In answer to your question above, I don't really plan these excursions. I basically just wait until my knees stop clicking and the blisters on my feet have healed from the last adventure, then, whenever the mood strikes me, and if the weather seems to be cooperating, I just head out; usually deciding where to go that morning, as I did yesterday...
Spadina Parkway - express trip
I had actually planned on doing the rest of the Sauriol Conservation Area, then perhaps heading up the Deerlick Creek. But, at the last minute, I felt this week I should take a break from my customary 4-5 hour slogs through the middle of nowhere, and opted for a shorter, more civilised trip - down the old proposed route of the
Spadina Expressway, starting at Eglinton West station and heading south down Everden Road:
Crossing Ava Road I enter Cedarvale Park:
Lest one get the impression that the Urban Wilderness thread is only about following Toronto's rivers and creeks, I also chose this trek for the purpose of showcasing some of the city's non-riparian landscapes. Nevertheless, I discover that a little stream flows here too - one which seemingly eminates out of someone's backyard:
We travel back in time now, to a couple of pictures of the Glen Cedar bridge that I took in 2006, at the height of my
pedestrian bridge photography phase:
Back to 2012:
Under Bathurst Street and we're transported back in time again, from 2012 to 2003, and from the brown, bare winter to the budding green of spring:
Past Relmar Gardens and its February once again:
A little matter of Tichester Road and St. Michael's College breaks the Wilderness for a block or so:
Over St. Clair Ave and the wilderness resumes in the Nordheimer Ravine:
As I had anticipated this trip to be a rather quick and easy one, I decided to don some nicer clothes than my usual wilderness-wear. So, naturally, around this point I trip and slide down the ravine, covering my pants and jacket with mud. Well, at least I got to the bottom quickly and easily:
I finally reach Spadina Road, where the expressway was to head south. But the wilderness continues southeast, into Winston Churchill Park, so I head on through:
I traverse Churchill Park, past a number of notable structures, to the end of the line in Roycroft Park at Boulton Drive:
Here I stop and ponder whether to head a few blocks east and loop back to where I began via the Belt Line Trail. But I decide to save it for another day and I head back home to do some laundry...