[URBAN NOTE] "The Davenportage is a walk through Toronto’s history and geography"

[rfmcdonald]

The Toronto Star's Shawn Micallef writes about a new celebration of Toronto's past.

“Why we do it is a mystery,” says Nicholas Brinckman. “There is no reason to walk across the city carrying a canoe on your back. It’s madness.”

On Nov. 15, Brinckman and others will be doing just that for an event they call the Davenportage, a 17-kilometre portage between the Humber and Don Rivers.

The bulk of their route follows Davenport, one of Toronto’s oldest roads that roughly traces an even older First Nations trail called Gete-Onigaming, or “the old portage.”

Davenport also passes south of the shoreline of ancient Lake Iroquois, the former expanded glacial version of Lake Ontario, today a prominent escarpment running across the middle of Toronto between Davenport and St. Clair that is the bane of all north-peddling cyclists.

Brinckman and a few other colleagues were working together in a shared office in Yorkville when they came up with the idea to do a long walk that both explored the city and honoured some of its history.

“It’s a profound way to be in the city,” he says. “It made me feel more connected to this place.”