Toronto Urban Hike Collection

February 24, 2023 12:26 PM

Urban hikes with transit available at the start and endpoints, and which give a feeling of being out of the city [via mefi projects]

Link includes:
- printable map
- GIS coordinate data
- A treasure hunt?
- Maps for individual walks

See also
- flickr

posted by aniola (11 comments total)

Fantastic! And for my city! Great work, sindark.
posted by Evstar at 12:35 PM on February 24, 2023

As a person who ditched their car, I absolutely love transit accessible hikes and bike rides. Such a great way to meet up with friends and destress. In the SF bay area there are a ton but as far as I know we don't have a conveniently curated web site. I frequently BART over to Rockridge and walk to the trailhead next to the Claremont hotel to hike straight up the ridgeline for glorious views.
posted by BrotherCaine at 12:40 PM on February 24, 2023 [4 favorites]

You can take the 85 Sheppard bus to the Zoo, which also gets you to Rouge National Park. There's good hiking there although our favourite activity is to just wade in the river in the summer time and catch and release crayfish, frogs, and small fish (you aren't allowed to take anything out of the park). If you go by the Park parking lot the river is always way too full but if you go from the Zoo side of things it is much quieter.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 1:39 PM on February 24, 2023 [4 favorites]

This is excellent, thanks!
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 4:50 PM on February 24, 2023

Cool project! I moved out to the Queensway near Etobicoke seven years ago and hate the suburban isolation but I got a folding kayak and started exploring the Humber during lockdown. It's been a revelation. I feel connected with the seasons in a way I hadn’t since I was a kid exploring the fields around my small SW Ontario town.
posted by brachiopod at 8:37 PM on February 24, 2023 [6 favorites]

Neato! I hope it's not too much of a derail to mention the 14 official Stadtwanderwege (City Hiking Trails) in Vienna -- (map).

My then girlfriend (now wife) and I walked all of them when we lived in Vienna -- many of them repeatedly. The city has an official 'passport' you can print out (PDF) and take along on the walks. Each walk has a station (usually a restaurant or cafe) where you can get a stamp that proves you've completed the walk. After completing all 14, you can take the stamped passport in to the Rathaus (city hall) and pick up your Wandernadel (hiking pin), which both of us did :)

My favorite walks were on the north and northwest sides of the city, but most of them are very nice, taking you through the hills and forests (Wienerwald) surrounding the city.
posted by syzygy at 3:22 AM on February 25, 2023 [1 favorite]

Now do New York!
posted by branca at 6:57 AM on February 25, 2023 [1 favorite]

Thanks much for the post (and to sindark for putting it together). As a long-term resident, I've collected maps, books and links for trails (biking and hiking) around the Toronto area. There are very many transit-accessible trailheads. In particular, it's possible to get to many places via the GO train, including with your bike, and the trains run from from Oshawa to Niagara-on-the-Lake.

So now I have even less excuse for sitting around the house.
posted by Artful Codger at 8:20 AM on February 25, 2023 [1 favorite]

I am now retired from BART in the San Francisco Bay Area. There is a whole website dedicated to destinations accessible by BART including trails. It is called Bartable and was kept up by an enthusiastic team (not sure what their status is now with all the budget cuts, but it was a very low-budget project to start with).
posted by agatha_magatha at 8:55 AM on February 25, 2023 [2 favorites]

Thanks agatha_magatha, I thought I looked for trail hikes on Bartable, but must have mistyped my search, as this came up today. I'm a huge fan of BART, my wife and I actually went to the 50th anniversary party and bought tee shirts like a couple irredeemable transit geeks.
posted by BrotherCaine at 8:42 PM on February 26, 2023 [2 favorites]

I've done several of these walks as I really don't like the kind of hike where you drive somewhere, park, walk, and then walk back to your car. Going in one direction as far as you can and then getting on transit feels more like I've accomplished something.

The possibilities in Toronto expand if you incorporate the GO Transit network. You can take GO (and the Union Pearson Express) to Weston Station, and descend into the Humber Valley only a couple of blocks away, then get back on transit at Old Mill Station, about 8 km downstream. And if this map was expanded to include Scarborough, you can step off the GO train at Rouge Hill, basically directly onto the walking trail which follows the shore of Lake Ontario for a while and then cuts inland at Highland Creek, which you can take all the way to Guildwood GO station. Or if you prefer to stick with the lake, you can stay close to the water on a more direct route to Guildwood GO. (this involves walking on some residential streets)
posted by dry white toast at 9:59 AM on February 28, 2023 [2 favorites]