| rev:text
| - This review will be mostly about the fantastic skating trail in Colonel Samuel Smith Park, but the park on the whole seems to be quite nice also. From the parts that I have walked, it is mostly open grassland or trees, with a few benches but no picnic tables or playground that I have noticed. There are always a variety of birds and small animals around, and it seems a nice quiet park to stroll through. There is a dog off-leash area near to the sizable parking lot, and the lakeshore has a marina and mostly rocky edge where you can sit and watch the lake.
As for the skating trail, it is one of the best outdoor skating facilities that I have used. It is roughly a figure-eight, with a square area at the bottom and an extra turn in the larger loop at the top. During the weekdays, it is unsupervised and not usually too busy. There is a supervised public skate on evenings and weekends, and it has been pretty busy when I have gone on Sundays. It's also quite easy to get to as the Kipling South bus loop is only minutes away.
The ice was still a little rough today, but the weather has been mild and it did rain overnight. I went skating about 10-12 times last winter, and the ice was always excellent right up until the very last weekend when it started to get warm also. Apparently there are changing rooms inside the Power House Rec Centre, but they were closed all of last winter due to construction, so not sure what the situation will be this year. For me, the cold and snow are just part of the outdoor skating experience, and there is lots of space to put on skates or sit and rest around the trail itself as long as you don't mind the weather. Overall an excellent place to skate, especially on a clear weekday when there may only be a few other people there.
|