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Emperor Wang
    
location:
On an island, in a river
Fetish? What fetish?
 |  | Turcot Trail
< on 4/1/2007 3:45 AM >
|  | | | I walked the trail along the escarpment today (the part from Cavendish to the interchange anyway) and it's a sweet little spot. Except for all the garbage, it's like being in your own private park.
I was wondering how this trail came about. You can see a gravel roadbed in a few places, and the remains of snow fences indicate it was maintained at one time. It's much too wide to have been made by hikers.
Any ideas as to the history of the trail? Charlie?
It's great to be alive! |
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Flash Salute
 
| | Re: Turcot Trail
<Reply # 1 on 4/1/2007 4:03 AM >
| | | | Posted by Emperor Wang
I walked the trail along the escarpment today (the part from Cavendish to the interchange anyway) and it's a sweet little spot. Except for all the garbage, it's like being in your own private park.
I was wondering how this trail came about. You can see a gravel roadbed in a few places, and the remains of snow fences indicate it was maintained at one time. It's much too wide to have been made by hikers.
Any ideas as to the history of the trail? Charlie?
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Probably a old disamantled railroad track..do you have any picture of the place ??
[last edit 4/1/2007 4:04 AM by Flash Salute - edited 1 times]
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Emperor Wang
location:
On an island, in a river
Fetish? What fetish?
| | Re: Turcot Trail
<Reply # 2 on 4/1/2007 4:41 AM >
| | | | Sorry Miner, but I didn't take any pics today. You can (sort of) see it on Navigateur Urbain though.
It's definitely not an old railbed, the way it wanders up and down the side of the escarpment. It looks more like a 4x4 road or an old snowmobile trail.
[last edit 4/1/2007 4:44 AM by Emperor Wang - edited 1 times]
It's great to be alive! |
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Flash Salute
| | Re: Turcot Trail
<Reply # 3 on 4/1/2007 12:11 PM >
| | | | Posted by Emperor Wang
Sorry Miner, but I didn't take any pics today. You can (sort of) see it on Navigateur Urbain though.
It's definitely not an old railbed, the way it wanders up and down the side of the escarpment. It looks more like a 4x4 road or an old snowmobile trail.
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oh thank you for the explorateur urbain 
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nostra-YOUPPI!
Umpire
location:
Shahre:'on Kaybec
Bonsoir et cest partie
| | Re: Turcot Trail
<Reply # 4 on 4/2/2007 12:33 AM >
| | | | there was an article in the GAZ at one time saying the city had attempted to build a park on the escarpment in the 80s. The owners of nitolos at the time put the kaibosh on it when it required a "droit de passage" on thier land (nitolos was where loblaws is now)
Montreal Expos 1969-2004 Forever Proud Lets Keep The Dream Alive |
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SPEK Photo
 
location:
Where you were not.
"Chere cachère!"
| |  | Re: Turcot Trail
<Reply # 5 on 4/2/2007 2:15 AM >
| | | | could it date from before the modern period and construction of the highway etc.
in navurb it is state as Falaise St-Jacques and considered a park... !?
looks like a nice new place to do some mountain bike on the island.
[last edit 4/2/2007 2:19 AM by SPEK Photo - edited 2 times]
Pour fins d'archives.
WWW.EXPLORATIONURBAINE.CA |
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Charlie_Dunver
location:
Montreal
Gender: Male
| | | Re: Turcot Trail
<Reply # 6 on 4/2/2007 3:55 AM >
| | | | Here is my original scoop.
http://neath.wordp...ise-saint-jacques/
It is a bit of a mystery as there is not a lot of information though if I was to push a little here someone who knows someone who had a look at the plans there might say what the actual planned route was at least. An NDG - Parc Angrignon connection? It's is probably tied in with the bike path along demaisonneve but where was it going? Turcot Yards was a very active intermodal center in those days. But for me the most interesting question is why was this project aborted?
Good time of the year to explore it as EW has done if it is not too wet. Can be a real bitch with mosquitoes in summer as there is a creek that runs along most of the bottom of the Falaise though many parts get dried up at times.
CD
http://neath.wordpress.com |
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Emperor Wang
location:
On an island, in a river
Fetish? What fetish?
| | Re: Turcot Trail
<Reply # 7 on 4/2/2007 3:57 AM >
| | | | Posted by SPEK Photo
in navurb it is state as Falaise St-Jacques and considered a park... !?
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Hah! In navurb, pretty much anything that isn't plastered in asphalt and concrete is considered parkland. And a few places that are.
Posted by nostra-YOUPPI!
there was an article in the GAZ at one time saying the city had attempted to build a park on the escarpment in the 80s. The owners of nitolos at the time put the kaibosh on it when it required a "droit de passage" on thier land (nitolos was where loblaws is now)
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That's odd, because the city land appears to stretch right up to Saint-Jacques, just east of the car wash. At present, anyway.
It's great to be alive! |
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Charlie_Dunver
location:
Montreal
Gender: Male
| | | Re: Turcot Trail
<Reply # 8 on 4/2/2007 4:09 AM >
| | | | Spek,
The Falaise Saint Jacques is officially one of the Island of Montreal's 10 Eco-territories. These were formed by the city coming from a damage control attempt on it s overall "green" record. Just about everyone of those 10 have been raped and pillaged by developers - recently and all with the city's blessing. Most of the Angel Woods in the West Island are actually owned by a developer. The Falaise Saint Jacques has been destroyed many times but nature always returns because you can't build motels, restaurants, and supermarkets on the side of a hill, or can you, lol. Well. if there is a road leading up to it.......
CD
http://neath.wordpress.com |
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nostra-YOUPPI!
Umpire
location:
Shahre:'on Kaybec
Bonsoir et cest partie
| | Re: Turcot Trail
<Reply # 9 on 4/2/2007 4:19 AM >
| | | | Posted by Emperor Wang
That's odd, because the city land appears to stretch right up to Saint-Jacques, just east of the car wash. At present, anyway.
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i know that the strip of cavendish south of st jacques used to have the rear parking lot of auto audio on it, there were also lamp posts to the driveway for the rose bowl there and a chain link fence on all sides of speedy muffler except for the side facing st jacques. i think the city land part south of st jacques is recent because there was a lot of crap there. anyone remember the tavern that was there whos front was a big barrel
Montreal Expos 1969-2004 Forever Proud Lets Keep The Dream Alive |
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Charlie_Dunver
location:
Montreal
Gender: Male
| | | Re: Turcot Trail
<Reply # 10 on 4/2/2007 4:20 AM >
| | | | Interesting, because the city land does go up to Saint Jacques. When I first discovered it about 2 years ago my first thought was that it was some kind of emergency access road for Turcot - it is that wide at some places. There is a surprising amount of road there so one has to assume that Nittolos did not squelch the idea, or, if that happened, the city simply paved until they found another way up or down if you will. This thing got killed when the road was almost down to Pullman so if there was a land claim issue it had to have been with CN, I think, heh heh.
Or did two city departments run into each other and they automatically cancelled each other out? 
CD
http://neath.wordpress.com |
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nostra-YOUPPI!
Umpire
location:
Shahre:'on Kaybec
Bonsoir et cest partie
| | Re: Turcot Trail
<Reply # 11 on 4/2/2007 4:36 AM >
| | | | i know the loblaws project did run into a little bit of trouble in the beginning when the city expropriated for the strip of cavendish south of st jacques.
That hill would make a great park, even an attraction, sadly as long as peter and the rest of the sergakises are the owners of every henhouse, farmhouse and doghouse on st jacques the curb appeal of said park will be null
Montreal Expos 1969-2004 Forever Proud Lets Keep The Dream Alive |
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Charlie_Dunver
location:
Montreal
Gender: Male
| | | Re: Turcot Trail
<Reply # 12 on 4/2/2007 11:51 AM >
| | | | My whole idea is that the Falaise Saint Jacques become the north strip of the world's greatest sustainability based urban park- and that includes having an elevated freeway run through it. But there isn't an ounce of creative vision or community focussed thinking at city hall so I ain't holding my breath.
CD
http://neath.wordpress.com |
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nostra-YOUPPI!
Umpire
location:
Shahre:'on Kaybec
Bonsoir et cest partie
| | Re: Turcot Trail
<Reply # 13 on 4/2/2007 12:36 PM >
| | | | i have visions of the turcot yard sitting empty for years to come. With politicians who think in 4 year bursts we wont see much there. Look at his highness michel leduc in lasalle. He moved the contents of the toxic lasalle municipal dump from the corner of shevchenko and la verendrye to the lasalle coke property. They left the lasalle coke property contaminated and built the envelope on top. When questioned on the 25 year lifespan of said envelope he said "i wont be here in 25 years" (to put it in context the envelope was capped in 1988)
Montreal Expos 1969-2004 Forever Proud Lets Keep The Dream Alive |
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Charlie_Dunver
location:
Montreal
Gender: Male
| | | Re: Turcot Trail
<Reply # 14 on 4/2/2007 12:51 PM >
| | | | The minority government for the Liberals does change things. They would really be stretching their luck trying to talk about the rational for spending half a billion for renovating or a billion for replacing the Turcot Interchange. Transport Quebec would argue that it doesn't matter who is in charge, but there is a difference between construction budgets and necessary maintenance budgets. After all, Charest recently committed to spending a billion (and in Quebec you know such projects rarely ever come in on budget) for a Hydro project on the Rupert River.
Onr of the biggest problems with Turcot and whatever they do there is how they will divert traffic while the work is being done. Motorists will curse the government they see as being responsible if they have to spend 2-4 years in a traffic nightmare. There is new technologies available for elevated interchange construction that can save tons of time and money but you need some things going for you to make it work (http://neath.wordp.../dallas-high-five/). Turcot is very awkward in many ways.
CD
And by the way, EW, if you have any pics I would be happy to post them on the blog!
http://neath.wordpress.com |
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nostra-YOUPPI!
Umpire
location:
Shahre:'on Kaybec
Bonsoir et cest partie
| | Re: Turcot Trail
<Reply # 15 on 4/2/2007 1:02 PM >
| | | | that turcot replacement will be a hard one when you factor in that 90% of the traffic on the interchange is going to the champlain bridge. The busiest bridge in canada according to thier website.
any "improvements" i will believe when i see. Look at the ville marie/ notre dame extension. They expropriated the right of way 30 years ago for the olympics and never finished it
Montreal Expos 1969-2004 Forever Proud Lets Keep The Dream Alive |
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Emperor Wang
location:
On an island, in a river
Fetish? What fetish?
| | Re: Turcot Trail
<Reply # 16 on 4/2/2007 8:54 PM >
| | | | Posted by Charlie_Dunver
if you have any pics I would be happy to post them on the blog!
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Not just yet, Charlie, but I'll let you know when I get some.
Posted by Charlie_Dunver
Good time of the year to explore it as EW has done if it is not too wet.
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Given that the slope is south-facing, the trail is basically dry already. Nothing that a good pair of hiking boots can't deal with. If you bring your bike, be prepared to carry it over/around some fallen trees, SPEK.
I couldn't find much regarding the trail in my map collection, except for this one from 1975:
It's counter-intuitive, but it looks like some of the drainage features ran across the face of the escarpment. Maybe the trail is related to an anti-erosion project? I'll have to take a closer look next time.
It's great to be alive! |
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Flash Salute
| | Re: Turcot Trail
<Reply # 17 on 4/2/2007 9:03 PM >
| | | | Posted by SPEK Photo
could it date from before the modern period and construction of the highway etc.
in navurb it is state as Falaise St-Jacques and considered a park... !?
looks like a nice new place to do some mountain bike on the island.
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hihi time to a good UE bicking trip on this trail ! I want to starts a new event called " UE bicking trip "
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Charlie_Dunver
location:
Montreal
Gender: Male
| | | Re: Turcot Trail
<Reply # 18 on 4/2/2007 9:11 PM >
| | | | "Maybe the trail is related to an anti-erosion project?"
Excellent guess. I don't know the year but there was a tree planting/plant planting anti erosion project some years ago that didn't work out too well as citizens were taking the saplings home to the old backyard. The Falaise has some wacky stories to it but I only know a couple. Also a car dealer got caught cutting trees to expand his lot (which "should" be a much more serious crime in my book because not much happened).
Re Nostra and Nitolos: I would be willing to bet that at least 75% of the land on the top of the slope is being illegally used (at least technically by the book) by property owners along Saint Jacques Ouest. Or maybe they are ALL encroached on it?
That is a terrific map. Can you tell us what the numbers stand for?
CD
http://neath.wordpress.com |
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Emperor Wang
location:
On an island, in a river
Fetish? What fetish?
| | Re: Turcot Trail
<Reply # 19 on 4/2/2007 10:22 PM >
| | | | Posted by Charlie_Dunver
That is a terrific map. Can you tell us what the numbers stand for?
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The numbers indicate the surface soil type. The legend is too detailed to legibly compress down to 100 KB. You can either browse the map at the link above (with the appropriate plugin?) or download a jpeg of the whole thing at this link. I gotta warn you though: it's a 55 MB download. You'll also need to rename the file after downloading it (the name is so long that the extension got dropped by yousendit).
It's great to be alive! |
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