After a 32 cm snowfall on Monday, Winter Park Path Project crews ran into trouble trying to clear and grit the parking lot on Tuesday. This truck with plow attached hopped over a hidden curb and came to rest against a light pole. Extracting the truck, leaving the light pole standing will be a precision job.
Looking south from the parking lot.
As is usual after a heavy snowfall, paths are formed by the first people to come along and a path has been carved through the wild area. The regular bike path to the dog off leash area is untouched.
The Toronto and Regional Conservation Authority has strict rules about salting pathways near water courses. Each winter, huge amounts of salt drain into our rivers and streams and toxic levels are routinely measured. As a result, the salting of pathways close to the Humber is not permitted. This makes for slippery journeys for the many people who rely on park pathways to get from A to B.
The City of Toronto’s Parks division is piloting a park path clearance project in our area. This winter, plows are clearing paths from Mallaby Park, through Cruickshank to the Raymore Park off-leash area then continuing from the Humber Creek culvert construction to James Gardens. After plowing, instead of salt, a black grit is being spread to assist with traction. Based on personal experience, it appears to work.
Let’s hope that when spring arrives, the grit will be hoovered up and recycled.
UPDATE: Parks supervisor Shane Rajapakse tells me that the grit is called LavaGrip and it’s being evaluated by the Parks people as well as TRCA. A report on its effectiveness will be sent to Toronto Council later this year. Apparently it is pet safe and made from small particles of actual lava from an extinct volcano in Quebec and it is supposed to break down at the end of the Winter.
The first real snow of the season transformed the park into a movie set. The snow began as rain, and once everything was soaked, the air turned colder and helped by a stiff breeze, snow snow attached itself as if it had come from a machine. Here’s a couple of before pictures:
Beautiful browns.
Standing grasses.
With wet snow clinging to the grass, it bends and flattens to begin the mulching and seeding process.
Hollywood snow machine.
Snow can be a heavy blanket. While this snow will not last, the next snowfalls will continue the flattening process so that by springtime, there will be little trace of the previous year’s plants.
The park was cold and snowy today and a fresh covering made it look like January except for bright green new growth sticking out through the snow. These day lilies are probably remnants of gardens that belonged to homes destroyed during Hurricane Hazel.
A pair of Mallards swimming around a temporary pond were taking refuge from high water in the river. I was careful to stay well clear so that they weren’t disturbed.
More snow today on the edge of a major winter storm that luckily just missed us. Another day of winter is disappointing to humans but wildlife is really feeling the pinch. There were redwing blackbirds in the park a few days ago but there’s no trace of them now. Nothing has budged from its winter state so spring is still some time away. Because of thick cloud cover, the more powerful March sunshine is neutralized.
On days like these, I usually have the park to myself.
A Grey Jay looks for food.
Fresh snow covers the ground and the temperature barely cracked 0°C today.
Looking north to the path by the weir.
At the weir the water had an interesting oily look that the camera was able to capture quite nicely.
Snow flakes and an oily texture you can almost touch.
Students from York University are occupying one of the baseball diamonds today for a movie shoot. They seem a little cavalier with their garbage. Hopefully they will perform a site clean-up.
A coyote calmly making its way through the park today. I was quite a distance away and had to squeeze as much magnification as possible from this shot.
Lastly, what a difference a day makes. Suddenly the river has lost much of its ice. The ducks are happy.
Snow is a wonderful medium for creating impressions through the tracks of animals or humans or the melting that happens around objects as the sun shines on them.
Goose tracks beside part of a tree branch.
A recently fallen oak leaf ‘burns’ its way into the snow.
At this time of year the sun is much stronger and anything that falls onto the snow reflects less of the sun’s infra-red radiation and so will melt the snow underneath it while the surrounding snow stays frozen.
A steely-grey cloud deck, fast moving clouds being pushed along by a raw east wind can only mean one thing; snow is coming. This time we’re getting off lightly with just a couple of centimetres while temperatures will rise above the zero mark for the next few days.
Above the weir, a large natural ice surface has magically appeared that (with some smoothing from a handy Zamboni or some strategic flooding) could be a fantastic outdoor rink. These two photographs were taken from the same spot.
Looking upriver towards Weston.
Looking downriver over the weir.
Since the icy conditions have taken over and glazed the pathways, very few people are using the park as the entrance (closed to traffic for the winter) from Raymore Drive is on a steep slope. Only the die-hards with footwear designed for ice are braving these treacherous conditions. Even the extreme weather cyclists have admitted defeat. Not a square centimetre of spandex in sight!
I must admit it’s nice to have the place to yourself and no doubt wildlife prefers it too.
Yesterday was a sloppy slushy rainy day with rain and mild temperatures. A pair of geese standing on wet ice in the river prompted a quest for reflections. The closer one was quite relaxed and was in its sleeping position.
A pair of Canada Geese spend some quiet time on the river.
Large pools of earth-tinted water form in depressions allowing another view of the trees.
A maple is mirrored in slushy water.
Last year’s grasses stand around a small depression.
Wet branches are darker and more colourful in the rain.
After a couple of days absence from the park it was good to be back outside again. The last couple of days were bone chilling with wind chill readings below -20°. Mugsey and I had to make do with the treadmill.
The sun feels so much stronger now – the U.V. index for today was 3 and you can pretty well double that when walking in snow. The temperature however ensures that only the ‘bare’ minimum of flesh is exposed.
A fresh fall of snow allows a clean slate for tracks in the snow – these look to be from a mouse or other tiny creature.
A tiny animal with a tail comes and goes through some burdock and dog strangling vine.
As with a large number of trees, many of the plants in the park are also foreign invaders. Dog strangling vine is one of these and unlike invasive species that are quite attractive such as purple loosestrife or phragmites (a tall feathery grass), DSV is as attractive as its name. More about invaders another time.
In the background, downed trees have been stacked by floodwaters to form a natural fence along the riverbank.
Friends of Raymore Park 