Posted by If you google “running trails Toronto” – the top five running trails you will find are (in no specific order): The Beltline trail, Martin Goodman trail, trails in High Park, Don Valley trail and Humber River trail.
All the five trails are lovely to run/walk/bike through, but at this time of the year they seem to possess a different kind of energy altogether, where all the energy appears to be exuded in the form of fiery red, orange and yellow colors, subdued in places by jovial green .
Of all the trails, our least visited is the Beltline trail. So Yogesh and I, for my 28th day of the challenge, decided to pay this trail another visit.
Before hitting the Beltline trail, we went into the Don Valley Brick Works (Evergreen Brick Works); there is a small hill there, the top of which gives way to an amazing view of the city. Yogesh had never been so it was the perfect opportunity to visit one of my favourite places in town.
The Brick Works is so called because it used to be a quarry and industrial site that provided bricks for construction. Its bricks were used to construct many landmarks of Toronto, like the Casaloma, Osgoode Hall, Massey Hall, etc (Wikipedia). It is now a city park and a cultural center that is focused on the community and on restoring nature in urban environments. Although very close to bustling downtown Toronto, it is a serene place to be in at any time of the year.
The Beltline trail has an entrance at the Don Valley Brick Works that we took. It then goes on into the Mount Pleasant Cemetery, which itself is absolutely beautiful. It seems dark to call a cemetery beautiful, but it is just so tranquil… In fact, the Mount Pleasant Cemetery is a national Historic site of Canada. It is huge, 200 acres, and I have lost my way inside the cemetery many many times (actually every time I visited the cemetery by myself). Thankfully, always during daylight.
The whole length of the trail is 9 km (18 km return) and goes through some of the most gorgeous and scenic places/neighbourhoods of Toronto. We did only 4 km of it and retuned, completing about 8 k.
I don’t think the Beltline trail, or any of the other 4 trails for that matter, is considered a tourist destination or anything of that sort, but I truly think it is one of the nicer places/walks/trails of Toronto and is definitely worth a visit.
I will not be covering the other trails as a part of this specific blog series, but I do hope to cover them independently in the near future.
The Never-ending Quest for a Passion 