Paddle the Don will be on May 6 this year. In preparation for this long running event, the TRCA has launched a Paddle the Don website. This event is a once per year chance to canoe the Don River. You put your canoe into the river at Wilket Creek Park and canoe all the way to the Keating Channel near the harbour entrance. There is a shuttle bus which runs you back to the start so you can pick up your car. I have paddled it twice and I highly recommend it. It gives you a new perspective on the river.
Normally the river is too shallow to allow normal passage. This wasn't always the case but urban intensification has drastically altered the waterflow within the watershed such that normal ground water sources have been interrupted by dams or diverted into sewers. The paltry flow that is left is too little to allow for river navigation.
The event started because some people lamented this fact. To make it happen the TRCA opens the dam at the G. Ross Lord reservoir on the West Don. This raises the water sufficiently for one day to allow for canoe travel.
In 2001, the Discovery Channel did a documentary on the event which can still be viewed online.
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