2019/06/29 – West Gatineau Hydro

Good morning. I’ll be exploring the Gatineau hydro corridor today, west of the Meadoway project limits, through Crothers Woods and Thorncliffe / Flemingdon Park. Let’s go.

Crothers Woods. A former landfill, beautiful extension of the Don Valley, but also home to many hydro lines. The Midtown, Lower Don and Taylor-Massey hydro corridors all congregate here, splitting into a few legs.

Eventually, all the lines meet at the Leaside Transformer Station. Last shot was the best I could get with my hand fully outstretched over a fence of thick vines.

Leaside is (primarily) where power at 230 kV from the Gatineau Hydro Corridor (upon which the Meadoway is based on) is stepped down to 115 kV, and distributed to different parts of Toronto. So Crothers Woods is where different Meadoways could meet.

Now we’ve reached the Gatineau Hydro Corridor, but we’re still west of what will become the Meadoway. This is also where the uppermost surviving open reach of Walmsley Brook is. Making this Phase 2 of the Meadoway is a huge opportunity here.

Detour around and over the West Don. Then access on the east side of Don Mills Road is shunned by a fence with thick vines.

The part of the hydro corridor in Flemingdon Park. An abrupt start at Don Mills, a glimpse of a lost tributary of the East Don, and a matching abrupt end at the DVP.

Over past the DVP is a little recreation park. Then, to no surprise, I’m thwarted by a golf course. This golf course is actually a barrier to completing Phase 3 of the East Don Trail project as well. Anyway after this detour, I’ll be within the Meadoway project limits.

Across the East Don. It will be nice to have a dedicated trail here one day.

At Bermondsey, we finally reach what will be the Meadoway. This will actually be a formal connection to the East Don Trail extension, which will make an uninterrupted trail from the northeast corner of Scarborough to Downtown.