Long Branch / Port Credit Ramble

There will be a Car-Free Day by the lake on Sunday, October 3rd, noon-4PM. They're closing off Lake Promenade between 42nd and 39th St. Both Cycle Route 2 and the Waterfront Trail follow Lake Promenade. At the west end is the waterfront Marie Curtis Park, and the Waterfront Trail continues into Mississauga.
If you've wondered "where the heck is Long Branch", it could be a great day to explore the south Etobicoke shoreline. It's a very nice ride west from the end of the Martin Goodman Trail and the Humber pedestrian bridge. You'll have to ride for a few kilometres on Lake Shore Blvd through Mimico, but this isn't the Lake Shore Blvd. expressway you see east of the Humber. The rest is quiet residential streets, and a few sections of trail through parks, the biggest being Sir Samuel Smith, which has a mini-Leslie-Street-spit you can ride out along.
The leaves will be changing, so it will be a pleasant fall ride.
By the way, they've done a couple of traffic surveys along that section of Lake Promenade, and bicycles outnumber cars and walkers combined.....by about two-to-one! They're planning to have a mechanic to help (for free) with any minor repairs.
A slightly cool, overcast day it was, as we started riding west from the Prince of Wales Park at 3rd Street & Lakeshore Drive.  We took the Mississauga Waterfront Trail west and came across the Car Free Day festivities on Lake Promenade. Continuing west we turned around just over the bridge in Downtown Port Credit and headed back along Lakeshore Blvd window shopping. The surf on the lake was particularly angry today as can be seen from the breakers coming ashore. After the usual customary pit stop for a Timmies on Lakeshore we arrived at Prince Of Wales park again and loaded the bikes into the van for the return trip to downtown TO! 18 km, 3 hours.

 

Simcoe Day,Civic Holiday August 2, 2010

While waiting for the overcastness of the clouds to burn off we left at 2pm and dropped by a hospital to visit a friend who was admitted there. After coffee, it was off to the Music Garden at Harbourfront to feed a mother swan and her two children in the Spadina Quay West Marina as well as the ducks, finches and redwing blackbirds who invited themselves to lunch too.
When we ran out of food, the sun came out for a bit and it was time to head for home along Queens Quay and up Parliament and home, before leaving I had to take some pics of Mr.Kane, a tugboat in from Montreal and berthed there at the Spadina Ave. Slip.
A good way to spend the holiday with not much else on our minds to do. 10km

BeachCruiser Ride To The Beaches

Sunday Aug. 1, 2010 saw us riding down to the waterfront to just hang and wile time away just riding around (you do that a lot when you're older).
Down Parliament to Cherry to hook up with the Martin Goodman Trail and then eastwards, with a rest stop at the entrance to the Outer Harbour Marina to feed the ducks and baby geese. Quiet, relaxing and interesting as the baby geese took bread from my hand. Then it was back out onto the trail and eastwards to Ashbridges Bay and on to the busy part of the trail in the beaches. There is such a lovely, wooden boardwalk all through there for walking on, but people kinda like walking on the bike path better, time to get back on the boardwalk folks!
Resting and people watching at Victoria Park, we headed back home from there stopping at the Pit Stop On Leslie Street for coffee and then an unexpected shopping trip to Crappy Tire across the street and a verbal caterwalling with the incompetent staff there trying to find me a hose clamp! After that I opted to take Queen Street (traffic was surprisingly light) all the way back downtown and then home. A great day, nice weather (although a bit windy at times) me on my Atlas Cruiser and Kate on her recumbent bike E. 13km.

Will have to wait and see what we can get up to on holiday Monday Aug 2, Simcoe Day in Toronto!

Martin Goodman Waterfront Trail To Somewhere

Sunday July 18, 2010 after the weather cleared up, Kate, myself & Steffonee rode down to the Martin-Goodman Trail and Harbourfront checking out the suntanning spots along the waterfront. The new one is at the foot of Jarvis street "SUGAR BEACH" right across the slip from Redpath Sugar and it is particularly appealing as they have shade umbrellas, Algonquin style wooden chairs and clean new sand; they even have a nice chrome water stand with fountain, a tap to wash the sand off your feet, or fill a dog bowl. All they need now are bathrooms.
We headed west to Ontario Place, with a stop to feed the ducks at Coronation Park and pics at the Inukshuk statue, and then back to Harbourfront and over to Parliament to the Pit stop at Dundas. Lots of rest stops and a leisurely ride.
Kate is getting used to her new recumbent bikeE cruiser on the bike trails. 10km.

Toronto Islands Ramble

We took the Hanlon's Point Ferry to the Island and checked the clothing optional beach at Hanlon's Point. So we continued on our ride to the Ward's Island Park near the Eastern Gap and toured around the cottages there. The weather was perfect for a ramble and lots of islanders were out in their yards giving us a wave or a friendly hello as we passed by.
We continued over to Algonquin Island to view the cottages there and stopped by the waters' edge for lunch (which we brought with us)! After lunch I decided to go and try to find my buddy who lives on a sailboat in the Toronto Island Marina (which islanders call the PPYC "Poor Peoples Yacht Club" as compared to the Rich Peoples Yacht Club I guess). We dodged the throngs of people coming off the Centre Island Ferry who were going to the Festival Of India on Centre Island. We visited him for a bit on his sailboat and then as the clouds started to roll in we headed back to the nude Beach. Heading back to the ferry for the trip back to civilization and along Queens Quay and up Sherbourne to home. Total for today 10km.

Ride To Warden Woods

Sunday July 11, 2010 Kate & I took off through the city south to pick up the Lower Don Trail at Cherry & Lakeshore. The ride was uneventfull till we reached Taylor Creek Park just off Don Mills Road. The weather had been sunny and not as humid as the last (how many days), but we could see darkening clouds moving in from the west that definately looked like rain. At the fork in the trail at the Charles Soriol Conservation area and Taylor Creek Park, there is a sculpture (kinda looks like half elephants) that was installed as a wetlands filtration project. The water was running out clear and cold.  Eastward through Taylor Creek Park we went watching the advancing rain clouds and the odd lightning bolt and rolling thunder. We finally reached Warden Woods Park and took the trail North to the end at Warden Ave and St. CLair Ave East. We then had the choice of either returning the way we had come or going down Warden. We took Warden down to the Danforth ( and got a very light sprinkle of rain as the clouds broke to reveal more sun) to Woodbine Ave, onto Gerrard and west to Coxwell where we ended up at Queen.
Since we did not stop for lunch it did not take much prodding to go into the Tulip Steak House for lunch (it was near 5pm). Kate had the fish & Chips and I had the chopped sirloin; and a couple of pitchers of ice water! Then we went west to Leslie and the required Pit Stop at Timmy's at Lakeshore before heading back west via the trail to Cherry and then back to the start at Allan Gardens.
Wow, what a great Sunday Cruiser Ride: 19km give or take.

2010 PRIDE Ride July 4

To miss all the hoo-hah happening in the village with Pride this year, we had a Pride Ride out to Edward's Gardens and return, on Sunday July 4. Not wanting to haul our bikes down the stairs to the bike path at Queen Street or at Riverdale Park; we took the shoulder of the road along Bayview Ave until we hit the entrance to a little used bike path that went north along to the Brickworks (an interesting place to visit someday). Continuing on the shoulder of Bayview till we reached the Lower Don Trail at Pottery Road. Then it was all bike paths north to Edward's Gardens at Leslie and Lawrence, stopping multiple times to rest in the shade as it was very hot.
Deciding not to take the trail back downtown we took Leslie instead to Eglington, then east on Eglinton to Don Mills and south past the Science Centre (another place to visit someday) to Leaside. West through Flemingdon Park to the Tim's pit stop for refreshments and cool AC! We then went west to Laird and south across the viaduct to Pape, and then west on Mortimer to Broadview to Danforth and then home.
All in all it was a better way to spend the day out, away from the one million plus maddening crowds, who were waiting for us when we returned to the village. 16km round trip.