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Lake Shore Avenue, Toronto?
I've been doing a decent amount of business in Toronto lately and recently
noticed that there's a cool-looking bike path along the water, adjacent to Lake Shore Drive. It looks like a perfect place to take my wife, a purely "casual" bicyclist at best, this summer. My questions: 1. Where would you suggest starting if we stay at a hotel along Lake Shore? Is the Four Pointes Hotel near the beginning of the path? 2. Is there a place to rent bikes, as we'll probably fly into Buffalo from Long Island, NY, and drive to Toronto? 3. How far into the city does the path go? Does it maintain its integrity all the way, or am I correct in noticing that it seems to fall apart as you get close to the city? 4. How many miles would you say we can get out of it? She can do about 15-20, tops, in a day. 5. Can you suggest points of interest along the way? The Exposition Center looks like a definite stop. What else is there in the summertime? 6. Any websites, newsgroups, bike clubs to check with on this? Thank you! |
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#2
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Lake Shore Avenue, Toronto?
"NYRides" wrote in message v.net...
I've been doing a decent amount of business in Toronto lately and recently noticed that there's a cool-looking bike path along the water, adjacent to Lake Shore Drive. It looks like a perfect place to take my wife, a purely "casual" bicyclist at best, this summer. My questions: 1. Where would you suggest starting if we stay at a hotel along Lake Shore? Is the Four Pointes Hotel near the beginning of the path? I don't know the Four Points, but the path goes all the way across Toronto (with a few gaps.) The Harbour Castle hotel is nice - on Queen's Quay, where the trail actually goes across the core (Lakeshore is almost a highway, there, under the shadow of another hightway. Not at all nice.) 2. Is there a place to rent bikes, as we'll probably fly into Buffalo from Long Island, NY, and drive to Toronto? In the summer, I've noticed cruiser rentals near Harbourfront (downtown.) If you're at one end or the other, that might not be useful. Check the links below for lists of bike shops - some of them might do rentals. 3. How far into the city does the path go? Does it maintain its integrity all the way, or am I correct in noticing that it seems to fall apart as you get close to the city? It disappears for a while when you're due south of the financial district but the road there is very ridable. It also has gaps in Etobicoke, but the car traffic there is much slower so it's not a big deal. 4. How many miles would you say we can get out of it? She can do about 15-20, tops, in a day. No problem. There are several other trails that more-or-less connect to the Martin Goodman/Lakeshore trail, notably up the banks of the Humber River (in the west) and the Don River (in the east.) 5. Can you suggest points of interest along the way? The Exposition Center looks like a definite stop. What else is there in the summertime? The Ex actually causes a problem in the summer, as does the Molson Indy, as they cause the trail to be closed in spots. Harbourfront has lots of antiques and such. The Beach area in the east end is fun, with cafes and, well, the beach. From the foot of Bay Street, you can catch a ferry to the islands - very nice on a bike. 6. Any websites, newsgroups, bike clubs to check with on this? Try he Toronto Bicycling Network http://tbn.on.ca/ and here (big PDF map of the trails, etc.) http://www.toronto.ca/cycling/cyclingmap_2003.htm |
#4
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Lake Shore Avenue, Toronto?
"NYRides" wrote in message v.net...
I've been doing a decent amount of business in Toronto lately and recently noticed that there's a cool-looking bike path along the water, adjacent to Lake Shore Drive. It looks like a perfect place to take my wife, a purely "casual" bicyclist at best, this summer. This is the Martin Goodman trail which is part of the larger waterfront trail which is a connection of miscellaneous trails around Lake Ontario from Niagara Falls to Kingston. http://www.waterfronttrail.org My questions: 1. Where would you suggest starting if we stay at a hotel along Lake Shore? Is the Four Pointes Hotel near the beginning of the path? If you are staying at a hotel near Lakeshore West in Etobicoke, you can start from anywhere along there. The Humber Bay bridge which you can see from the Lakeshore (cool looking white bridge for bicycles and pedestrians) is pretty much the "end" of the trail from the perspective of the dedicated path. Then if you ride on Lakeshore itself for a short distance, you can hook up with the rest of the Waterfront trail- there are paths again separate from the road in Mississauga. But another nice ride if you want to head westward along the waterfront trail is up the Humber River trail which you can probably travel on until your wife gets tired. Check out the city of Toronto cycling map which marks the waterfront trail, Humber Trail, Don Trail, etc. http://www.toronto.ca/cycling has a link to the map. 2. Is there a place to rent bikes, as we'll probably fly into Buffalo from Long Island, NY, and drive to Toronto? The places close to the waterfront trail to rent bikes tend to be popular and a bit pricey. (a friend rented the last bike they had (sorry I don't remember the name of the joint) - a crappy bike there for about $20 a day) For $25 a YEAR (good if you are going to come back to Toronto again) you can get a membership for the yellow bikes program. http://www.bikeshare.org/bikeshare.html 3. How far into the city does the path go? Does it maintain its integrity all the way, or am I correct in noticing that it seems to fall apart as you get close to the city? You can ride maybe 5 km east (?) from the Humber bridge, then you need to ride along Queen's Quay through the downtown to rejoin with the other end of the trail. Once you get to Cherry street you have a couple of choices. You can take the shorter way across the spit area and just ride on the Lakeshore path. You can head north along the Don trail. Look at the city map, you can ride north about 15 km on the trail before it breaks up, then you can follow residential streets to the other end of the Don trail and ride it up to Steeles. You can head down Cherry street and along Unwin which goes close to the water (I believe the bike trail goes to the side so you can follow the water off the road) Once you get to Leslie street (by either directly across or the longer scenic route) you can head south through Tommy Thompson park aka "the spit" which is a nice peaceful route. I think its about 7 km long (?) and when you get to the end there is a hill with a lighthouse where you can get a nice view of the downtown (esp at sunset) East of Leslie street, you can continue on either the north or south side of Lakeshore (there is a trail on both sides, but stick to the south if you want to head to the end of the trail) You will then pass through a neighbourhood called the Beach/Beaches (depending on who you talk to) - here you will have an unobstructed view of the lake and there will be a boardwalk to the side of the trail. If its a weekend, there will be tons of rollerbladers and others on the path so it will be slow going but its fun for people watching and you can sit on the trail and enjoy the view of the lake. Just beyond the end of the trail (you may have to push your bikes through the sand) is the water filtration plant - which is up on the bluffs with an excellent view, and its a neat 1930's art deco building. Beyond the end of the trail here, if you want to rejoin the waterfront trail you would have to ride about 13 km along Kingston Road to connect with it. Its reasonably busy and fine for an experienced cyclist but would not suggest it for a casual cyclist. However if you got bored and wanted to try points east, you can take you bikes on the Go trains on the weekend so you could take the bikes to the Rouge Hill Go train stop and then ride on the trails in Pickering from here. 4. How many miles would you say we can get out of it? She can do about 15-20, tops, in a day. Really as many as you want if you connect up with the Humber or Don trails, or the other parts of the waterfront trails that go through other cities. A nice ride is actually to take the bikes on the ferry to the island (costs about $6 return) and ride around there. Its car-free and pleasant. Its only a couple km around but there's three sections - Ward's island, a residential section where people live, Centre Island, a children's amusement park, and Hanlan's point (clothing optional beach) There are also some nice normal beaches along here so you may want to hop off the bikes and go for a swim. The ferry docks at the foot of Bay street along the trail. 5. Can you suggest points of interest along the way? The Exposition Center looks like a definite stop. What else is there in the summertime? Humber Bay bike bridge (nice view), Ontario Place, Harbourfront Centre (art gallery), Harbourfront Antique market, ferry to the island, Leslie spit (view), boutique stores in the Beach area (once you see boardwalk head north on one of the side streets and the first main street you hit is Queen), water filtration plant (I think has tours on the weekend) Most anything you want to do downtown is only a short bike ride north off the trail as well. There are a lot of post and ring bike stands everywhere downtown making it easy to lock your bike and check out attractions. 6. Any websites, newsgroups, bike clubs to check with on this? See the sites I listed above - definitely look at the Toronto cycling map, the waterfront trail site (though their maps on their site seem sparse, they do publish a handy map booklet) TBN (Toronto bike network) has rides on Sunday mornings that you might be interested in joining up with - they have a Leisure Wheeler and Easy Roller categories for more casual cyclists, and Tourist and Sportif categories for serious cyclists. http://www.tbn.on.ca. ont.cycling might be able to help answer your questions as well. Enjoy your visit! |
#5
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Lake Shore Avenue, Toronto?
massively snipped
Hey Tanya, Were you riding with TBN this year? Once again I bought my membership, and once again, work interfered with my riding! Shirley Hicks |
#6
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Lake Shore Avenue, Toronto?
A mukluk wearing troll wrote in message . ..
massively snipped Hey Tanya, Were you riding with TBN this year? Once again I bought my membership, and once again, work interfered with my riding! Shirley Hicks Hi Shirley, Only managed to get on one ride this year with them. I just pay the $5 per ride rather than buy a membership because I figure I won't go with them often enough. I like the fun of self-guided explorations (though I tend to get lost, and sometimes end up picking not-so-pleasant routes) Did you manage to get some TBN rides squeezed in with work? Tanya |
#7
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Lake Shore Avenue, Toronto?
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#8
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Lake Shore Avenue, Toronto?
A mukluk wearing troll wrote in message . ..
Where have you gone riding in the city? I've done the lower Humber from Lawrence south, but not the upper section. Haven't successfully found the exit up to the surface road that you have to take to connect the two bits. For fun rides this year I have done Don Trail (lower and upper), waterfront trail (all sections in the city itself), rode up to Stouffville (used 9th line/Reesor Road coming back which hits the city near the zoo, very pleasant country road), Humber trail until I got lost (think I ended up around Eg), a Mississauga ride with TBN, rode up to Kleinburg (Weston Road through Woodbridge has crazy drivers, not recommended), rode east to Pickering (mostly using Kingston Road), Leslie Spit, the island, Beltline, Cedarvale ravine, Mt. Pleasant cemetary, Moore Park ravine, rode to Brantford (128 km - longest ride this year, went on waterfront trail or Lakeshore Road to Hamilton, and then rode on the Hamilton-Brantford rail trail which actually runs all the way to Cambridge), loops along Commissioners/Unwin, Ride for Heart (always fun biking on highways without cars, oh ya also rode on Allen Expressway when it was closed to cars for the Stones concert) Haven't tried Etobicoke creek yet, must try that out. Always looking for new places to go exploring. For commuting and shopping biking I usually bike on Queen, College/Gerrard and Bloor/Danforth. Have explored neighbourhoods in downtown, a few in midtown, and gotten lost in some in Etobicoke, but haven't done much Scarborough exploring or north of 401 neighbourhoods. Any recommendations of fav neighbourhoods (anywhere in the city) for exploring? |
#9
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Lake Shore Avenue, Toronto?
Okay, okay...you guys are having WAY too much fun with my original post,
which was just a simple request from a naive Yankee for suggestions about a short ride on the waterfront path this summer. I want to take my wife up there and she's not much of a cyclist. She can only do about 20-25 miles at a pop, but she loves every second of it. We're willing to combine biking with a ferry ride, etc. Sorry to get back on the subject , but can anybody suggest a starting and ending point that includes: 1. Restaurants and/or places to stop for a pint along the way 2. Cool stuff to see and do, like the Canadian Exhibition Center, etc. 3. Toronto 4. Places with bathrooms 5. A place to rent bikes 6. A decent hotel at which to leave our baggage 7. LOTS and LOTS of waterfront!!! Thanks! Tom from New York www.geocities.com/NYRides |
#10
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Lake Shore Avenue, Toronto?
Here's a plan... (BTW I got everything from our CycleCanada Directory
except for bike friendly accommodation, but I am working on that.) Stay: Roehampton Best Western Hotel and Suites. http://book.bestwestern.com/bestwest...ertyCode=66068 This is a smallish and reasonably priced hotel in a really nice residential area of Toronto. Steps from the famous Chicken Deli Jazz club on Mt. Pleasant and an easy walk to a number of outstanding restaurants on Yonge at Davisville like Granos, Stork on the Roof. It's also close to the bike rental shop. You'll be a little north of the downtown but not far from the ravine recreational paths. Rent Bikes: CyclePath (Yonge north of Davisville) http://twowheeltravel.ca/ Getting around: You should be able to get a cycling map of Toronto at CyclePath which will help make sense of the route below. But any detailed map of Toronto will do as well. There is a pdf version of the cycling map he http://www.toronto.ca/cycling/cyclingmap_2003.htm Roughly the route: Head east from the hotel to Sunnybrooke Hospital. Mostly on residential back roads for 10 minutes or so, then you'll be on Bayview a bit where you head north to get to the hospital (5 minutes or so). From the hospital you work your way through the hospital grounds and head down to the ravine. The ravine has a network of shared parths that are popular with cyclists. You can get to Edwards Garden from here and also follow the path south to the Lakeshore. At the Lakeshore you can head east to the Beaches on the Martin Goodman trail or west towards downtown, take the ferry to the island or keep going west along the lake. Heading home you can retrace your route on the paths or simply head north Sherbourne, following a marked bike route (it used to be better before they striped it with a bike lane but that's my personal view). This will take you through Rosedale, which is very pleasant and onto Bayview again. Heading north on Bayview for a short distance you can either deak thorough the Mount Pleasant cemetary to Mount Pleasant Ave. (if the gates haven't closed) or take Moore. At that point you aren't far from the hotel. If you find that once downtown you have had enough riding you can always hop on the Yonge subway to Eglinton and it's a couple of blocks to the hotel. As long as it's not rush hour, no problem getting the bikes on the subways. You'll find our subway system quite pleasant. It's easy to navigate in Toronto because of the CN Tower, which is at the Lake at the south point of the city and viewable from just about anywhere. Regards Margot p.s. After that, join us on our trip to Montreal. It's a classic http: www.cyclecanada.com/bique.html 1. Restaurants and/or places to stop for a pint along the way 2. Cool stuff to see and do, like the Canadian Exhibition Center, etc. 3. Toronto 4. Places with bathrooms 5. A place to rent bikes 6. A decent hotel at which to leave our baggage 7. LOTS and LOTS of waterfront!!! Thanks! Tom from New York www.geocities.com/NYRides |
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