Summer 2018 THE QUARTERLY OF THE TORONTO BRUCE TRAIL CLUB Vol. LV No. 2 www.torontobrucetrailclub.org | 416-763-9061 | [email protected] Another Beautiful day for Toronto Club’s AGM Saturday, April 21, 2018 More than 150 members of our club turned out on Saturday for our Annual Meeting, held once again at the beautiful Kortright Centre on a spectacular spring day. The day started with three vigorous hikes led by Barbara Euler, Wayne Crockett and Luisa Lee, and a photography hike led by Bob Humphreys. Following lunch the business of the meeting began. I had the pleasure of reporting on another excellent year for the club, with another year of excellent work by our volunteers across all our areas of activity. The full annual report is available for download on the members’ section of our website. Our new Treasurer, Karim Mishriki, reported on solid financial results for the club. The most important number to me in our annual report is the over $23 thousand our club was able to donate the BTC this year to further our important land acquisition work. Two new directors were elected: David Royle, a well-known hike leader, and Orest Nahacziwec, who has volunteered to take over the editing of Footnotes magazine. In addition, we are welcoming back Kevin Warburton to the Board after a vacation. Congratulations to them all, we look forward to their valuable contributions going forward. During the last year, we reluctantly accepted the resignations from the board of Brenda Brazier, Paul Vanhanen and Wayne Crockett. The valuable contributions of all these three will all be missed; fortunately, Paul and Wayne remain heavily involved as volunteers in our Land Management Committee and hiking program, respectively. Vice-President Graham Allen presented the awards to this year’s winners of the Nina Carlisle and Todd Bardes awards. The Nina Carlisle award went to retiring Hiking Director Wayne Crockett, for his many years of service to Treasurer Karim Mishriki explains the financials to President John Grandy, the club. Fortunately for us, Wayne remains one of our as Wayne Crockett takes notes Photo: Lucy Leung. most active hike leaders. The Todd Bardes award was given to Martina Furrer for her hard work in developing the club’s ski and snowshoe events program. Both awards are well deserved – congratulations to both. The main business of the day was the presentation on the Bruce Trail’s new strategic plan from the BTC’s Director of Communications and Fund Development, Marsha Russell. This plan covers the seven years between now and 2025. It is an exciting read, starting with our elegant new mission statement: “Preserving a ribbon of wilderness, for everyone, forever.” continued on page 3 www.torontobrucetrailclub.org Table of Contents Footnotes Toronto Bruce Trail Club is published quarterly by the Board of Directors (as of April 21st, 2018) TBTC 2018 AGM P1 Toronto Bruce Trail Club President: P.O. Box 597 John Grandy Volunteer Awards P3 2938 Dundas Street West [email protected] Hiking Director Lucy Leung P4 Toronto, Ontario M6P 4E7 Vice-President; Volunteer Co-ordinator: In Memoriam P5 Graham Allen [email protected] [email protected] Hike Leader Training P7 www.torontobrucetrailclub.org Past President; Land Stewardship: Hiker Initiation Program P8 ISSN 0380-9354 Peter Leeney A member of the Bruce Trail Conservancy 905-822-1877 General Information P10 [email protected] Hike Program (June to August) P11 Many thanks to all the volunteers who BTC Director; Trail Director: Looking Ahead (September) P24 helped in the production of this issue. Marlis Butcher [email protected] Peninsula Weekend P26 Send address changes to: Secretary: Upcoming Events P26 The Bruce Trail Conservancy Robert Gillespie PO Box 857, Hamilton, ON L8N 3N9 Trail Reroute P28 [email protected] www.brucetrail.org 1-800-665-4453 Treasurer: Friends of Scotsdale Farm P30 Karim Mishriki Toronto Club End to End P31 For missing copies of Footnotes 416-543-6107 call 1-800-665-4453, [email protected] Trail Users’ Code P32 Monday to Friday 8:30 am - 4:30 pm Public Relations & Education; Communications Director: Opinions expressed in Footnotes are not Brigette Peters necessarily the views of the TBTC unless 416-938-8334 stated as such. Advertising does not imply [email protected] endorsement by the TBTC. Land Management Committee Chair; Log in to the Members section of BTC Land Securement Secretariat Rep. David Tyson the Club website using your BTC Footnotes Resource Support membership number and your 416-966-1379 [email protected] own password. Footnotes Editor: Malcolm Sanderson Membership: Proofreaders: Marilyn MacKellar Alina Lin Kathryn Emirzian [email protected] Advertising & Mail Coordinator: Hiking Director Jude Keast Lucy Leung Publication Deadlines Activities Editor: Victor Ramautar [email protected] ISSUE: ADVERTISING/EDITORIAL Webmaster: Stephen Kamnitzer Directors at Large: E-Notes Editor: Brent Michaluk Orest Nahacziwec Fall 2018: June 28, 2018 Archivist: vacant [email protected] Winter 2018-19: Sept. 30, 2018 Information Line: Judy Leeney David Royle Spring 2019: January 15, 2019 City of Toronto Liaison: [email protected] Summer 2019: March 23, 2019 vacant Malcolm Sanderson Halton Hills Chapter: [email protected] Send advertisements to: Janet Le Lievre Kevin Warburton [email protected] [email protected] vacancies - volunteers needed: The Toronto Bruce Trail Club is one of nine clubs Social Director making up the Bruce Trail Conservancy, which Fundraising is dedicated to the conservation of the Niagara Archivist Escarpment. You are invited to visit the Toronto City of Toronto Liaison Club’s website at www.torontobrucetrailclub.org 2 Summer 2018 Club Info Line: 416-763-9061 www.torontobrucetrailclub.org Most importantly, our new strategic plan is focused on accelerating our land acquisition program, to secure as much of the Bruce Trail’s route permanently, as quickly as possible. Coupled with this, of course, is an acceleration of our fundraising strategy. It is quite extraordinary to me to see the size of some of the generous donations we are now receiving to help us achieve our mandate. All of you, our members, are ambassadors for the Bruce Trail. Please spread the word about our important mission, and help others come to share our enthusiasm. After an invigorating AGM, we all came away motivated for yet another year of volunteering and recreation with Toronto Bruce Trail Club. John Grandy, President TBTC Volunteer Awards presented at the 2018 AGM: The Nina Carlisle Award is given to a long-standing volunteer (at least five years) who is actively involved in the activities of the Toronto Bruce Trail Club. Such volunteering could be in the areas of trail maintenance, hike leading, social event planning, communications, administrative tasks, fund raising and Board service. The winner of this award for 2018 was Wayne Crockett. Wayne joined the Bruce Trail Conservancy, Toronto Club, in 1994. He served as a member of the TBTC board from 2008 to 2011 and from 2015 to 2017, holding the position of Hike Director, but his volunteer service started much earlier when, in 2004, he became the TBTC Archivist. Wayne has been actively involved in the Ski-Snowshoe programme for many years. Under his leadership we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of snowshoers. In addition to his duties as Hike Director, Wayne became involved in the outreach programme for ‘younger hikers’ in the Toronto area. This programme has morphed into a more general outreach to underserved communities, for example new Canadians and refugees. Wayne Crockett receiving the Nina Carlisle award from And no nomination for Wayne would be complete without mentioning his very Vice-President Graham Allen. Photo Alina Lin. popular hikes highlighting the War of 1812. In the run-up to the bicentenary of the War, Wayne organized a series of walks on this theme. These took place in Toronto, along the Bruce Trail, and in the countryside close to the Niagara River. Several of these hikes continue to be part of the TBTC regular hiking programme. Ours must be the only hiking club in Canada to have, as one of its hike leaders, someone who is an Archivist and a Specialist in the War of 1812. In 2017 the Board decided to establish an award to recognize significant volunteer contributions over a shorter time span. This is the Todd Bardes award, and the winner in 2018 was Martina Furrer. Martina Furrer has worked tirelessly for the past seven years to organize the ski buses for us to go up north to cross country ski and snow shoe. She is pleasant, organized and has creative ideas, both to get people out and moving and also when the snow doesn’t co-operate and she has to change destinations at the last minute. She takes her own time during the week to register new guests and deal with members who have registered and then want to cancel. She administers the wait list to ensure that the bus has as many paying customers as possible. And on top of that, she offers us chocolates on the bus on our way home! Now, I ask you, does it get any nicer than that? We are so lucky to have her do this for us. Martina Furrer receiving the Todd Bardes award from Vice-President Graham Allen. Photo Alina Lin. e-mail: [email protected] Summer 2018 3 www.torontobrucetrailclub.org Hiking Director’s Notes by Lucy Leung, Hiking Director One of the great appeals about hiking is that it can be enjoyed at many different levels depending on the fitness of the participants and the time available. For most of us, the frenetic pace of daily life only intensifies the longing to get outdoors. This summer we have an awesome array of hikes lined up for you and I am particularly gratified that our volunteer hike leaders are offering more bus hikes than there have been in the recent past, something that you have been asking for.