Don Valley or The Don and not Doncaster the Yorkshire town in the UK, as it’s known here in Toronto is today’s location. As we mention there is even a Trail Shop (Batemans) at one of the more urban trailheads.
We remember someone sending it on a Bixi bike on one of the Black Dimond trails. It also has a Dirt jump spot under the road bridge
A few Parts I have ridden are Sunny Book, Crothers Woods and Warden Woods
There are a number of Green and paved trails as well as a large number of Black Trails. There is a lot of blue, though some of it is harder than it looks.
Many of the Don Valley trails involve steep descents and assents with some built features.
Practice makes perfect here and trying to get a handle on the direction to tackle some of these trails makes things easier.
Jessica talks about, Garlic Mustard, Nettles, Black Raspberries, Pheasant Back Mushrooms, Japanese Knotweed, Puff balls, Oysters and Sumac. We also talk about birds and animals.
Also early spots of Shaggy Manes.
https://www.trailforks.com/map/?activitytype=1&z=14.7&lat=43.72519&lon=-79.36133
[Music] hello hello over to you well welcome back I suppose as we’ve had a little mini onewe Hiatus sorry about that everyone but we’re back in Action sort of no yeah we have a few things we’re moving house and that will mean more riding content in a new area and at the very least probably a bit of Trail maintenance and possibly some trail building stuff um and maybe a few other projects which we’re not going to talk about right now but um top secret yeah we’re moving to the Niagara area Fel Peninsula yeah and every time we go and ride we find trails that need a bit of love and maintenance I found one yesterday in fact so I’ll be doing a bit on that I think and a couple of bike reviews are coming as well so yeah but it’s uh we won’t be taking another break and a few people have emailed me to see if everything’s all right which is so sweet thank you everything is okay at least we have two fans yes thank you two fans um two fans that aren’t related to one of us well you but we’re trying to be all right it has been quite busy and full on lately but we we are still managing to get out into the woods to get lost so I will stop yammering on about that and we will dive into it here so we’re going to talk about the dawn Valley today or the dawn as Toronto Mountain bik that’s the hip way to call call it it’s the something the Dawn Dawn anyways hey Don is that a sleaford mod song I don’t think so don if it was it would be relev there’s the river Dawn in England which is near Doncaster which is not a tourist place to visit I shouldn’t have saying Doncaster is in South Yorkshire and I was born in York so I’m allowed to make comments but it’s uh it’s an interesting place to visit anyway yes anyway the dawn Valley or the dawn um River or the dawn whatever part of the Dawn you’re interested in uh the dawn is pretty special to me particular well both of us really but uh this is a this is a special episode to us yeah Special location especially as we’re leaving uh the city of so not the city of dawn the city of Toronto I think we start off with Jessica started her recent mountain biking is that fair recent it is I’m this would have only been my third season yeah which was mostly gone Rehabilitation yeah so so Jessica started her mountain biking career in in the dawn in the dawn um me and Dawn go way back years when because of Co and all of the other things that were Happening by the time Jessica’s bike turned up and I built it complete with adding a few parts it was October of 2021 by the time right you were good to go that’s right we did just one or two rides well I was going to say that season we managed two rides I think and the first ride was the the lower Dawn and we were just looking actually and a couple of the trails that Jessica rad were called o Eddie that’s a nice shout out to our best pal oi Eddie and DVP rollers so there’s a couple of couple of green trails at the bottom heading down towards the lake there so that’s kind of where you started and we that particular day we zigzagged on the green trails and back and forth on the Bay View Trail so all the way up to the brick works I think um where we had coffee and then we kind of meandered our way back home again but we’ll talk a bit more about the mountain bike trails but I think it was a good introduction wasn’t it it was a good sort of place to start the very first time it was I mean I had never ridden a mountain bike in my entire life that’s a lie I did one time with my sister sister Rachel um but prior to that I have had I had no exposure to a mountain bike um at all so yeah I’m I’m remembering back to even just like one little ditch going um do you remember it I got such a crotch killer cuz I didn’t even know how to ride down and up a ditch you to show me there’s a lot to learn I mean it’s yeah that’s but the very Basics well I guess so I mean you’d ridden bikes a lot a lot so you have well maybe with your KES injury it’s a bit less but you had a good base level of Fitness so like riding uphill and not running out of gas was fine I think uh you were questioning the sanity of wearing padded shorts until maybe your second ride and then you were realizing why we all have suspension and padded shorts in yeah yes please on the squishy shorts and that was on mud and no roots and rocks at that point so and shoes as well well I think I remember having that conversation like maybe we should get you some proper mountain bike shoes and you saying your Vans would be fine and yes and they were fine for some time they’re good to start with but they they have been they’re still in the back of the car in case of emergency but proper pedals that connect with your proper shoes all right all right a little bit better so I’m still never going to turn to the knee pads and elbow pads though or gloves you tell that now that’s true ask me in 2 years probably so so that was our kind of first first ride and then I’ve been kind of I’ve ridden a bit on and off in the Dom Valley but I’ve spent a fair bit of time then riding sort of further north really in the um kind of Sunny Brook area because that’s where Jessica’s lucky enough to work so well next door across the Ravine not quite at Sunnybrook but yes up in that area area and I have had that little Ravine and and the dawn River um to enjoy on many many many a lunch break over the last well almost two decades yeah and I think you’ve run in there you’ve kind of gone I’ve done a lot of things in there which a few of which we’re going to share with you and hence why I say this place has been quite sweet um quite sweet for me and to me and um and has been very generous to me yeah well both of us I think um anyway we can talk about that in a second so just just to kind of give a bit of an overview of the mountain bike trails in sort of my opinion and anybody that knows my view of the Dom Valley will know that um I have a view which I will share but um for a city the size that Toronto is to have so much green space and so many kilometers of Trail um I don’t think anybody really knows how lucky they are I can’t think of another city apart from maybe Bentonville or Washington where there’s just such a lot of mountain bike trails available um and the bit that I sort of I’ve ridden a fair few of the places so I’ve ridden K’s woods and Warden Woods uh which are two sort of regions of the da Valley which are a little bit further out or towards the end of it I guess but the bit that I’ve ridden most and I’ve not ridden it a lot maybe a dozen times is the trails that are around Sunnybrook and you can park in the dog walking car park and then you can easily access a couple of like you know fairly interesting Trails there’s this there’s one called roller floter which is very close to where you work which is the one that you quite often see people on I think um which has lots of ups and downs and the first time you ever ride it you can ride it in both directions but the first time you ever ride it if you ride it without walking either you’re on an ebike or you’re an Olympic Athlete because it took me like 10 times to figure out that you really need to carry all the momentum down to get back up the other side but the down are a little bit steep down and up and so you do have to kind of concentrate on what you’re doing and there’s a big drop on the side because it’s a ravine so requires quite a bit of focus to get it nailed yeah I was just going to say I I I have never ridden that trail and I think I would be too frightened to to be honest uh again at least for where I’m at but I have certainly run that trail and even running it is like a little bit scary and difficult particularly on wet leaves but uh and that’s what I was going to say about that a lot of the trails in the dawn that are bench cut so they’re hand cut into the side of the Ravine they were probably walking trails or animal Trails originally because of the surface it’s the lomy parts are fine so where the leafes leaves drop off the trees and rot and then they create that kind of Ideal surface but the mud is something else it just becomes like glass and icy like it’s almost slippery so we’ve had a very dry summer in relative terms and then like ash hour on it you ride on it immediately afterwards and you break you’re slipping front and back wheel it’s it’s just slippery which means when you try and climb up the other side unless you’ve got speed to carry then you just spin out which can be you know a little bit frustrating so I think always times I did we did ride another bit of it near the Brick Works that was a little bit exposed I think it was your first Blue Trail and I yeah I can’t quite remember the name of it I’ll look at it in a minute but um my one recollection was kind of being slightly concerned about you picking your way around the edge of that big cliff and then somebody came by on a Toronto H bike do you remember oh yes I do like the bixie bike yeah and they didn’t get up the hill but they were trying and it was like whoa okay I wonder if the city of Toronto know that they good for them their little higher bikes are being sent off of big jumps in the dawn Valley I would say A for effort yeah so one thing about the dawn is if you’re a beginner or you’re a family or a group of you riding at different levels wherever you access the black diamonds or the Reds um black diamonds singular or double black diamonds um or even some of the blues that are a bit more challenging this quite often green Trails or hard packed Trails right next to it or very close so you can kind of go and do your own thing you could do you know two of you are riding at different abilities one of you could do the blue one of you could do the green or one of you could do the red one of you could do the blue you can you they all cross over each other and it’s quite easy to arrange little meeting up points the couple of things I would just say just to be careful of though is if it’s a busy time I a weekend or a summer’s evening there are a lot of people that ride those trails that ride them every day or often and they know them really well and I do it I’ve done it as well in other places but you just have to be aware of people coming around the corner flat out or coming in the opposite direction very quickly because they know it and you don’t I was actually I remember being in there and that is one place where I would not want to ride first I would always ask you to go first because I am for that very reason and then the other thing is Runner less of an issue but people walk in their dogs and kids and it it’s it’s a trail system for everybody to use that’s in the middle of the city so be prepared to come across who knows what sometimes so oh I put your bells on yeah it’s a good place to ride but just have your kind of eyes and ears open I think we can we can talk a little bit more about some of the other riding things in a second so that particular area when Park in the car park near the dog walking place which I will put on the description below yes um that’s a bit of the Ravine that you know very well and I think on my first ever trip to Toronto we had a um a gorilla camping evening we did cuz we couldn’t go anywhere because of Co I guess yes and I also didn’t have a car and there’s that as well to take you anywhere so I took you on the bus to my favorite Woods my favorite local woods with a tent I think it was a train and a bus was it probably train a bus yeah probably two trains and two buses and then a walk yeah and then we got a bonfire going of course well campire they call the me um but it I guess it was interesting wasn’t it cuz there’s like nobody seemed to be bothered I think we wiped out in the mud together yeah probably more than once um yes that is this is one of the first spots I shared with Jamie my beloved Ravine so you’ve had a number of uh fires and kind of mini Expeditions down there yes uh well as I said I spend a lot of my lunch breaks in there and often even after work or there was lots of Fridays where I would decide uh at lunch hour I’m going to go to the supermarket and purchase a few things and then after work I would go down and cook dinner um make a little fire and just have dinner and hang out in the Ravine until late and then make my way home um so yes I have I have spent a lot of time in there running walking exploring having a fire eating spending the night um which I’m not really sure if you’re supposed to do but and it is an oasis isn’t it like it’s you could be I mean I I might put I’ll put one or two pictures on the um I’ll put a couple of pictures in the thumbnail for this but there are certain angles where you could take pictures of that place and you could be in the middle of a you know a mountain area couldn’t you could be in the middle of the Wilderness with the river running and the trees overhanging and the you know it’s quite a cool there’s just so many sweet spots and um there’s lots even that I haven’t explored but you know I’ve um that kind of Little Creek that juts off of uh off of the Dawn River um I’ve spent a lot of time in there and then going further up North toward uh York University I think it’s the Glendon campus and and I’ve gone and spent quite a lot of time traveling south on it or Southeast uh almost kind of even towards like behind the science center um but yeah there’s there’s just so many different sort of spots to go I’ve actually ridden some Trails the other side of the river so through the university and through the bridge that was barricaded but somebody like knock the barricade down um and it was technically closed because of danger trees I think cuz they were concerned about trees falling but I rode those Trails one afternoon when I came to meet you and I mean you can’t go and ride them you’re not supposed to but again it was like being in a little Wilderness looking at all the other people the other side the only downside was I had to Wade the river to get back which meant I got wet feet which was a bit annoying cuz I couldn’t I didn’t want to go all the way back again and I was probably running out of time so I do remember you showing up with wet feet I thought it was a shallow spot but it wasn’t that shallow but it wasn’t actually no and you just uh you just summed up what I was about to say is that one side of the river could actually be very quite different from the other side of the river um you know as is our experience say at Humber or like many places but it’s like twice the amount to explore in a way yeah I would say so and yeah we’ve also had weird things we camped up there and there was we came home at 2 o’cl in the morning because of the yeah the Rave that was going on I forgot all about that we literally did there was some huge party like in the mid they had like a generator out there and like a whole like stage and light show I mean it was like legit but I don’t know who the heck was putting that on it didn’t start till like 11 did it it gradually built up and built up and we were like surely they’re going to go in a minute and nope no we actually bailed yeah came home we did hang out with the cat yep and it was a long ride home especially when the street car didn’t turn up yep that’s that was a whole another adventure what was supposed to be a peaceful night of urban Inner City camping ended up part of a big party and then a long a long Trek home so so do you want to talk a bit about some of the wild things that you found in the in the old um sure you know what first I’m going to just recollect some of the different animals that I have observed in there over over the years because as I get thinking there’s pretty good little range of creatures that crawl about through there or fly about through there um there there are a lot of Vulcans in in that rine um in fact just even sat in my place of work the other day I’m certain I saw one fly by the window um well if you go to the bit of Ravine closest to where you are where we’ve sat for lunch is you can look down on them can’t you flying up and down the valley which is yeah we’ve seen them a number of times it’s it’s almost like a in that little Ravine spot where the um where that Creek or little mini river is it’s like a little pocket for that yeah I bet there’s some good hunting to be done in there gu that’s why they’re there probably squirrels Chipmunks yes and I’ve even seen like herons in there um flying over down in there do you have any idea what type of herons those would be you know your birds pretty well I get a bit confused cuz I think they’re probably they could be purple herons I think but I would have thought blue not blue possibly blue um in England they’re gray heron and they seem to be the same but they’ve got a different name in Canada which I could probably look up if I really should I guess well I’m sure over time we will get well I would like to get better at my bird identification along with tree identification and so on and so on but uh anyways um what else is down there uh I have seen definitely a couple of owls down in there which is such a treat on those Bon fire or camping nights that’s when I’ve seen them um beavers in the river Turtles uh I’ve seen a number of turtles just running but I do have a friend that has spent some time down there and she re she claims that there is a big huge would it be a snapping turtle like a big huge one yeah maybe and I wonder if it comes up from the I wonder if it comes up from the uh the lake yeah probably yeah there’s a there’s an older gentleman that lives in the in the marsh down there um so yes we do believe it is the great blue heron widely distributed in Canada that is likely what type of type of Heron is in there um I have also you know come across many snakes or little Garder snakes uh there are so so many Cardinals down in the the ravian Cardinals and blue jays but I can’t think of anywhere else I’ve ever been ever where I’ve seen as many Cardinals as I have down in there they’re everywhere and they are so cool um yeah they are and the the redwinged black birds are there as well isn’t there there’s a lot of those yep um do their little parachute they’re little angry fall out the tree um I have even seen turkeys in the Ravine while running I followed one one day and he wasn’t even fussed he just waddled along in front of me they do they know you’re not going to shoot them in there perhaps and of course one of our alltime faves is that there are plenty of bats down there good time to see them if you’re going down for a bonfire at dusk yeah they uh just follow the flies above the river I guess but they um yeah they bomb about as they do they’re cool to see for sure they they are so there’s just a few animals in Wildlife I’m sure that there’s you know coyotes and I’ve never seen any deer in there no and I was going to say I’ve never seen coyotes in there either actually or Fox but I’m sure that they but I’ve whereas I’ve seen coyotes in other parts of the city but never yeah never in there but maybe just where we are they just or have been they’re just not there perhaps but it’s pretty busy though as well whereas excuse me whereas on the Humber River it’s quieter so they get up in those higher areas where there’s no people whereas because of all the mountain bikes I think in the Dawn and people running maybe they uh they’re elsewhere cuz it’s too busy for them perhaps they don’t like people I don’t think much perhaps so um would you like me to talk about some edibles now I think so yeah I think let’s let’s get into into sort of what you some of the things have discovered over the years yes and this is actually kind of where all of my where my foraging um collecting of wild edibles like where it all kind of All Began for me yeah really um I it was the very first place that I ever found fiddle heads and um I would say that is one of the Edibles that really kicked things off for me and really you know got me going on like this is this is possible there’s a lot out there um there’s a lot to learn and a lot to find and it is out there like it’s just there yep um so I’m going to share with you this very very sweet location for a lot of wild free food um so here’s my list of of things that I have found found identified collected and eaten and we do always like to mention not died or gotten sick from um list of Edibles so there are fiddle heads there is tons of garlic mustard there is lots of stinging nettles there is there are a few really sweet patches of black raspberries there is some amazing spots that are some really jackpot trees for dryad saddle it is actually one of my favorite places in the whole city for pheasant back season and collecting great spot for Japanese knotweed like very very abundant lots of giant puff balls uh I have spotted One Singular shaggy mane in there and I wasn’t sure exactly what it was at the time I’m so sorry I left it behind but it was I did manage to to snap a beautiful photo of it though yeah and the one shaky Nam That Got Away it was early on wasn’t it so yeah it’s a big you know Shaggy Ms to look at they look strange and look like they should be deadly poisonous but they’re obviously not so yeah I think you know yeah and uh I think also for certain there’s some great patches of stag horn sumac and um refer to the website for cool recipes oh good one good one and some oyster mushrooms but a good good amount of elm oysters which we’ve been really enjoying this fall particularly might I just say yeah there’s definitely it’s been strange this year isn’t it with what we have found and haven’t found and I feel like we’ve normally would have found more oysters generally but we less Elm oysters and less Elm oysters but we seem to have been in spots where there’s been you know a lot of elm oysters and not so many regular oysters and even the big old ones do all right don’t they yeah we’ve been rocking one we picked up or you picked up last week that was you know the size of my head that was dry as a bone and actually once we nurse that it was good I mean you you checked there’s no bugs and um I think that’s a big indication right if it is dry it just needs a bit of moisture so just thirsty yeah it was good yeah so that’s uh that’s a bit of a list of some just some of the things that can be collected and consumed from this location and I’m sure that there’s plenty more that um I haven’t even learned about yet yeah my suggested car parking place which I will put for the link is we’re not going to tell you exactly where this stuff is but if you park in that spot near the dog walking and you go and poke about away from the hill in any direction really actually you might you might find one or two of these things to be honest or five or 10 or five or 10 um yeah and I the other thing I would say is that we’ve not seen an abundance of other people collecting like we have in other places either that’s true that is quite true CU I feel in other places you know if there was pheasant back say you go there and then all they’d all be gone so um I think that it seems that that area in particular there’s less people collecting so I would say that is true I’m often doing some pretty strange Maneuvers on my lunch break to such as I will give you an example finding a load of pheasant bags and I didn’t bring a bag or a knife so I will take off my shirt and create a sack back um and then sneak them in the building or often I will hide them somewhere outside and then I will come back at the end of the day and collect them um or sometimes if I don’t have a bag I’ll look for some litter and pick something up and inside it out and shake it off or rub it on some wet leaves so it isn’t going to be no mushroom gets left behind it’s not going to be mushroom poisoning it’s going to be poisoning from a bag that had something toxic in it that you found in the woods possibly yeah just getting creative I have a a couple of other things to mention um have you got anything else before I no I think I’ve tried to share as much as I as much as the Ravine has uh has shared with me I have tried to share with our beloved listeners so a couple of other little things um the dawn Valley Trail network is is such a thing that there is a um there’s a bike shop called the trail head or Trail shop which is baitman uh baitman are a you know fairly long-and in Toronto B yeah I bought one of I bought my first hybrid bike from them uh I don’t know the guy that owns it really but I do know one of the mechanics there that’s bailed me out on more than one occasion when I’ve been going away and fittting me in when he really shouldn’t have done even during covid uh so I would say they’re worth a visit if you need anything or also they’re pretty good at giving advice and they do have a little bit of bike hire as well so if you were going with somebody that needed a bike you could you could hire one I also have a memory of that first hybrid bike that I purchased from them I then had stolen and returned with a with a can full of change and the man let me sit on the floor and dump it out and count out several hundred in change and took it to buy a new one to buy a new one cuz I liked it so much so that yes they’re good people yeah I would say so uh sweet pete did have a bike shop in the brig works but I think they I think that’s gone now um whenever we went there the only that was there was a coffee shop and I so I I don’t think that is an option and then the other thing I was going to say is if you’re into dirt jumps or somebody in your family is and again I don’t know if it’s a top secret location but on the Dom Valley somewhere between the brick works and Sunnybrook is a road bridge and under the road bridge is um a set of dirt jumps which was very popular when we went past it whenever that was in the summer it would was it a little bit gorilla probably yeah I mean it was quite cool I think everybody knows about it but they probably don’t tell the council cuz if the council know about it they probably have to flatten it for safety reasons or something probably so but if that there is a there’s a set of dirt jumps floating around and then personally the other one of the other things about this area that I quite like is the historic architecture so You’ be riding along in the bottom of the valley and then suddenly there’s a huge train trundles across some massive metal Viaduct that kind of spans the whole of the the valley which I think is pretty cool and then the other bizarre thing is there’s other bits you’ll ride and then there’s like a main road with buses and things going across and you can hear people talking above your head but they’re on the the road that links one part of Toronto to the other that big highway I guess it’s the what is it is it the dawn Valley Parkway or something or is it the bridges that bridge I don’t actually know which part it is now or is it Eglington that’s what it is it’s Eglington I think there’s anyway you’ll if you ride it you’ll see what I mean there’s these big huge Road bridges that go across the top of um of the Valley of the da Valley stuff and you can kind of hear people chatting and it’s uh it’s it’s a very unique environment that if you’re here and you got a bike it’s definitely worth exploring giving it a try definitely um yeah and I I think I I’ve enjoyed the bits of riding I’ve done there I am looking forward to riding where there’s less people that’s just cuz that’s me but I yeah I I would always say it’s worth a visit and worth giving it a go if you’re here definitely that would be my thought do you have anything else you would like to add I would just like to say thank you to Dawn whoever Don is so there’s one more thing to say get [Music] lost