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Ed's Sk8toronto Website
PORT UNION/HIGHLAND CREEK
OVERVIEW
I used to have a route called 'Highland Creek' on this web site but for a couple of years it has not been skateable because of a serious lack of maintenance in its middle section. However, the bottom portion of the Highland Creek trail has always been an excellent path and now links up with a brand new, but rather short, section of pathway along the shore of Lake Ontario.
The new path is sandwiched between the CNR main line and the shore. It is clear that a lot of work has been done to rescue this section of lake shore and I must say that they have done an admirable job. The 2 kilometers of brand new pathway between the Port Union Go Station and the mouth of Highland Creek is smooth, wide, reasonably flat and interesting to skate on.
Together, the routes only add up to about 3.5k and perhaps would not normally merit a write-up on this site. However, a portion of the route is on the Lakeshore, there are plans to extend it and it is the only decent place to skate that I have found in Scarborough.
This route is the only pace in Toronto that pieces together a section of high quality ravine skating with a good Lakeshore route. It makes for an interesting outing.
ACCESS
Access to this route is a bit limited. At the east end of the trail you can access in the vicinity of the Rouge Hill Go Station. There is a large parking lot (for GO customers) at the foot of Port Union Road. Access at the west end is from East Point Park- but there is a rather steep hill going down and back up before the trail really begins. The other access point is from Highland Creek. Try getting on in Colonel Danforth Park (where there are some washrooms).
THE ROUTE
I will describe the route starting from the Rouge Hill Go Station. The pathway is situated immediately to the south of the CNR tracks and heads west (toward downtown Toronto) from there. Eventually the path will also go toward the east from the Go Station. Access to the path is gained by skating west and under the tracks a few hundred meters from the station. Once through the tunnel, the pathway goes back toward the station for a short distance or heads west along the lake shore all the way to the mouth of Highland Creek. The asphalt quality is very good and the trail is quite wide. It is also reasonably flat. It is also really close to the lake! Past the mouth of Highland Creek, the path goes steeply down and then back up and ends at East Point Park. This is the western access point.
Skaters cross over a wonderful steel decked pedestrian bridge to get past Highland Creek. To skate the Highland Creek trail there is another bridge which takes the trail under the railway trestle and up the west side of Highland Creek. If you don't enjoy this section of pathway, all the way up to Old Kingston Road then you do not like ravine skating.
This map below has been scanned from Toronto Parks and Trails Map. To get a hard copy of this map or to view the map in PDF format click HERE. This map is part of the back of the map (Part 2).
There is another map of this route available at the website for the Waterfront Trail. The main site for the Waterfront Trail is: http://www.waterfronttrail.org/ .The map that pertains to this particular route is: http://www.waterfronttrail.org/maps/wt-2_16.pdf. To look at this map you need an Adobe Reader (Version 5). You can download version 6.0 for free at: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
My mapis situated below. . .The dashed red line is the best part of the Highland Creek Trail and the new section of path along the lake shore as described above.
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