durhamregion.com This Week | Thursday, June 9, 2022 | 16 Apply today at trafalgarcastle.ca DISCOVER OUR SMALL CLASS SIZES AND SUPPORTIVE ENVIRONMENT designed to help every student find academic success. ALL GIRLS • GRADES 4-12 With the weather warming up, the outdoors beckons. After a long, dreary winter, residents are excited about discarding down jackets and boots and slipping into hoodies and running shoes. It's time to get those feet moving, 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 environment. For an enjoyable local hike, make time to explore 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 require moderate skill with elevation gains of 20 metres up to 173 metres. Walk through Carolinian forests, traverse an old logging route, or visit wetlands, meadows and grasslands. 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 species, 44 mammal species, and 27 reptile and amphibian 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 homage to McCarthy, view the cliffs, bird watch and stop for a picnic along the rocks. This out-and-back trail is accessed from Ravine Drive. It is also known as Gates Gully because the Gates Inn and Tavern stood nearby during the Upper Canada Rebellion and served as a rallying spot for the Scarborough 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-created peninsula jutting into the bay, home to a variety of wildlife, including beavers, swans and groundhogs. It is a stopover for migrating birds, making it popular with birders. These critters share the space with eager walkers, cyclists, runners and rollerbladers. The park's flat, paved, multi-use trail runs most of the length of the spit. There are also designated 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 also 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 maintained year-round and walkers, runners and cyclists can enjoy cherry blossoms in season, as well as blooming magnolias, chestnut trees and other species. For a bit of cemetery tourism, visitors 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 wonderful 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 walkers, runners, cyclists and dog walkers and wide enough for physically distanced 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 favourite with children. HUMBER RIVER RECREATIONAL TRAIL, SOUTH The contiguous southern portion of this popular trail begins at Etienne Brulé Park near the Old Mill. It wends its way north through green spaces, 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 pedestrians. There are washrooms as well as park benches to sit and enjoy views of the Humber River, formerly a major Indigenous trading route. It is a lovely, albeit popular, urban wilderness, and you'll find birds, animals and wildflowers along its 10 TERRIFIC TRAILS ELAINE SMITH WHAT'S ON See A VISIT, page 17