EDS in my post would show the fishway, I beleive.
EVCco
Senior Member
A few too many photos on this page to be adding any more. So, to ease loading time, and in preparation of my next installment, I'll just add a few city links from along the trail of my latest trip to get you all fully informed...
http://www.toronto.ca/parks/prd/facilities/complex/870/index.htm
http://www.toronto.ca/parks/prd/facilities/complex/870/index.htm
EVCco
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EVCco
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EVCco
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EVCco
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EVCco
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EVCco
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