Etobicoke Creek Trail: Mid-Way/Dixie to Lake Ontario

Today I cycled the Etobicoke Creek Trail, from Mid-Way/Dixie to Lake Ontario, with eight fellow cyclists, one of whom I have known since Grade 7, the rest who I have met through cycling advocacy, community rides and cyclists I know introducing me to other cyclists. It was a hot, humid day, but some sections of the trail afforded us lovely shady green tunnels through which to travel.

I have created a map of the trail from the north end in Caledon to Lake Ontario in Ride with GPS.  In today’s post I will cover Mid-Way to Lake Ontario. In the future, I will do additional posts for other parts of the trail. Most of the trail is off-road on paved paths with the following exceptions – from north to south:

• Abbotside Way to Mayfield, 2km long, mix of large and small gravel, wide path
• a length of about 600m north of Conservation Drive through a heavily wooded area has very fine, hard-packed gravel
• On-street section through downtown Brampton (Centre St) of 1.1km
• On-street section through Peel Village of 1.5km
• Just west of 410 to north of Mount Charles Park of 2km is gravel, but should be paved this month
• On-street section from Mount Charles Park to Derry on Columbus Road of 600m
• In-boulevard multi-use path along Cardiff and Mid-Way of 1.6km
• Under the 401. This section is officially closed until November 2019 when 401 bridge rehab work finishes and should be paved in spring 2020
• On-street section avoiding Markland Wood Golf Club and valley land with no multi-use path from south of Burnhamthorpe to Sherway Drive (south of Queensway) of about 6km
• Gravel from Sherway Drive to south of QEW – 500m awaiting paving. Unfortunately, QEW bridge rehabilitation work will start in the near future and last 4-5 years, during which time the trail underneath will be closed (as at the 401 currently)

Wow, that’s quite the list of exceptions. Excluding what I expect to be paved shortly, there is 2.6km of gravel path and there are almost 9.2km of on-road sections.

The path from Mid-way to the 401 is newly paved and very wide.  It runs south along Dixie for a couple hundred metres then turns east, and any airplane noise soon dissipates as you descend into the valley behind a screen of trees separating the path from the runways.

The path is easy to follow, and fairly flat, but with a climb up to Courtney Park and back down again.  It is rather pastoral.

Just before the 401 there is a steep decent and the path is closed for 401 bridge rehabilitation. It is possible to continue, but a bit of a hike with climbing, mud and fence dodging. The alternative is to ride along Corvair Drive to Renforth, cross the 401 and come back west along Matheson or Eglinton or though Centennial Park.  This adds about 8km! However, I would not try sneaking under the 401 during the week, only on weekends when there are no workers present.

Once south of the 401 the trail is newly paved, wide and smooth. It crosses back and forth over the creek and emerges onto Ponytrail Drive, because the Markland Wood Golf Club owns the land around the creek. From that point to Dundas the roads are marked well as the Etobicoke Creek Trail with the exception of where you emerge from Willowcreek Park between Sunnyhill Drive and Nawbrook Road. Make sure you turn right onto Nawbrook.

There are various ways one could proceed to the next off road section, however I chose the most direct. The section along Dundas and Dixie is not for the faint of heart.  Our group of nine today took a lane on each of those roads, but I realize many cyclists would not be comfortable doing that.  There is a multi-use path along the west side of Dixie, but no traffic light at Venta, where we turned to access Sherway Drive.  One could choose to continue further south on the Dixie multi-use path to Sherway Drive rather than get off sooner and go through the neighbourhood the way we did. There is no way that I could see that would avoid arterial roads.

Once on Venta, we were on quiet, pleasant residential streets,  then over a bowstring bridge build in 1900, into the valley again.

I believe the trail here was  single track dirt trail until last year. Now it is wide and flat and awaiting paving.

Work under the QEW will wait until after the bridge rehabilitation is complete.

The path was paved from here on down to the lake. Marie Curtis is a beautiful park and you can connect to the Waterfront Trail here.

We had a snack at Fair Grounds Organic Cafe and Roastery at Lakeshore and Forthieth St, a short ride from the park.  After that the group split up with some riding home quickly on streets and some returning on the Etobicoke Creek Trail.