The urban wilderness adventure never stops! Yesterday the intrepid Nanmac and I walked to the Toronto Zoo from Trinity Bellwoods Park. The route we took was 20 miles on concrete (ouch). It took us 10 hours. We mainly did it out of a shared interest in so-called "binge excercise" and self-directed adventure (ie: because it was there). We are also working on a video project that will be discussed further at some later date.
We left shortly after 5 am, and got to see the very end of Saturday night on Queen Street West, small straggling groups of bleary-eyed droogs, and two guys with a card table doing tarot readings in front of the Shoppers Drug Mart. Other points of interest, off the top of my head: sunrise over the Don Valley with waterfowl in the river below, coffee at 7:30 am in the "Stepford Beaches" which were full of blond women jogging. Also a jogging dad with stroller and labrador retriever who offered to take our picture. We declined. Big fence around the water treatment plant.
Kingston road was long. Pain set in for both of us around Midland, which was a major watershed as it meant we were at the edge of our Toronto map and had to turn it over to continue. Lots of trudging followed, punctuated by Freezies and Tim Hortons rest stops. By the time we turned off onto Old Kingston Road, the trudging was more like hobbling. But we went down into a really nice ravine with a park, marsh and river that cheered us up. There was also a very dead and smelly raccoon. Roads kill. Steep hills were a new factor, but being off the main road was a treat. Meadowvale was the final stretch. Crossing the 401 was post apocalyptic, as always, but the limping made it feel even more so. We had a lovely rest under some trees and took our shoes off. The final approach to the zoo included some confusion, as the road signs did not anticpate people arriving on foot. I think we might be the first people to ever walk to the zoo from downtown Toronto. I take Nanmac's point that this would be a dubious accolade.
Thankfully the zoo parking lot, our last hurdle, proved smaller and more shady than we'd feared and all of a sudden we had acheived our goal. Now we did want our picture taken, and a kindly fellow zoo patron obliged. That triumphant image is on Nanmac's camera right now. Maybe we'll post it someday, maybe we won't. We splurged on tickets for the train-like zoomobile to cart us around, but our zoo tasks nonetheless required more walking than we wanted. Once we were finished, however, we hauled ourselves onto a bus to Kennedy station and the TTC carried us right back home with no fuss.
I can't imagine conducting that expedition alone. Nanmac, I applaud you for your amibition, strength and resilient sense of humour. It was a great day with a great friend and I will always remember it!
A 20 mile hike on concrete in all that ground level pollution. Holy Fucking Shit.
Crossing the 401 on foot under a blazing sun? Double Papal Holy Fucking Shit.
I think I'll enter you and nanmac in some Mark Burnett production, so I can watch it all in air conditioned comfort, with my cigarettes, a gin and tonic and a tub of frozen Cool Whip. (though it will make for much better television if the two of you could fight, cry a bit, attract a successful bachelor and redecorate each other's apartments while doing this) (I know you're both tired right now, but just think about it, would you?)
Wow.
Advil goes great with binge exercise!
Aleeve is my current painkiller of choice. Unfortunately its only available in USA, so I hoard and ration my stash. But I brought some out for the zoo walk and mmm-mm those little blue tablets went down good at the end of the day.
Cool Whip also sounds good right about now.
Aleve is naproxen, available by prescription.
Holy, that roadway just doesn't look like walkable terrain.
When I was in grade 5 in Toronto, I had a friend called James, and he and I used to street-walk on Saturdays. We'd pack a little lunch, and pick a street, begin at 8 and go as far as we could. At 12 we sat on the curb and ate our lunch, and then walked home again. He was only in my school for one year, so I don't even remember his last name, but I remember really liking him. I know the idea was his, and I was an eager participant. We only did it two or three times. Finch, for one, and we went downtown on the TTC and did either St. Clair or Eglinton.
In junior high we did the same thing in small town, Saskatchewan. Walked up and down Broadway until someone in a Trans Am picked us up.
But I suppose that was more about teenage pregnancy than urban trekking.
Hah! We didn't have Trans Ams. I am surprised that my folks let me go off on these adventures. My mom had a perennial fear of me being kidnapped. My dad thought that was hilarious. He said, "Why in hell would anybody want to kidnap her? We don't have two cents to rub together"! She finally admitted that her fears were based on my "radiant beauty." That made him laugh even more.
l.m., your viewing pleasure could have been the inspiration i needed especially when i felt like the concrete had won and was making me a candidate for a hip replacement (this was somewhere between the dead raccoon on old kingston road and crossing the 401).
nice wrap up, sal. i had already forgotten about the queen street west part. it was pretty funny seeing the mix of hard-core, all-night partiers and the hard-core insomniacs up walking their dogs.
v. fun excursion.
that post was me...nanmac
wow, and i thought my twice daily walk from my house to essex and back was hard! i think my daily walk works out to be around 8km total but i take a 6 hour break between walks - with a coffee, lunch, snack, and emails in between.
Ok, I'm impressed.
(And I don't mean that sarcastically.)
I used to wander about Houston via bicycle. To stay away from cars, I'd often ride along the sloped concrete that lined the bayous. I could ride for miles and miles and encounter hardly a person. (Looks like since then they've made it an official bike path.)
I did that path when I last visited Houston. Dallas also has one that follows the White Rock Creek flood plain paralleling Central Expressway.
Shit dudes, that's pretty impresive.
Did you look to make sure that the zoo was open before you left? How much would that have sucked?
Nanmac asked me that same question about 5 hours into the walk.
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The urban wilderness adventure never stops! Yesterday the intrepid Nanmac and I walked to the Toronto Zoo from Trinity Bellwoods Park. The route we took was 20 miles on concrete (ouch). It took us 10 hours. We mainly did it out of a shared interest in so-called "binge excercise" and self-directed adventure (ie: because it was there). We are also working on a video project that will be discussed further at some later date.
We left shortly after 5 am, and got to see the very end of Saturday night on Queen Street West, small straggling groups of bleary-eyed droogs, and two guys with a card table doing tarot readings in front of the Shoppers Drug Mart. Other points of interest, off the top of my head: sunrise over the Don Valley with waterfowl in the river below, coffee at 7:30 am in the "Stepford Beaches" which were full of blond women jogging. Also a jogging dad with stroller and labrador retriever who offered to take our picture. We declined. Big fence around the water treatment plant.
Kingston road was long. Pain set in for both of us around Midland, which was a major watershed as it meant we were at the edge of our Toronto map and had to turn it over to continue. Lots of trudging followed, punctuated by Freezies and Tim Hortons rest stops. By the time we turned off onto Old Kingston Road, the trudging was more like hobbling. But we went down into a really nice ravine with a park, marsh and river that cheered us up. There was also a very dead and smelly raccoon. Roads kill. Steep hills were a new factor, but being off the main road was a treat. Meadowvale was the final stretch. Crossing the 401 was post apocalyptic, as always, but the limping made it feel even more so. We had a lovely rest under some trees and took our shoes off. The final approach to the zoo included some confusion, as the road signs did not anticpate people arriving on foot. I think we might be the first people to ever walk to the zoo from downtown Toronto. I take Nanmac's point that this would be a dubious accolade.
Thankfully the zoo parking lot, our last hurdle, proved smaller and more shady than we'd feared and all of a sudden we had acheived our goal. Now we did want our picture taken, and a kindly fellow zoo patron obliged. That triumphant image is on Nanmac's camera right now. Maybe we'll post it someday, maybe we won't. We splurged on tickets for the train-like zoomobile to cart us around, but our zoo tasks nonetheless required more walking than we wanted. Once we were finished, however, we hauled ourselves onto a bus to Kennedy station and the TTC carried us right back home with no fuss.
I can't imagine conducting that expedition alone. Nanmac, I applaud you for your amibition, strength and resilient sense of humour. It was a great day with a great friend and I will always remember it!
- sally mckay 6-26-2006 10:54 pm
A 20 mile hike on concrete in all that ground level pollution. Holy Fucking Shit.
Crossing the 401 on foot under a blazing sun? Double Papal Holy Fucking Shit.
I think I'll enter you and nanmac in some Mark Burnett production, so I can watch it all in air conditioned comfort, with my cigarettes, a gin and tonic and a tub of frozen Cool Whip. (though it will make for much better television if the two of you could fight, cry a bit, attract a successful bachelor and redecorate each other's apartments while doing this) (I know you're both tired right now, but just think about it, would you?)
- L.M. 6-26-2006 11:28 pm
Wow.
Advil goes great with binge exercise!
- mark 6-27-2006 12:47 am
Aleeve is my current painkiller of choice. Unfortunately its only available in USA, so I hoard and ration my stash. But I brought some out for the zoo walk and mmm-mm those little blue tablets went down good at the end of the day.
- sally mckay 6-27-2006 12:53 am
Cool Whip also sounds good right about now.
- sally mckay 6-27-2006 12:57 am
Aleve is naproxen, available by prescription.
- galenagalaxian 6-27-2006 7:12 am
Holy, that roadway just doesn't look like walkable terrain.
When I was in grade 5 in Toronto, I had a friend called James, and he and I used to street-walk on Saturdays. We'd pack a little lunch, and pick a street, begin at 8 and go as far as we could. At 12 we sat on the curb and ate our lunch, and then walked home again. He was only in my school for one year, so I don't even remember his last name, but I remember really liking him. I know the idea was his, and I was an eager participant. We only did it two or three times. Finch, for one, and we went downtown on the TTC and did either St. Clair or Eglinton.
- M.Jean 6-27-2006 7:30 am
In junior high we did the same thing in small town, Saskatchewan. Walked up and down Broadway until someone in a Trans Am picked us up.
But I suppose that was more about teenage pregnancy than urban trekking.
- L.M. 6-27-2006 7:45 am
Hah! We didn't have Trans Ams. I am surprised that my folks let me go off on these adventures. My mom had a perennial fear of me being kidnapped. My dad thought that was hilarious. He said, "Why in hell would anybody want to kidnap her? We don't have two cents to rub together"! She finally admitted that her fears were based on my "radiant beauty." That made him laugh even more.
- M.Jean 6-27-2006 4:36 pm
l.m., your viewing pleasure could have been the inspiration i needed especially when i felt like the concrete had won and was making me a candidate for a hip replacement (this was somewhere between the dead raccoon on old kingston road and crossing the 401).
nice wrap up, sal. i had already forgotten about the queen street west part. it was pretty funny seeing the mix of hard-core, all-night partiers and the hard-core insomniacs up walking their dogs.
v. fun excursion.
- anonymous (guest) 6-27-2006 5:26 pm
that post was me...nanmac
- anonymous (guest) 6-27-2006 5:27 pm
wow, and i thought my twice daily walk from my house to essex and back was hard! i think my daily walk works out to be around 8km total but i take a 6 hour break between walks - with a coffee, lunch, snack, and emails in between.
- myfanwy (guest) 6-27-2006 11:04 pm
Ok, I'm impressed.
- rob (guest) 6-27-2006 11:34 pm
(And I don't mean that sarcastically.)
- rob (guest) 6-27-2006 11:35 pm
I used to wander about Houston via bicycle. To stay away from cars, I'd often ride along the sloped concrete that lined the bayous. I could ride for miles and miles and encounter hardly a person. (Looks like since then they've made it an official bike path.)
- mark 6-28-2006 4:53 am
I did that path when I last visited Houston. Dallas also has one that follows the White Rock Creek flood plain paralleling Central Expressway.
- tom moody 6-28-2006 6:15 am
Shit dudes, that's pretty impresive.
Did you look to make sure that the zoo was open before you left? How much would that have sucked?
- joester 6-28-2006 7:36 am
Nanmac asked me that same question about 5 hours into the walk.
- sally mckay 6-28-2006 7:46 am