A Walk in an Empty Park

Hello bats! I've been meaning to start writing posts about my everyday adventures, however mundane they may be. I spend a lot of time exploring the city by myself (loved urbexing as a teen - never went anywhere exciting, though) and I almost always take a camera with me, so I might as well write about it, too. I've got a running list of all the interesting places I'd like to visit and photograph.

 

Anyway, today I decided that I needed some exercise, so I wanted to bike to a park and get some sunshine. Even though it was sunny out, the ground was quite wet and muddy so I threw on a very comfy coord. I didn't want to risk getting a fancier outfit dirty. I didn't want to lug my camera and tripod on my bike, so I took a few shots on my phone.

 

Cutsew: Atelier17

Blouse: Marciano

OTKs: Alice and the Pirates

Shoes: Doc Martens

Accessories: Offbrand

Toronto is a great place to live if you like  green space! This city has so many beautiful parks and trails to explore on foot or by bike. Most of these parks are connected to the extensive ravine system that crisscrosses nearly the entire city. There are a number of major rivers and wetlands in these parks as well, so you can see all sorts of aquatic life in addition to the more typical forest creatures (birds, deer, rabbits, foxes, etc.).

In decades past the ravines were allowed to fall into disrepair or were paved over for building projects. Toronto has bouts of flooding pretty regularly, but parklands and rivers can usually absorb the worst of it and protect built-up areas from flooding. Development started to encroach onto the ravines in the 1950s, which is also when Hurricane Hazel decided to steamroll the city. The rivers and ravines flooded - many people drowned and neighbourhoods were destroyed. Now, development along the ravines is banned.

An aerial shot of the Lower Don Trail. [source]

Now large tracts of ravine parkland are protected lands and some parts are essentially untouched, natural forest. There have also been several projects to revitalize and protect the remaining areas, such as replanting trees and removing invasive species. I visited one of the ravines near my childhood home today.

My sentiments exactly.

Back in high school I used to wake up at 6AM to run along this trail before class. Normally in the morning it's busy with commuters, runners, cyclists, and dogwalkers. Today I saw quite a few people, but it was much quieter than usual. Most days it would be difficult to get a shot like this with no people at all. The bridge in the picture is an extremely busy main street, but today it also had very little auto traffic.

Also, I found an abandoned trampoline in the woods, over a kilometre away from any of the park entrances. Who brings a whole-ass trampoline over a kilometre into the woods??

I ran into a few nature photographers on the trail. On quiet days you can get some great wildlife shots here, and it's probably never going to be as quiet as it is now. I've seen bats, coyotes, rabbits, hawks, and foxes lots of times...some people have reported seeing eagles (?!) but I've never seen anything super interesting.

It turns out going this deep into the park was a huge mistake because the pollen levels are still absolutely ridiculous. I ended up turning around and going home because I couldn't stop wheezing and people were giving me funny looks. All of my allergy symptoms are similar to COVID-19 symptoms (sore throat, laboured breathing, coughing, chest pain) so you can imagine what my anxiety's been like for the past few weeks - I've been on heavy allergy meds since the beginning of March.

The rest of my trip was pretty uneventful. It was kind of fun writing a log of a mundane daily activity like this, though! I used to journal extensively as a kid, and I documented almost everything pretty thoroughly. I'll have to do it again sometime.

[Current Music: KMFDM - Megalomaniac]