Today there were two bike rides with similar themes: drawing attention to loops in the city that take advantage of the many off street bike and pedestrian paths that thread through the city, while at the same time are held back by significant gaps where there are no safe bike route connections. The longer route was the Loop Ride which includes parts of the Don Valley, the Don Mills Trail, the Finch Hydro corridor, and the Humber River Trail. I did the Loop Ride earlier this year.
I chose to do the Link Ride which draws attention to some of the gaps in Scarborough between the Don Valley East trail, the Gatineau Hydro corridor, and the Gus Harris and the Taylor Creek Trails. This ride was put on by Scarborough Junction Community and Scarborough Cycles.
On my way to the start point, I ran into Roger who was headed to the Distillery District to join the Loop Ride. We were on the first eastbound Line 2 train this morning.
West Scarborough Rail Trail organizer Misha Perozak gives us an intro into the need for the rail trail to help complete a loop in the area.
Two municipal candidates were present. Sharmina Nasrin said that safe infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists is important, but she admitted that she does not know how to ride a bike.
Parthi Kandavel is the incumbent. He said that he supported the forthcoming bike lanes on a portion of Kingston Rd. He did sound a bit defensive, and stated more or less that he supported bike lanes where they make sense. He said that motorists, cyclists and pedestrians should all have input into road design.
One should be aware that Kevin Rupasinghe is running against him, although he was not present. Kevin is a long time cycling advocate, and he finished a close second the last election.
Marvin Macaraig from Scarborough Cycles is our ride leader today. He outlines the route, and also gives us some safety tips. He will lead, and Douglas will be the sweep.
A group picture before we set off.
Off we go, headed to Warden, then turning south.
Turning onto the Gus Harris Trail off of St. Clair.
My first time on this trail. Very nice biking through the woods. There was one short patch of fresh, loose gravel along the way.
Regroup at Pharmacy where we have to jog a bit north to cross over to the Taylor Creek Trail. Marvin reminds us that the bike lanes on Pharmacy were removed back in 2011. If they were still here, this area would have been future proofed as Pharmacy is a great connection between Danforth and Eglinton.
If you look closely, you can see where the paint stripe was ground away, just to the right of Marvin’s bike.
Now turning toward the Taylor Creek Trail, just off of Victoria Park.
Now we meet up with the riders on the Loop Ride. They were a much bigger group.
Albert talks about the Loop Ride, and the collaboration with the Link Ride. Misha reminds us that Scarborough is underserved in terms of funding for upgrades to off street trails for cyclists, compared to projects such as the West Toronto Railpath.
Albert says that they will leave 30 seconds after this picture.
There go the Loop group. I see Rob in the lead. He’ll be blogging about today’s Loop Ride.
Hi Albert.
Now we get ready to go.
Shortly after we cross under the DVP, we turn north onto the East Don Trail. It was nice to ride it again after everything was finished.
Some riders taking advantage of one of the seating areas.
Lined up before tackling the “thunder dome”.
Now the actual steep part.
Regroup at the top of the hill by the Bermondsey Transfer Station.
We elect to walk along the sidewalk to the Victoria Village Arena.
Rest break.
The stretch between the end of the East Don Trail and the start of the Gatineau Hydro Corridor is the first major gap in our loop ride. The city has some plans to close the gap. The project passed through the IEC this year, but it is not clear what the timeline for the project is.
Crossing Bermondsey as a group.
Now on the sidewalk on the north side of Eglinton.
If you look closely, you can see the lead group turning left on the Gatineau Hydro Corridor, which seems to have been rebranded as part of the Meadoway.
Nice displays of wildflowers.
Now regrouping in a neighbourhood just west of Kennedy.
Turning south down the Kennedy Hydro Corridor.
Using the underpass near the Eglinton LRT Pharmacy Station.
Now walking along Eglinton towards Pharmacy.
Turning onto a trail that parallels a rail line.
It was amazing that the couple with the bike trailer made it through this section.
I was told that CN only uses this line once a week.
Travelling between the end of the Kennedy Hydro corridor and Birchmount is the major gap in our loop. Here is a diagram of the route we took in this section.
Cycling towards Birchmount.
Now eating to turn south on Birchmount.
Amused/appalled by this sign. On the other hand: five star Google reviews!
Down Birchmount. There used to be a bike lane here too.
If you zoom out from the earlier map, you can see that if a trail was put in along the CN rail line, it would provide a valuable connection between Eglinton and further south on Birchmount.
Now approaching the end of the ride.
A group shot at the end. We arrived right at noon as scheduled.
Thanks to Misha and Marvin for putting this ride together. I saw several people taking videos during the ride. Hopefully we can bring more attention to the need to close the two major gaps that we saw today on our ride.
Riding home, I couldn’t resist a ice cream truck on the Taylor Creek Trail, just past Dawes Rd.
Unfortunately, as I was riding through UofT campus, my rear disc brake started severely dragging due to a mechanical failure. I was really lucky that this didn’t happen earlier on the ride. As it happens, I managed to ride a bit further to Curbside Cycle where I left the bike to be worked on. I was doubly lucky since I was told that today was the last Sunday that they would be open for the year.
Update: Rob’s account of the first half of today’s Loop Ride is here.
