Plans to extend our piece of natural paradise in the heart of Don Mills

Exciting news about the natural woodland in our neighborhood - The city is planning to extend the trail system through the Charles Sauriol Conservation Reserve all the way to Wilket Creek Park and then down to the waterfront.

Part of the city’s ten year capital works project is to develop a network of off-road paved trails throughout the city including a trail that will link the Charles Sauriol Conservation Reserve to the network of trails running south to the lakeshore and east from the Forks of the Don at Don Mills Road and the DVP, and will also link to interregional trails east of Toronto.

The plans are in place and the money ear-marked for the project. Completion is planned for 2019.

The Charles Sauriol Conservation Reserve is really like a private reserve just for our neighborhood. It’s an amazing space that can only be accessed via the park that lies south of Lawrence Avenue just east of the DVP or via Moccasin Trail Park. As you walk under the ‘rainbow bridge’ – visible to anyone who’s driven up the DVP just north of Wynford Drive – and wonder across the bridge you will find the main trail. If you turn left you’re heading north and will ultimately run into the Milne House – an abandoned, historic Gothic Revival farmhouse at the north end of the reserve.

On the way you’ll pass by one of the City’s Bird Flyways sites, a project created to enhance bird habitat along migratory corridors, and a small pond that is home to raccoons, beavers, mink, rabbit, fox, blue herons, turtles, salmon, deer, and a myriad of other native wildlife.

If, instead, you have turned right and head south you would follow the river through natural wetlands, past river views, under train trestles and around woodland until you wind up at the Wynford-Concorde neighborhood. There is a challenging trail here that will lead you up to the Tim Hortons at Wynford Drive and Concord Place.