EVCco
Senior Member
Little Rouge Creek - as things turned out
This one almost didn't happen...
Another trip up to the remote Rouge Park area was on the agenda, which typically means a long subway ride, then a long bus ride, then a long walk before the actual hike even begins! In this case I needed to get myself up to the zoo, then walk a fair ways further north on Meadowvale Road to the Belleville Sub overpass just to get to the particular branch of the Little Rouge I was looking for today. Add to this a raging wind storm going on outside and I had to seriously consider rescheduling.
Ah, but what else was I going to do today? So off I went in the freezing dawn to Kennedy Station - only to find once I got there that the 86A Scarborough bus to the zoo doesn't run on Saturdays, meaning that now I could get only as far as Sheppard Avenue, adding who knows how much more time to my walk! At this point I nearly turned back. But something (likely puerile indignance) made me carry on. And, as things turned out, the walk from Sheppard wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The only real annoyance was the constant parade of 85B Sheppard East buses whizzing past me on their way to the zoo. I guess a little more forethought in my transit planning was in order. Oh well. I had bigger things to deal with now - like the harrowing negotiation of a rickity rail bridge, high over the creek, in the midst of 50km wind gusts!:
Having survived that precarious crossing I at last reach my destination - the West Branch of the Little Rouge Creek, where I head northwest through what my map has labeled the 10,000 Trees for the Rouge Valley site:
Across Reesor Road now, and into the Finch hydro corridor:
According to Google Maps, somewhere north of the power lines this branch of the Little Rouge breaks off into 2 further forks, heading north and west respectively. As things turned out, I could find no trace of either on the ground. To be fair, though, it was hard enough to find traces of the main branch, buried as it was in drifts of snow and ice. Nevertheless, I suspect if either of the others do still exist they are likely meagre little rivulets not worth returning for. Following along the main branch then, past the bare and blasted woodland, footing became a little more tricky as things opened out into a vast frozen marsh. I felt a little like an ice road trucker/walker as I'd hear the ground creak and crack under each step, and then occasionally give way where I'd break through the surface and find myself almost waist deep in snowy swamp:
The last leg, across Sewells Road, takes an interesting course between a farmer's field and an auto wrecker's yard. I end with a few pics from a previous trip along Steeles Avenue East:
All in all, as things turned out, the day's trek wasn't so bad. The wind died down, the hike was relatively short, and I managed to check another Toronto waterway off the list. All that remained was one last, long walk back to the nearest bus stop at Staines Road. A motorist who spotted me slogging my way along the shoulder of Steeles was even nice enough to offer me a ride. But I could see the traffic lights at Staines Road just up ahead, and so I declined.
...As things turned out, those were actually the traffic lights at Nineth Line.
Ah well, what's another half-kilometer after coming this far?
This one almost didn't happen...
Another trip up to the remote Rouge Park area was on the agenda, which typically means a long subway ride, then a long bus ride, then a long walk before the actual hike even begins! In this case I needed to get myself up to the zoo, then walk a fair ways further north on Meadowvale Road to the Belleville Sub overpass just to get to the particular branch of the Little Rouge I was looking for today. Add to this a raging wind storm going on outside and I had to seriously consider rescheduling.
Ah, but what else was I going to do today? So off I went in the freezing dawn to Kennedy Station - only to find once I got there that the 86A Scarborough bus to the zoo doesn't run on Saturdays, meaning that now I could get only as far as Sheppard Avenue, adding who knows how much more time to my walk! At this point I nearly turned back. But something (likely puerile indignance) made me carry on. And, as things turned out, the walk from Sheppard wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The only real annoyance was the constant parade of 85B Sheppard East buses whizzing past me on their way to the zoo. I guess a little more forethought in my transit planning was in order. Oh well. I had bigger things to deal with now - like the harrowing negotiation of a rickity rail bridge, high over the creek, in the midst of 50km wind gusts!:
Having survived that precarious crossing I at last reach my destination - the West Branch of the Little Rouge Creek, where I head northwest through what my map has labeled the 10,000 Trees for the Rouge Valley site:
Across Reesor Road now, and into the Finch hydro corridor:
According to Google Maps, somewhere north of the power lines this branch of the Little Rouge breaks off into 2 further forks, heading north and west respectively. As things turned out, I could find no trace of either on the ground. To be fair, though, it was hard enough to find traces of the main branch, buried as it was in drifts of snow and ice. Nevertheless, I suspect if either of the others do still exist they are likely meagre little rivulets not worth returning for. Following along the main branch then, past the bare and blasted woodland, footing became a little more tricky as things opened out into a vast frozen marsh. I felt a little like an ice road trucker/walker as I'd hear the ground creak and crack under each step, and then occasionally give way where I'd break through the surface and find myself almost waist deep in snowy swamp:
The last leg, across Sewells Road, takes an interesting course between a farmer's field and an auto wrecker's yard. I end with a few pics from a previous trip along Steeles Avenue East:
All in all, as things turned out, the day's trek wasn't so bad. The wind died down, the hike was relatively short, and I managed to check another Toronto waterway off the list. All that remained was one last, long walk back to the nearest bus stop at Staines Road. A motorist who spotted me slogging my way along the shoulder of Steeles was even nice enough to offer me a ride. But I could see the traffic lights at Staines Road just up ahead, and so I declined.
...As things turned out, those were actually the traffic lights at Nineth Line.
Ah well, what's another half-kilometer after coming this far?
