Walking The Beltline

It was raining today, but we have spent time in Scotland, where it seemed to rain each and every day, so we decided to venture out anyway. Our plan was to walk the Beltline Trail which runs close to Ryan's condo.

The Beltline Trail is a trail that runs east/west through Midtown Toronto. It utilizes the converted railbed from the old Toronto Belt Line Railway which was a commuter line established in 1890, but closed two years later after being unable to turn a profit. The city bought the rail line and tore up the tracks creating the trail in 1989. The trail is aprox. 9 km long, and joins with the trails through the the Mud Creek Ravine trail system and past the Evergreen Brickworks park. The trail ends in the neighbourhood of York at Eglinton West.

A Lovely Place to Walk

We joined the trail at the Yonge St. Bridge which crosses the Davisville Rail yard not far from the condo. Here we met the amazing train-spotting dog. As we came up to the bridge I saw a little dog eagerly peering through the railings looking for the subway trains which runs above ground here. I stopped and commented to his owner about his interest in the trains. She said it was his favourite activity. As the train approached, his tail started to wag eagerly and when the train roared under the bridge, he frantically ran to the other side and watched the train disappear into the station. Once the train was gone, he contentedly continued his walk.

Street Art Along the Way

The nice thing about this trail is that it is a narrow strip of green running right through Toronto, passing various neighbourhoods, including some amazingly huge houses worth many millions along with apartment blocks and many ordinary neighbourhoods. Along the way, the trail is intersected by a number of roads where you have to stop and cross when traffic allows, but you are then back into the lovely green walkway. The trail is well used and we met with many people and a number of dogs besides the amazing train-spotting one. Doing most of my walking in the friendly green space of Shube Park back home, people here in Toronto were taken back by these strangers greeting them with a “Good Morning”. Although obviously not the norm here in Toronto, most people smiled and returned with a friendly greeting as well.

A "Selfie" on the trail

The section of the trail we used ended with an enormous brick sound barrier at Allen Ave. Apparently you can cross this busy road and find the trail on the other side, but we took this as a spot to turn back and we continued our walk along the busy Eglinton St. Back to Yonge st.

Although prepared for rain, we managed the entire walk without getting wet until we got back to the condo, so it turned into a very pleasant morning walk.

Yard Art on the walk home