Sat. May 31, 2014

We parked off of Emmett Road and crossed the bridge to hike south along the west side of the river.  The morning was warm at 20 C and sunny.  We descended to the river bank alongside of the Eglinton bridge.  Suddenly we were being eaten alive by mosquitoes which was the first time this year.  What a difference a week makes.  A coating of bug spray and we were on our way.  From the bridge we had seen that the water was low and that there was a good chance of making our way right along the edge of the river.  If you chose to do this, be very careful as some of the rocks move or may be slippery.

The section of the Humber which lies north of Lambton Mills and below Eglinton was owned primarily by John Scarlett.  Arriving in 1809 to purchase a mill site and 33 acres of land, John was able to accumulate 1000 acres, or about 10 land grants, by 1815.  In 1820 he bought the road that ran through his property and renamed it Scarlett Road and so it continues to be known today.

John ran mill sites on both sides of the river where Scarlett road crosses the Humber.  Around the mill sites there grew up a community where John also operated a distillery. Today a small waterfall running in a straight line across the river, a little downstream, shows the site of the old mill dam.  Much of the former Scarlett property was deemed high risk for flooding following the disaster of Hurricane Hazel in 1954 and the land was bought up and turned into Scarlett Mills Park.

The old Scarlett Mills dam as seen from Google Earth.

Following the river it wasn’t long before we came across this item that looked like it had been buried for a long time.  Perhaps it was uncovered in last summer’s flash flooding of July 8, 2013.  It appears to be quite old but it’s function has not been determined.  There are 4 sets of bolts holding something made of wood together.

A little further along we found this old brick storm drain.  There is a newer drain just above it on the hillside which dates to after 1954 because it reads “Metropolitan Toronto” which was formed in that year.

By walking the riverbed we discovered this Crinoid fossil.  Claimed ages for  these marine animals range back to 350 million years ago, but they still exist in today’s oceans.

Keeping to the river’s edge we saw four families of Canada Geese herding about 25 of this spring’s little ones along the river.

We found an early example of a Fanta bottle.  Fanta soft drinks were developed in Germany during  the second world war because the Coca-Cola factory there was under embargo from the USA and needed a product for the home market that could be made with local ingredients.  After the war, Coke retained control of the rights and brought the product to North America.  This bottle from 1952 has the logo on the main body of the bottle as well as the neck.  Most bottles I could find on line only have the logo on the neck.

Along the way we found a vintage 1950’s school desk sitting in the woods.  This gives getting kicked out of class a whole new meaning.

On the east side of the river there are two golf courses on former Scarlett property making hiking on that side of the river impossible.  Just north of Dundas is the Lambton Golf Course which was started in 1902.  This site was the former location of the Simcoe Chase Course which was one of the City of York’s earliest horse race tracks.  It lasted until around 1842.  Between there and Eglinton is the Scarlett Woods Golf Course which opened July 1, 1974.

We had hoped to reach Dundas street and close the loop to Lambton Mills but time ran out and we shall have to save that part of the journey for another day.

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