LeasideLife issue 32 draft 3_LeasideLifev1 14-09-22 10:50 PM Page 1
No. 32 • October 2014
Leaside Life leasidelifenews.com
Angels of charity - Page 38
COME ON IN By JEFF WALKER Attention South Leaside and Bennington Heights walkers, joggers, and stroller-pushers: Unlike your northof-Eglinton ‘kin,’ you may be unaware of a nature wonderland right on North Leaside’s doorstep. Other nearby nature walks such as the Rosedale Ravine and the Belt Line have more obvious entranceways. This one, at the very northern tip of Sutherland, at Glenvale, features two black-lantern-topped brick arches beckoning. But only the Toronto Rehab or Lyndhurst Centre seemingly lie beyond. Not so. Hang a right past the arches and your journey begins. Take the paved path past the car-gate or cut across the sprawling lawn studded with pine. You’ll soon come to a blue Dogs Must Be Kept on Leash sign near a pile of loose stones. Go past the open iron gate and you’ll find yourself on a paved nocars-allowed road that winds rather steeply downward, affording a brac-
Walk the wilds of Leaside ing view of a forested sheer drop, at the bottom of which you might make out romping dogs. More on that shortly. Bear in mind that you’ll eventually be walking back up that same hill, though I did see a cyclist managing to puff his way to the top. After
several minutes you arrive at a small bridge with concrete abutments and a concrete flow-way beneath, your first babbling brook with pleasing views on either side. Proceed along the path until a spacious fenced-in field appears on your left: the Sunnybrook Park Dogs Off Leash Area, three football fieldsworth shaped into a triangle. Owners I talked to enthused that it’s a great space where dogs can really let loose, and socialize. The downside? A faulty water fountain and a fence on the woodsside that’s too low to contain larger friskier canines. (Interested dog owners, go to www.facebook.com/ groups/sunnybrookdogpark/.) Just before the dog park, an initially-paved path heads left (west), and presents the option of a 20-minute add-on walk, along Burke Brook, which meets the West Don a bit further east. The trail shadows the tributary closely and pic-
Four new inductees in our Sports Hall of Fame, Pages 2-3 The Leaside Gang that made Canada Happy, Page 14
WALK, Page 4