Toogood Pond

[Tyler Ackland]

Has anyone ever been to Toogood Pond in Markham? I ran there a couple times last summer when I had access to a car. The pond measures about 300m by 70m. There are viewing decks on both sides of the pond, about 10 feet above the water. There is a boat launch ramp and lots of free parking. There are also washrooms, AC power and the water is clean. The bottom is very mushy, however. (I went for an unplanned swim.) The Town of Markham told me it was okay to run there. It's in a very posh neighbourhood. I'm sure any interested onlookers there wouldn't hesitate to buy into the hobby.

So, has anyone been there?

[Doug Forrester]

Hi Tyler
I used to test run boats there up until about 5-6 years ago. I haven't been there since. No particular reason why not. In the last few years, I have tended to go elsewhere. Basically I agree with you, the site is not too bad. I always ran from the boat launch ramp. I'm actually kind of surprised that the Town said that it was OK to run there. These days the tendency is to refuse official permission to do just about anything in any park, if you ask. Toogood is actually the closest useable pond to my house. If I remember rightly, the only negative was too many ducks and geese, however lots of ponds have the same problem these days.

I'm probably not going to get out to do much running until at least next month. If you would like to meet there some time to run boats, give me a shout.

[Tyler Ackland]

Thanks for the offer to run with you, Doug. I'll keep in touch. Final exams are coming up soon and I still have to get my boat out of "winter storage." I won't be ready to run before May either.