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The Leslie Street |
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Thursday, 24 April 2008 |
The Leslie Street spit is a huge man-made projection jutting out into Lake Ontario and running south and west from the bottom of Leslie Street.. The project was started in the 1950s in order to protect the harbour area and the Toronto Islands from storm damage. Those who are up on the natural history of Toronto will know that for thousands of years storms have taken material from the Scarborough bluffs and deposited the sand and silt in such a way as to form the Toronto Islands and create a natural harbour. Early this century, the Toronto Islands were connected to the mainland and were, in fact, a natural spit. Then, a huge storm ripped open the eastern gap and the island was created. While it is true that the island and harbour benefit from the protection of the Leslie Street Spit the biggest beneficiary of the project was the Toronto construction industry which, for decades, had a cheap dump for all of the excavated material coming out of construction sites around town. Now, only broken concrete is being dumped at the spit -in an effort to protect the spit from storm damage! A truly ironic situation indeed. As a result of the ongoing dumping at the spit, it is open to the public only on weekends. It is only because of the efforts of a small group of citizens (Friends of the Spit) that the spit has been preserved as an urban wilderness and that it is now open to the public.
Although trees have grown to a fair size on some parts of the spit the roadway (where the skating is good) is quite open and thus very exposed to the wind. Most often, skaters fight the wind on the way out and enjoy a big wind assist on the way back in. Unfortunately, the roadway is not skateable all the way to the lighthouse at the very end of the spit. Poor asphalt quality is the reason.
PARKING
There is plenty of parking at the foot of Leslie Street (south of Lake Shore Blvd E) and portable toilets are maintained by the city. Don't forget that the spit is only open on weekends.
THE ROUTE
The route is about 8k round trip -out and back to the point where skating becomes miserable. Start at the foot of Leslie Street and proceed south onto the spit. The path is the roadway which is still used by dump trucks and service vehicles during the week. This flat, wide road has numerous speed bumps placed along it to slow down the dump trucks. The asphalt quality is average as the surface is a bit rough.
After skating around 1k the road passes by a weigh station. In another few hundred meters a road heads off to the left. This is the only option for skaters as the road straight ahead becomes very rough and then turns to gravel before heading across a floating pedestrian bridge. The left turn is landmarked by a large white shipping container and a rusty old quonset hut. Follow this road until the asphalt gets too rough. It doesn't get any better so head back when you've had your fill of the rough stuff. Be sure to take in the unique view of the Toronto skyline when you are as far out onto the spit as possible.
Thanks to Morgan Williams for pointing this route out to me.
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