Sunday 13 February 2011

Snowshoeing on the Toronto Islands

Gord and I decided to go snowshoeing on the Toronto Islands this afternoon.

To get there, you have to take a ferry to Wards Island (the eastern end of Centre Island). During the summer, the ferry goes to three points (Wards Island, Centre Island and Hanlan's Point) ... in the winter, it just goes to Wards Island. Here's comes the ferry!

Much of the harbour is frozen and the ferry has to plow through the ice. You can hear the ice being crushed and even feel a jolt at times. Lots of fun!

Here are me and Gord on the ferry ... it was cold and windy on the water.

Here's the path of where we'd come.

We're heading into the ferry dock on Wards Island.

We've arrived on Wards Island.

There are about 260 homes on the eastern end of Wards Island.

This looking across the harbour at downtown Toronto.

Some kids were playing hockey on one of the lagoons.

We walked along the wooden boardwalk on the south end of the island for a while. The waves were awesome!

The boardwalk ended and the snow got deeper so we put our snowshoes on and continued to follow the water.

We are getting closer to the pier.

Here's Gord showing where we were just before we got to the pier ... we had started on the left hand side (the furthest ferry on the left).

We took our snowshoes off when we got to the pier and hung out there for a while. It was windy and cold ... invigorating!

No one is swimming there today!
And then we headed back.

We walked back along the road and then hooked onto the boardwalk.

We stopped at the Rectory Café, which is about five minutes from the ferry.

We had a glass of wine and split a delicious Roasted Chicken Club Sandwich (Roasted Chicken with Garlic Aioli, Bacon, Romaine & Tomatoes on Toasted Multigrain) and mixed greens salad.

The Rectory Café has an awesome patio ... we'll be back to check it out when it's patio weather!

Time to head back home. This picture was taken on the ferry as we were heading back to the city ... keep in mind that the ferry had just gone through here about 10 minutes earlier and it was freezing up already!

We walked/snowshoed/walked about 5km ... a very fun way to spend the afternoon!

6 comments:

Susan Demeter said...

Sounds like a fun, but very cold afternoon! I've never been to the Island in the winter was great to see your pics as it gives a different perspective. :)

Angie in T.O. said...

I've always wanted to go to the rectory Cafe, I thought it had closed. Glad to hear it hasn't. Putting it on our list of things to do while on vacation in May.

LeeAnn said...

Were you outside on the Ferry?
A friend and I went to Toula at the Harbour Castle last Tuesday for winterlicious and we were watching the ferries cutting across the ice.

Cindy said...

Hi Teena,
What a wonderful place to spend an afternoon! If we lived there, that is exactly the kind of thing that my hubby and I would have done. (Except that we haven't purchased snowshoes yet.) Great photos of the city scape and the water. So nice to hear someone embracing and enjoying the cold instead of whining about it!=)
Thanks for the chance to see this, it is very interesting! Is the island in the middle of a lake? And why is there no ice in the water on the side where you showed the waves hitting the icy shore. Or am I just not seeing everything?
Hugs, Cindy

Dilip Mutum said...

Nice pictures. thanks for dropping by my blog.

BunnyMummy said...

I was skating at the new Sherborne Commons rink (sugar beach) on Saturday and was wondering why there was an open patch in the harbor....thought about trying to walk over to the islands over the ice....of course it was just a thought. Looks like a good time.