Etienne Brulé Park

We visited Etienne Brulé park a couple of times - in both cases starting near the Old Mill just north of Bloor and South Kingsway.

The first time, we headed north and walked along the Humber up through Lambton Woods (almost to James Gardens - will have to see that another day!)  The second trip (see later in this blog) we walked South.

Starting from the parking lot (near Old Mill Rd and Catherine St) you can see the Old Mill bridge over to the Old Mill.

We saw a few (a lot of) Canada Geese.

And a little reminder of a big storm that came through the previous week.

One good thing about this part of the walk is that it had a lot of greenery and cover from the sun. Also, the sound of the Humber (and its many - over 100 - weirs). Here's one - not a good idea to canoe over it.

Just before getting into Lambton Woods we crossed the Humber just south of the Dundas St bridge)

Then walked further north - with another reminder of the previous week's storm. 

Saw this little guy beside the trail (sorry for the lack of focus).

Some cool artwork underneath the Dundas St bridge

And a small visitor sitting on the side of the van when we returned :-)

For our second trip, we headed south from Old Mill Road. This was a lot less 'green' than the previous trip, but not without its interesting parts. Here is a view from the Old Mill bridge - showing our van in the middle :-)

Then we passed the Old Mill subway station.

And some neat murals underneath:

South of there we walked mostly on bike trails/roads. And there was one stretch of about 3-4 city blocks that we had to walk through city streets before getting back into the South Humber Park. Once there though, we passed this really cool 1960's looking abandonded washroom.

It has that 1960's vibe, so I looked it up and it is actually the South Humber Park Pavilion (or 'Oculus Pavilion') (see this PDF file for more detail) and was built in 1959.

We walked down to Lakeshore, then decided to walk back along the other side of the Humber - going up Riverside Drive. I think to best see this part of the lower Humber you need to be on it!

While walking north on Riverside, we passed what looks to be an abandoned low brick walk-up apartment building (just north of the junction of South Kingsway and Riverside - here's a view from South Kingsway just for the heck of it) and then while thinking about how long that had been abandoned this house caught my eye. The vehicle didn't look like it had been moved in a while so I later looked up this property on Google maps.

Turns out that it looks good in 2009 (though the car doesn't seem to have moved an inch in that time!) and then some time before 2011 the tire went flat. And the 2015 picture actually shows a moving van out front that day! Though the vehicle remains and has slowly deteriorated since then. Seemed strange since this is such a desirable street - directly across from the Humber River with no houses on the other side so the view is 'locked in'. Maybe you can pick it up for a song?

(added) And then just north of here (and south of Bloor) there are some amazing houses. Huge mansions on large lots. For those who like looking at houses you will likely never be able to afford, include this area along with Rosedale, the Bridle Path, Forest Hill, etc, etc.