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The Oak Ridges Corridor Park Trail

The trail itself is multi-use and is about 5.2 km long in total. The section between Bathurst Street and Yonge Street is 2.2 km and the section between Yonge Street and Sandbanks Drive is 3.0 km. At a leisurely walking pace, it would take about two hours to travel the whole trail one way or half of it there and back.

Currently the park is quite open as the trail meanders through mostly overgrown fields and some that are still in agriculture. Already, however, some planting has begun to reforest much of the property. As bland as this might seem, the land is full of life. Attentive eyes and ears will be rewarded with an abundance of stimulation.

As you walk, jog, or cycle along the trail, enjoy your visit to this wonderful natural space but please make sure that others do too and it remains a place for nature. Please

• Stay on the trails and keep your dog on a leash so as not to disturb the wildlife especially in spring when many creatures nest in the grasses.
• Take only photographs and leave only footprints – do not pick the flowers or capture small critters and carry your litter out with you.
• If cycling please give way to pedestrians.
• Make sure that you are dressed for the weather with appropriate footwear and sun hat and take sufficient water for drinking.

Here are a few of the highlights that you can view as you travel from west to east:

• Bathurst Street to Yonge Street
• Yonge Street Crossing and Bond Lake
• Yonge Street to Sandbanks Drive

Bathurst Street to Yonge Street

Starting at the west end you enter through Bathurst Glen Golf Course which is part of the park. The trail begins by the practice putting green and goes beside a wooded swamp before crossing a boardwalk to the fields. In spring, the air is full of bird song supplied by both the returning resident breeders as well as a wide variety of migrants.

The fields actually attract a number of bird species that make their home in meadows. Due to development and changes in agricultural practices in the region, meadow habitat is declining, and along with it many of these kinds of birds. Thus a section of the park east of the golf course will be retained as meadow. There you will find the Savannah Sparrow and the threatened Bobolink (pictured). The male Bobolink is very active in flight pattern and song in the spring and quite fun to watch.

Of course there are lots of other species attracted by the wetlands such as the Red-winged Black Bird and Tree Swallow that might nest in the small bird boxes along the edge of the golf course. Beautiful yellow American Goldfinch, melodious Song Sparrows and other species of swallows also forage in the fields. With luck you might catch a glimpse of an American Kestrel hovering or a Red-tailed Hawk soaring over the area searching for prey below. For more information about any of these birds visit: www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/search and just type in the name into the search feature.

Another spring treat is the sound of the calling frogs and toads especially in the evening. Beginning in April with the wood frogs and spring peepers and continuing right through to June, a variety of amphibians call from the wetlands in an effort to attract a mate. At times, the din can be almost deafening. To learn more about the frogs and hear their individual calls visit: www.torontozoo.com/AdoptAPond/ and click on Frog Watch. By mid to late August you have to watch your step on the trail, as the young Leopard Frogs (pictured) have matured and use the gravel as a warm basking spot. They hop quickly to get out of the way but you never know what direction they will go.

Throughout the growing season it is interesting to watch the developing foliage. The drab brown winter leftovers turn a brilliant green in spring and show their various floral colours throughout the summer. The peak is generally in August and September when the goldenrod and thistle are in full bloom. If you look closely at the flowers, you will often see something else – a variety of often beautiful insects searching for food. Butterflies, bees, and dragonflies in damp areas provide beneficial services in pollination and even removing some insect pests.

There is also an abundance of wildlife that you will rarely see as they are mostly nocturnal and shy away from humans. You can, however, see their signs along the trail. One visible sign is the scat or poop of a coyote that is recognizable by the presence of hair or sometimes bone in this stool as the coyote passes remnants of a tasty rabbit or other mammal. Other signs to look for are tracks in soft earth or snow in the winter. Rabbit, raccoon, deer and even field mouse tracks are easily recognizable. Download a pocket guide to animal tracks.

Other sights along the trail include a fenced-in area on the south side. This is Phillips Lake. As a condition of the land transfer, the property owner insisted that the lake be fenced to protect it from abuse or overuse as he was very concerned about its sensitivity.

On the south side of this section, visible from McLeod Estate Court in the subdivision, is an historic home named Drynoch (pictured courtesy Richmond Hill Public Library). It was built in 1846 by Captain Martin Macleod and named after his home in Scotland. One of his sons, James Macleod became the 2nd Commissioner of the North West Mounted Police in 1876. He had a long and distinguished career in the Mounties and the judiciary in the western territories. Fort Macleod, a city in Alberta, is named in his honour. The house is part of the park but currently under lease as a private residence. As you continue west, you will come to an outlook that overlooks a beautiful kettle wetland. This is a prime example of moraine topography.

Yonge Street Crossing and Bond Lake

The Yonge Street crossing and Bond Lake have a treasury of cultural heritage. First of all there is Yonge Street itself. This route was a well used aboriginal trail that Governor John Graves Simcoe chose for the first road north after he travelled it in 1793. Then there is the whole Bond Lake area that was a popular recreation area starting in 1834 when the Bond Lake Hotel opened on the west side of Yonge Street. It had twenty overnight rooms and a grand ballroom that provided the setting for local dances and sleigh-ride parties.

Bond Lake itself attracted swimmers and boaters and, in the winter, curlers. In 1898 the Metropolitan Railway Company purchased the property around that lake and turned it into a public park. The Company’s primary purpose for the land was to house a new steam power-house using the lake for the large volumes of water required in the cooling and condensing phases of generating the power.

The railway brought huge numbers of people up Yonge Street from the city to enjoy picnics, baseball games, swimming and boating, as well as skating and other winter activities on the lake. The steam plant produced surplus power to also supply the rail line extension to Aurora and the spur line from Oak Ridges to Schomberg. The boarded up building beside the boat-launch area at the south end of the lake housed the plant fly wheel, while the remains of a foundation in the same area are the ruins of the power house. The picture, courtesy of the Richmond Hill Public Library, shows the power house as it stood and you can see the still standing dynamo house in the background.

Under the cladding of the Lebovic Sales Pavilion is another historic building. Its architecture is that of a mid 19 th century home although the first known resident was listed as Michael Clarke in 1920. The Sales Pavilion property is part of the park but it is under lease to Lebovic for the next few years as the company completes the sale of its Bond Lake development. [Note for more information on the cultural heritage of Oak Ridges see that section in the Oak Ridges on the Moraine: A Guide to the Natural Environment and the Community or visit the Richmond Hill Public Library web site.]

Yonge Street to Sandbanks Drive

As you start on the trail from the pedestrian crossing and the Lebovic sales office, you climb up a moraine ridge and then descend down to a wonderful view of Bond Lake. As a kettle lake it has no permanent inflow or outflow, that is no rivers or streams help flush and replenish it. Thus it is very sensitive and for this reason general recreational activities such as swimming, boating or fishing are not permitted. As the whole shoreline is forested you will see some waterfowl like mallards, but very few geese as there is no grass for food. If you look very carefully around the shoreline, you might see a Great Blue Heron searching for fish or frogs. On land, the forest environment hosts a whole different set of birds like woodpeckers, chickadees, nuthatches and cardinals.

The trail then climbs again and travels through an agricultural field to a hedge row of trees that is a welcome break from the wind. Here the chickadees are particularly abundant. After the hedge row section, the trail continues through fields that are currently mostly planted with crops.

There is an outlook point that provides a great view of Jefferson Forest in the southeast that is particularly colourful in the fall. These fields will be planted with trees over the next few years with the goal to expand the forest to provide even better habitat for birds and wildlife that depend upon a large expanse of woodland for their survival. The fields, hedge row and scrub, still provide habitat for a wide range of wildlife quite similar to that of the west side of park except for the meadow birds. You will still find coyote scat on the trail and various tracks in soft earth or snow. The wetlands are not as obvious as on the west side but damp spots in the fields are visible especially in the spring. Some of these will be restored to a natural wetland state. Frogs and toads are quite common in the area.

The trail might seem to end when you reach the small parking lot at Old Colony Rd., but one of the best parts is still to come. After you cross the road, you enter a wonderful small woodlot that is nick-named “the beautiful forest”. It is a mostly hardwood stand that is alive with birds and small mammals like grey and red squirrels. The main trail exits at Sandbanks Drive but Richmond Hill has put a loop trail through the area. The south path crosses the woodlot and passes wonderful views of treed kettle wetlands. It exits at Bel Canto Crescent then you walk north along the road to pick up another path that goes back into the forest. This north path passes by more wetlands that are breeding spots for frogs and salamanders. In early April, the calls of the wood frogs are a welcome announcement of spring.

Although the trail ends at Sandbanks Drive, there is much more to see in the area. If you travel north on Sandbanks Drive to Park Crescent, you can either go straight ahead or around the crescent to Sunset Beach Blvd. Go east on that road and you will have a great view of Lake Wilcox and will arrive at Vanek and Sunset Beach Parks. True to its name the latter park is a fabulous place to watch the sun go down over the west end of the lake.