Another solid turn out for our Sunday Night Skate in Toronto's Canary District. This wonderful new area will be our new home for the Toronto shop. Every Sunday we meet at 6:30pm in front of 446 Front Street East (the corner of Rolling Mills Road and Front Street East). This is a social skate for everyone of all abilities and disciplines. At the bottom of this post you will find a map of the route we took, try skating it and let us know what you think. We want share great places for inline skating in Toronto so that you can enjoy rollerblading more. Here's a recap of last weeks skate.
After meeting up, we skated past the Distillery District on Mill Street and continued west along The Esplanade and then headed south on Lower Sherbourne Ave. A new bike lane took us right down to Sherbourne Common, by the lake just east of Sugar Beach. The area has some nice flat, smooth, open space for practicing some basics on your skates. So we took some time to work on our grass rolls (a very effective way to stop), backwards skating, balancing on one foot, and other skills too. Our Sunday night skates are a great chance for you to learn from other more experienced skaters.
We ventured east along the Martin Goodman Trail. It is, for the most part, a very smooth and level paved path. Depending on the day and time, the trail can get busy with cyclists, please be mindful of others using the trail.
The trail goes south towards Cherry Beach, which is one of the quieter beaches in Toronto. If you like to skate with your dog, there's a huge off leash area on the beach too. This could be a great way to spend an evening with your four legged friend.
East of Cherry Beach along the Martin Goodman Trail will make you feel like you are out of the city. The trail runs through some nice green space and basically brings you to the bottom of Leslie Street. Depending when you are skating here, you could go down into Tommy Thompson Park as well, which is an amazing spot to get your nature fix without leaving the city.
We took a short break at the corner of Leslie St and Lake Shore Blvd East before heading back towards the Canary District along the Lower Don Recreation Trail. This trail runs parallel to Lake Shore Blvd East and is a great place to practice long gentle strides or sprint to see how fast you can go. Just be very mindful of the traffic turning across the trail, there are a few busy intersections.
Back in the Canary District we had the choice between wide sidewalks or bike lanes to skate. Both are great options, which ever you feel most comfortable with.
We concluded our skate with an impromptu yoga session, lead by a new friend that joined us for the first time that week. A excellent way to end another fun Sunday Night Skate with friends. Please join us this Sunday July 16th at 6:30pm. 446 Front Street East is the address of the meeting spot. Head east on Front Street East, past Cherry Street to the corner of Rolling Mills Road and you will find us. See you then!