 |
Ed's Sk8toronto Website
HAMILTON BEACHFRONT TRAIL
OVERVIEW
This is, without a doubt, the best skating route anywhere near Toronto. The route is 24 feet (8 meters) wide, beautifully paved and flat. It is 8 kilometers long, easily accessible from major highways and runs along the shore of Lake Ontario -crossways to the prevailing winds. Do not miss an opportunity to try out this path.
There are great maps of this route available at the website for the Waterfront Trail. The main site for the Waterfront Trail is: http://www.waterfronttrail.org/ .The two maps that pertain to this particular route are: http://www.waterfronttrail.org/maps/wt-1_12.pdf and http://www.waterfronttrail.org/maps/wt-1_11.pdf. To look at these maps you need an Adobe Reader (Version 5). There is a trail (part of the Waterfront Trail) which extents this route into the city of Burlington. I have not skated it but I saw the path from the road and it looks OK. If anyone has skated this route and can report on its condition please contact me.
PARKING
To get there from the Toronto area, follow the QEW towards Niagara Falls. Just before the QEW goes up and over the Burlington Skyway, take the Eastport Road exit. Eastport Road is the service road underneath the Skyway and is the road which vehicles must use when they close the skyway due to high winds or accidents. Follow Eastport Road until it crosses the lift bridge and look for a municipal parking lot on the left-hand side of the road. This lot is at the extreme north end of the route.
There is a washroom facility at this end of the path (at the south end of the parking lot) and there are other facilities at Confederation Park (the south end of the route).
THE ROUTE
The route hugs the shore of Lake Ontario all the way from the lift bridge at the north end to Confederation Park at the south end. The pathway is marked off in 200-meter increments, starting at 200m near the Lift Bridge and ending at 8200 just past the pedestrian bridge over the mouth of Stoney Creek. There is not a single road or laneway crossing the route in its whole 8 km length. Noticeable features along the route include four restaurants of varying qualities, a go-cart track and Confederation Park itself. Always, on the north-east side is the shore of the lake. For the most part, it's a pretty nice beach.
This route is fairly exposed and the wind does somefunny things. There can be a generally west or south flow of air elsewhere and yet the wind will be from the east in 
Confederation Park. On days when the wind blows from the east the skating can be pretty tough -and noisy (because of the waves) as well. If you are not a strong skater take care not to skate too far with the wind before returning against the wind. It would be easy to get caught like this if there was a strong wind from the north.
This is a great place to test your skating speed. I found the painted marks on the trail to be fairly accurate (although ever so slightly too close together) when I measured the route with a special tool. If you want to try a 15 kilometer time trial you can start and end at the 400m mark and turn around at the loop just before Stoney Creek (just past the 7800m mark. I measured this distance to be 15024 meters. Take 3 seconds off your time for the extra 24 meters.
Latest Update: May/07