The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

in si de ha lto n. co m O ak vi lle B ea ve r | T hu rs da y, Ju ne 9, 20 22 | 24 AAA All Commercial and ResidentialDisposal services Serving Oakville, Burlington, Milton & Mississauga 586 Third Line, Oakville•905-337-8686 • www.aaadisposal.org *S om e re st ric tio ns ap pl y Mention Promo Code Oakville Beaver and receive 10% OFF the Price of Your Bin RentAl* 10% Off House of commons cHambre des communes canada Anita Anand, M.P. Oakville Celebrate Canada Day with a lawn sign from MP Anita Anand @AnitaOakville905-338-2008anita.anand@parl.gc.ca @AnitaAnandMP @AnitaAnandMP Constituency Office 301 Robinson St. Oakville, ON L6J 1G7 To request a sign, contact my constituency office at With the weather warming up, the outdoors beckons. After a long, dreary winter, residents are excited about discard- ing down jackets and boots and slipping into hoodies and running shoes. It's time to get those feet mov- ing, and, luckily, there's no need to go far. The GTA has many trails that provide the chance for exercise while enjoying a landscape that belies the urban environ- ment. For an enjoyable lo- cal hike, make time to ex- plore what this part of the province has to offer, with trails listed from east to west: ROUGE NATIONAL URBAN PARK Welcome to Canada's first urban national park. Across from the Toronto Zoo, Rouge offers visitors 10 hiking trails ranging from 0.5 to 7.6 kilometres. Some are easy, others re- quire moderate skill with elevation gains of 20 me- tres up to 173 metres. Walk through Carolinian for- ests, traverse an old log- ging route, or visit wet- lands, meadows and grass- lands. It's a nice place to picnic, and you can fish in the Rouge and tributaries if you have a licence. The park boasts more than 1,000 species of plants, 247 bird species, 73 fish spe- cies, 44 mammal species, and 27 reptile and amphib- ian species. DORIS MCCARTHY TRAIL Named for the Toronto artist who lived in the Scarborough Bluffs area, this trail takes walkers and off-road cyclists down a moderately steep hill to the shore of Lake Ontario and meanders along the base of the bluffs. See the sculpture that pays hom- age to McCarthy, view the cliffs, bird watch and stop for a picnic along the rocks. This out-and-back trail is accessed from Ra- vine Drive. It is also known as Gates Gully be- cause the Gates Inn and Tavern stood nearby dur- ing the Upper Canada Re- bellion and served as a ral- lying spot for the Scarbor- ough Militia that defended Toronto. LESLIE STREET SPIT East of Cherry Beach on Ashbridge's Bay sits Tommy Thompson Park on the Leslie Street Spit. The spit is a human-creat- ed peninsula jutting into the bay, home to a variety of wildlife, including bea- vers, swans and ground- hogs. It is a stopover for migrating birds, making it popular with birders. These critters share the space with eager walkers, cyclists, runners and rol- lerbladers. The park's flat, paved, multi-use trail runs most of the length of the spit. There are also desig- nated pedestrian trails and nature trails that bring visitors closer to the park's wildlife. There are also lovely views of the lake. MOUNT PLEASANT CEMETERY A cemetery trail may sound macabre, but it is al- so quiet and beautifully landscaped. The cemetery is not only a burial place, but an arboretum with many old, magnificent trees. It's so popular with locals, cemetery manager the Mount Pleasant Group has created one, three and five-kilometre trails. The grounds are well main- tained year-round and walkers, runners and cy- clists can enjoy cherry blossoms in season, as well as blooming magno- lias, chestnut trees and other species. For a bit of cemetery tourism, visi- tors can seek the graves of musician Glenn Gould, prime ministers William Lyon MacKenzie King and John Turner, and Sir Frederick Banting and Charles Best, discoverers of insulin. KAY GARDNER BELTLINE TRAIL This trail is a wonder- ful option for a drizzly day because it is protected by tree canopy for much of its 4.5 kilometres. The dirt trail follows the rail bed of the old Toronto Belt Line Railway, stretching from Mount Pleasant Road to the Allen Expressway. Very popular with walk- ers, runners, cyclists and dog walkers and wide enough for physically dis- tanced walks, it passes through Forest Hill and its rest stops are named for train stations of old. Iron horses line the bridge overlooking the subway line at Yonge Street, a fa- vourite with children. HUMBER RIVER RECRE- ATIONAL TRAIL, SOUTH The contiguous south- ern portion of this popular trail begins at Etienne Brulé Park near the Old Mill. It wends its way north through green spac- es, around Baby Point, through Magwood Park and Lambton Woods and on to Lambton Park, home to the James Gardens. There are parallel routes, a paved multi-use path and a gravel/dirt trail for pe- destrians. There are wash- rooms as well as park benches to sit and enjoy views of the Humber Riv- er, formerly a major Indig- enous trading route. It is a lovely, albeit popular, ur- ban wilderness, and you'll find birds, animals and wildflowers along its 10 TERRIFIC TRAILS ELAINE SMITH WHAT'S ON See A VISIT, page 25