21 Golden Steps

Images by Kathy

Riding the bike path over the past few years I have always zoomed past the inlet of 21 golden steps. It is a well known Toronto drain that carries part of Yellow creek that empties a bit further up from another well known drain that runs under the belt line trail (Belt Line Drain) that starts just a bit North of Eglinton and Spadina. I looked forward to doing this drain on a leisurely afternoon because it was quite short, and was a rectangular box the whole way.

Once you drop into the inlet under a large metal gate/grill you’re immediately rewarded with a cool breeze from inside the drain. The drain runs fairly straight under a stretch of empty parkland until you reach Mt.Pleasant where it takes an east turn and you arrive at a turn and find what appears to be an older inlet grill smashed around two tunnels where a fair bit of debris blocks your way further. We spent a few minutes moving logs, branches,odd bits of metal, and a shopping cart that looked like it had been turned inside out. Once we cleared it (and it cost me my pants and a lovely bruise and cut) we had a victory dance on it. The one thing that struck me about this drain was how water was seeping in from every imaginable place, more so then I have seen elsewhere, giving you a skanky/musty feeling that seemed more cave like then drain.

After navigating the obstacle and going down a little slide we noticed that the makeshift rope someone attached to the smashed grill had obviously been cut by the maintenance workers who seemed to have been doing some very recent work here that included caulking the joints of the drain further down by the actual steps. This was the last stretch of tunnel before you reach the window. You can hear the outfall of the much larger Park Drive Drain / Spadina Storm trunk sewer as you go around the first bend. About 300m further down you hear a louder noise, that being the first set of steps where your greeted by a flood of light shining in through a window that acts as an overflow for the drain and the creek. The first set of steps drops you around a bend where some maintenance work was done recently. The second and third sets of stairs aren’t far off where it becomes impossible to go further as the drain dips down and outfalls right into the Valley.

AOTU First Drain!

Siologen’s Visit