About 85 km north east of downtown Toronto, or about 40 km away from Scarborough, lies a small community in Scugog, Ontario called Port Perry. Port Perry serves as a hub for many small communities in the Scugog area. Located at the basin of the Trent-Severn Waterways is Lake Scugog, one of Ontario's largest man-made lakes. Port Perry was used briefly as a small town in New Hampshire during the sixth season of The West Wing.
On a warm, nice, sunny day, the marina and waterfront of Port Perry can be a nice spot to walk or have a small picnic lunch. Port Perry's Victorian-era downtown is a tourist destination, with clothing stores, restaurants, cafés, bookstores, galleries and antique shops.
The Lake Scugog shoreline offers two popular lakeside parks, Palmer and Birdseye. We visited Palmer park recently. The big red structure in the photograph below is The Port Perry mill and grain elevator, circa 1930. Originally built in 1873, the building remains a major landmark to this day. The original line of the PW&PP Railway can be seen in the foreground.
Lake Scugog is also known for fishing. There are active fishing seasons, both winter and summer. In the winter months, Lake Scugog is dotted with ice-fishing huts and is a destination for ice fishermen and snowmobilers. However, in recent times, you cannot fish for Walleye anymore. As you can see in the sign below, the levels of this magnificent fish has fallen so low, that fishing for Walleye is no longer permitted.
Of course, as these are COVID-19 times, sadly, there are gathering and meeting limits everywhere. Even though most people did not wear marks while outside (and maintaining social distance), masks are currently mandatory when you are inside any business establishment.
In the summer, this is also a favourites place to launch boats from. The Trent waterway system is the gateway to many lakes and small rivers.
All in all, on a nice, sunny, warm day, Port Perry waterfront offers a great place to have a small picnic, a day trip from Toronto, and a small vacation without much hassle.
You can bring your own lunch, or grab some fish and chips from one of the few places nearby, and watch the activities on the pier. Here's hoping we can soon fight covid-19 off and can enjoy these places properly, as they are meant to be.
No comments:
Post a Comment