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Mud Creek crossed Yonge Street at Hillsdale Avenue. Today, it is
hard to imagine this as a treacherous swamp described as a "stretch
of very wild and difficult land" where Yonge Street was made
barely passable by a stretch of corduroy
road. Scadding describes this stretch of Yonge Street as very
different to the today's scene: "We happen to have a very vivid
recollection of the scene presented along this particular section
of Yonge Street, when the woods, heavy pine chiefly, after having
been felled in a most confused manner, were being consumed by fire,
or rather while the effort was being made to consume them. The whole
space from near Mr. Walmsley's potteries to the rise beyond which
Eglinton is situated was, and continued long, a chaos of blackened
timber most dismaying to behold."
Walk south to Manor Road, east to Tullis Drive, then south to Belsize
Drive. Tullis follows the course of Mud Creek. Today, the Avenue
Manor Combined Truck Sewer flows under this street. Notice fragments
of creek banks to the right and left and the curvature of road between
them. Passing Glebe Road, we are reminded of the time when parcels
of land, known as glebes, were reserved
for the "established church."
At the bottom of Tullis, cross to the south side of Belsize and
take the footpath to Millwood Road. High fences and dense foliage
in summer make it difficult to see Mud Creek Ravine from this path.
At Millwood, walk east into the ravine, where you will notice differences
in the sizes and shapes of the yards on the north side of the street.
At one time, Davisville Avenue was accessible by paths through of
the Salvation Army property. Walk east to Acacia Road and south
to where Mud Creek crossed Davisville, then walk west uphill to
Pailton Crescent, then south. Pailton follows the west top of the
ravine. Notice several interesting sculptures along this street.
Look eastward on Balliol Street to the low point in the street,
where an apartment building sits directly over the riverbed. Each
spring, a lake forms in the parking lot. The large willows behind
the building are clues to the underground watercourse. Flowing eastward
under Balliol, a main trunk sewer carries all the sanitary sewage
from the former Town of North Toronto, the former Village of Forest
Hill and parts of the former City of North York to the
North Toronto Sewage Treatment Plant in the Don Valley. The
Avenue Manor Combined Truck Sewer joins it here at Pailton. Follow
south along Pailton to Merton Street, then east to Mount Pleasant
Road. The creek flowed across Merton and through the former Dominion
Coal Yard.
Norway maples dominate the tree cover, but in places, silver or
Manitoba maples appear. Other trees include honey locust, ash, linden,
Austrian pine, crabapple, Colorado spruce, catalpa, mulberry, elm,
white birch, Scots pine, cedar, European beech, red oak, ailanthus,
magnolia, and Kentucky coffeetree.
Cross Mount Pleasant at Merton, then proceed south over the bridge
crossing the Beltline. The Belt
Line Park west of Yonge Street follows the abandoned bed of the
former Belt Line Railway. In the next few years, the park will be
extended east into Mount Pleasant Cemetery, running south of and
parallel to Merton Street, along the south side of the former Dominion
Coal property, and under Mount Pleasant Road through the existing
tunnel. East of Mount Pleasant, the Belt Line Trail will follow
the course of Mud Creek through the cemetery. Notice a small ditch
behind the apartment building on the south of Merton. This tiny
fragment of wetland at this corner is fed by ground water and run-off
from rainstorms and contains a few elms, beech, willows and small
water loving plans like scouring rush (Equisetum sp.), forget-me-not,
and buttercups.
Until the Belt Line Trail is extended east, we will have to walk
south on Mount Pleasant to the gate were we can enter Mount
Pleasant Cemetery. Walk east to the Cemetery headquarters building,
observing the fine trees, many of which have labels telling the
common and scientific names.
Just north of the headquarters, notice the bridge abutment that
once supported a roadway across the tracks of the Beltline railway.
Looking east from this abutment, imagine the ravine through which
Mud Creek flowed and through which the railway line ran. Soil from
the Toronto Subway excavation in the 1950s obliterated much of its
depth. Recently, the cemetery built a garden and mausoleum here
with spots for the scattering of ashes and niches for the placement
of funerary urns.
Walk down into and through the garden, then south along the main
path. At the sewer grate access, listen to the sound of ground and
stormwater resonating from the main storm trunk sewer. This water,
however, is not Mud Creek water for it has been diverted elsewhere,
but that of the upper Cudmore Creek watershed passing through this
storm trunk sewer. When the cemetery part of Cudmore Creek ravine
was completely filled with subway construction earth, upstream water
was diverted over to the Mud Creek ravine. The outlet of this sewer
will be seen later in the Moore Park Ravine. See also Discovery
Walks.
Enjoy planted trees, shrubs and flowers in season as you continue
south along the main path to leave the cemetery through the attractive
pergola-like pedestrian gate on Moore Avenue. Cross Moore at the
stop sign to the west, return east, then down into Moore
Park Ravine.
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