Urban Wilderness!

[EVCco]

Humber River - at long last

So I know some of you by now must be thinking: "EVCco - you've done the Don, the Etobicoke, and the Highland. You've done all these obscure little creeks and ravines, but when the heck are you gonna get to the Humber, gol dern it?!?!" OK! OK! People, please! I have heard your imaginary cries. If it's Humber you want then it's Humber you'll get! For the fact is I have gotten to the Humber, many-a-time before, albeit sporadically. Yesterday, however, I decided to take a good chunk out of it and travelled its banks from Eglinton Avenue down to the lake. So here it is - at least the southern end of it - patched up with some other photos taken over the years; starting with a few in and around the Ukrainian-Canadian Memorial Park, just north of Eglinton, from back in January of 2003 (when even then I was photographing ugly old manholes, storm grates, and what-have-you for no particular reason):

Now let's pick up right where I left off 9 years ago, under Eglinton Ave:

A quick glance north before heading south down the east bank:

Just up ahead, only a few yards away, I spot another urban wildlife first for me - a beaver! Animal expert that I am I figure I'll just walk up and get a nice tight shot of him. I mean, even if he runs away, how fast can a beaver move, right? Well, pretty fast as it turns out - especially once he gets in the water! Just as I'm about to snap my pic the beaver dives in the river and only a few seconds later he's about half a football field downstream on the other side, leaving me with yet another bad, blurry wildlife shot. At any rate, after taking this sub-par picture I follow his lead to the left bank and continue south through Scarlett Mills Park where I eventually find a more cooperative goose:

Across a little brook where Scarlett Mills becomes James Gardens:

Through Lambton Woods now, towards the soaring CP rail bridge:

Into Lambton Park and under Dundas West:

As the Humber winds its way between Étienne Brûlé and Home Smith parks it descends down a series of 6 cataracts - each more similar than the last:

[Damn you beavers! Why won't you stay in focus?!]

Angling around the Old Mill bridge towards the Bloor street and subway overpasses:

Out into the Benesh Coulee, then up into Kings Mill Park:

Down into the Humber Marshes and South Humber Park:

Taking both sides of the jumble of overpasses that are The Queensway, GO Rail, Gardiner, and Lake Shore Boulevard respectively:

[Note the differing street lamp styles on the Etobicoke and Toronto sides...]

Finally out into Humber Bay where, after some six hours (and 9 years), I complete my trek - at long last:

 

[EVCco]

~~~

 

[donoreo]

Hey, nice beaver! (someone was going to say it!)

 

[Goldie]

Thanks for the experience, EVCco - something new for an east-ender like me.
First reaction: Sure is huge compared to the Don!

 

[EVCco]

Hey, nice beaver! (someone was going to say it!)

Thanks donoreo
Now I'm just a moose away from a cucumber club...

Thanks for the experience, EVCco - something new for an east-ender like me.
First reaction: Sure is huge compared to the Don!

That was my sense too.
In places it seems a good 2-3 times wider. I wonder what the widest point of both rivers are?

 

[EVCco]

Ferris Ravine - EVCco Bueller's day off

After my rather lengthy jaunt on the other side of town last week, I thought today I'd give myself a bit of a break and hit a smaller spot closer to home. As previously mentioned by Northern Light, just southeast of the Parkview/Curity Ravine (which I explored back in March) is the Ferris Ravine, running parallel with Ferris Road through the eastern-most end of East York. I begin my trek where the ravine meets Taylor Creek, in the aptly named Taylor Creek Park:

It never ceases to amaze - you find the strangest of things in the strangest of places:

At Rexleigh Drive the ravine divides. I decide the most expedient route from here would be to enter the north fork at it's endpoint, then circle back through the south fork and head home. Fortunately I've planned ahead this time and have thoroughly consulted Google Earth so as not to repeat my aimless wanderings through Parkview. Unfortunately, as good as Google's satellite imaging is, it still can't quite show me where the navigable stretch of the ravine ends, and people's private backyards begin. After an extensive search down Glencrest Boulevard I at last find an access point - over a fence off a back alley near Plaxton Drive - where I also locate the terminus of the stream's northern branch:

I come to an abrupt bend in the ravine which I take for my turn down the south branch.

Curses! Foiled again! After shortly emerging from this "central branch" at Plaxton Crescent, I head back to Rexleigh to start again down the south fork:

The stream heads under Ferris Road, then continues only briefly to Cedarcrest Boulevard where it submerges under some apartment buildings, never to re-appear:

From here I head south, down Dawes Road, to the Home Hardware in search of a replacement insect screen for my skylight, where: Curses! I'm foiled again!

 

[r937]

you have to have a determination to follow those streams, otherwise to venture into those ravines would be pointless

i've been in there but didn't stay long, there really isn't much beyond a trickle of water and piles and piles of garbage

the "black & blue" graffito is kind of cute

 

[EVCco]

you have to have a determination to follow those streams, otherwise to venture into those ravines would be pointless

Haha, indeed!

You know, if I had to describe myself in two words they might very well be "pointlessly determined."

 

[J T CUNNINGHAM]

"if I had to describe myself in two words they might very well be "pointlessly determined."
QUOTE EVCco.

Your "pointlessly determined" has no doubt, been determined to be quite to the point,

and not only is it a recording of the present, but is a historical play for the future.


Regards,
J T

 

[EVCco]

Thanks!

I think?!

 

[EVCco]

Wilket Creek - well-heeled waters

Today my riparian flâneurism truly takes me from the ridiculous to the sublime; from the backwoods obscurity of the Ferris Ravine, last week, to perhaps the most opulent stretch of wetland real estate in the city - Wilket Creek.

Perhaps you'll recall this passing glance from back in February during my last trip to the West Don:

Well, let's pick up in May from the same spot in Wilket Creek Park, heading north:

Towards the end of the park I notice yet some more municipal restructuring of our parks system; most notably the installation of a new series of bridges. In fact, I only notice this because apparently I had managed to walk right past several warning signs indicating the closure of this path due to construction. Nevertheless, having come obliviously all this way, a sympathetic construction worker allows me to continue my trek, just as long as I "didn't mind hopping a few fences." Mind? Me?! With this opportunity in hand I become possibly the first civilian to make use of these spiffy new spans:

Into Edwards Gardens now to see what's in bloom:

Under Lawrence Avenue and into the swanky backsides of the Bridle Path:

Just a little ways in I spot yet another deer, and by far the latest into the day that I've seen one. Then again, one would assume this particular length of creek to be especially secluded and secure, affording any discerning ungulate of a certain social standing the discreet and exclusive 24 hour foraging that it should expect and deserve. Indeed, I find this stretch rather unique in my journeys for its overall lack of litter, graffiti, homeless encampments, or signs of any other regular human intrusion. At any rate, judging by the deer's size, and those things starting to sprout from its head, I figure it to be a male and decide to keep my distance as I continue north:

In most neighbourhoods you would expect the average housing lot to abut any major water feature, such as the Wilket Creek. But here it is not uncommon for properties to extend over both sides of the stream, creating the need for private bridge, or two:

Out at last into Windfields Park:

A miniature version of Goldie's mysterious concrete structure? The conspiracy continues!:

Around the bend into Irving Paisley Park where Wilket Creek heads under York Mills Road...:

...beneath St. Andrews Park and beyond:

And for those wishing to continue the Wilket's subterranean course, I refer you to this site here:
http://www.vanishingpoint.ca/wilket-creek-storm-trunk-sewer

 

[r937]

gorgeous as always, evcco... another 4-or-5-hour jaunt?

seems you have no trouble with sections of ravines that are impenetrable for most people

nice deer shot, your tally surpasseth mine now

 

[EVCco]

gorgeous as always, evcco... another 4-or-5-hour jaunt?

Thanks as always r937!
A little less than 5, but only because I walked all the way up there from home. The creek itself only took a couple hours.

seems you have no trouble with sections of ravines that are impenetrable for most people

Where there's a will there's a way - then hopefully a footpath, or animal path, or mountain bike trail...

 

[Anna]

Wilket Creek - well-heeled waters

And for those wishing to continue the Wilket's subterranean course, I refer you to this site here:
http://www.vanishingpoint.ca/wilket-creek-storm-trunk-sewer

That site mentions something that I have read elsewhere - Newtonbrook Creek was originally named Wilket Creek - after a French settler named Wilquet? - and it's actually Milne Creek that goes through Wilket Creek Park.

 

[EVCco]

I was surprised it happened so recently - 1960. You'd think someone would have noticed that.
Poor Mr. Milne...