Hiking Toronto for Dog Lovers

If you're looking for the least used trail along the Don River, this has to be it.  The Don River East flows through the parkland south of Eglinton Ave between the Don Valley Parkway and Bermondsey Road. User-created trails have been used for years, but the city is finally building official trails with bridges and eventually a safe way over the train tracks. Since the trail is still under construction, you may not be able to access it while work is being done. Also, the details in this blog will be out of date once the trail is finished. Charles Sauriol Conservation Area According to a label on Google Maps, the section of the East Don River trail between Taylor Creek and Lawrence Ave is part of Charles Sauriol Park. You may have noticed the monument to Charles Sauriol in the E. T. Seaton parking lot just north of the elevated wetlands. Presumably, there will eventually be a continuous hiking trail along the Don River from forks north to Lawrence Avenue. There are no official hiking

Earl Bales is a large park with Sheppard Ave West to the north and Bathurst Street to the west.  There are many hiking trails in this park that we enjoy exploring, but only in the winter can the general public walk the golf course. The Don Valley Golf Course is south of Earl Bales and allows hikers and dogs to visit the property during the winter months. We've blogged about this trail before. See  Earl Bales Park . For this hike, we start at the community centre off of Bathurst Street, visit the dog park, walk past the ski hill, along the Don River to the golf course. We've previously turned back at the 401, but this time we continued to Wilson Ave for a 9 km hike. Parking There is no shortage of parking spots in the winter. The parking near the Community Centre is located at 4169 Bathurst Street . Dog Park We followed the signs down to the dog park. The trail is between the community centre and the Barry Zukerman Amphitheatre. As usual, we met new friends at the off-leash dog