THE EXPEDITION Chapter 22: The Metropolis

Ann Cognito
Jul 30, 2022
9 min read

In which the Expedition is scooting again, following Yonge St. from its source

Date: August 26 to August 28, 2019

KOA Campground north of Barrie, Ontario

I’m often not very good at being clear or being heard right. I asked if they could please let me have a spot as away from other people and dogs as possible, but spent the first night sandwiched between huge trailers and big families with dogs. We stayed in the tent. It was raining anyways. Later the next day I got the nerve to ask to move, and I’m so glad I did. Besides having some peace so I could plan the walk into Toronto, and try to get some news interviews between here and there – we met Lana and Julie.

Lana’s Julie’s mother, and a little older than me… she doesn’t like driving either, and doesn’t camp. But here she was, having a heyday, spending several days in a great big tent with an air mattress on a good frame and a whole bedroom/living room set up, with a mesh dining tent and comfy chairs, and pretty lights all over. We talked and visited each others’ campsites so much over that few days, and they watched while I did a news interview.

Date: August 29, 2019

KOA near Cookstown, Ontario ; 42 km ride

We were leaving on the same morning, and they sort of shanghaiied me into a ride to the next campground, another KOA on the other side of Barrie. I can’t say I wasn’t grateful. Getting through Barrie and across a huge highway was a lot. So was coming to Toronto, partly because it’s immense and partly because it meant I’d be nearing the end of this walk after that. As well, the long chunk of not walking had let me see how tired I was, in more ways than one.

Spending some more time with them was an unexpected treat, too. They do a lot to try to help their corner of the world. There are so many dear, sweet, loving, angry people in the world trying to make a difference. I’m sick of seeing that weight offloaded to them from those who should be doing so much more, but I’m so thankful I can meet some of them. Maybe we all keep each other going, even if not geographically close, just by knowing we’re all out there. I’m glad we stay in touch and I hope we camp together again sometime, somehow.

Date: August 30, 2019

Cookstown to Newmarket, Ontario; ~31 km + detours

We took a couple of small side roads east and a little south to what would become Yonge Street. I swear something went clang in my head as soon as I touched that road, like a huge steel and concrete bell. Toronto is immense, and you can feel it before you can see it.

I lived there for about four years, just after high school, which was a long time ago. Since then, I’ve flown over it (but will not fly again) and seen it sprawling at the edge of the lake like Shelob’s behemoth cyborg twin… bloated and drooling and stinking, and still growing, feeding off those who live in its shadow. Millions of tiny vehicles race in and out of the mess like ants frenzying around a carcass. The din of everything makes it impossible to hear the trees, or the stars, or our selves. I missed all the small towns and villages I’d come through.

But there were dear friends in Toronto, and new ones from online whom I’d get to meet in person, and it’s just too big and central not to have been part of this walk.

There was, of course, highway construction. The shoulder disappeared just as the traffic got worse; backtracking and taking an alternate route would have taken far too long and we’d really have had to go back to the campground. Thankfully, one of the road crew noticed me being upset and came over. He decided it made a lot more sense to help me through, and I hope something really beautiful happened to him that day. I love road crews. My son’s working on one as I write this, but I think I already said that… I can totally picture him being the person who helps critters and crazy old ladies navigate pilons and squished traffic, — he’s such a good human being, and in spite of his claims to the contrary, an awfully nice guy.

We stopped at a little gas station before getting onto Yonge Street. Sitting behind the shop sipping his coffee from my own cup (I love that cup – it’s a stainless steel replica of an Alcatraz tin cup which I found while feeling imprisoned in Calgary), I broke the rule I’d made when the Rockies finally fell beyond the horizon… no looking back. I did that one other time, later on… both times, because I had to show myself how far I’d come, in order to keep going.

Shortly after that, we came over a hill and the city stared back at us. It’s a long way down; the skyscapers in the core are like dirty lego, and their tops are about eye level here.

Cities are different realities than the rest of the world. They’re so different physically and socially and practically, that they make people different, too. They really are alive themselves, in a way, and are kept alive by everyone in them. Humans have only lived this way relatively recently, and it seems to have had unfortunate effects so many ways.

The most immediate unfortunate effect, for Mr Myrtle and I, was that there’s nowhere to camp or pitch a tent on the way down Yonge Street. In retrospect, duh. But I’d gotten used to community leagues who welcome travellers, and all sorts of things like that.

Finally, late that night, a dear friend I’ll always wish I could have stayed with longer put us up at a very nice (and the only) hotel for the night.

Date: August 31, 2019

Newmarket / Aurora to Tim Hortons at Yonge St. and John, Thornhill-Markham, Ontario; 30 km

We spent the next night in an all-night Tim Hortons where the staff were mostly from South American countries and totally supported my refusal to support the decimation of the rainforest in the name of Timbits, and let me discreetly have my own tea and snacks. I spent most of the night having a great conversation with a very knowledgeable and well-informed unemployed man whose name I wish I remembered, and who couldn’t get over what I was doing. An otherwise awkward night turned out to be a downright pleasant and very encouraging visit.

Date: September 1, 2019

Thornhill-Markham to Queen’s Park, Toronto; 18 km

As the sun tried to find the day through the city, we headed down into it.

Irene and Sarah were meeting us near Yonge and Finch.

I got a second (22nd?) wind and got there much earlier than I’d figured. Irene came earlier and we had brunch and got along so well we lost track of time till people started messaging to ask where we were – I’m so happy she was able to come so early or we might never have had time to start getting to know each and I’d’ve missed out on such a good friend!

First we ran to meet Sarah, who was coming from the next subway stop. I’ve known Sarah for something like fifteen years, and we’ve gotten close, but this was the first time we’d met. You know how that’s often awkward? It completely wasn’t, not that meeting and not for the whole week I stayed with her. Sarah was my friend John’s partner, and John was such a close friend we were part of each other even when we were nowhere near each other. He’s gone now. Sarah is a brilliant, talented, and deeply real soul… John is gone now, but I think she and I will always be friends.

With Irene and Sarah joining, our little caravan was starting to attract attention. It started raining, but more joined as we walked south, local activists from all over the city who’d made signs and banners and arranged to meet us at various spots all the way down Yonge. I think there was at least a few dozen of us, and we took over a lane from the traffic for most of the walk. Cars and trucks waved and honked (mostly in support). It was so flipping beautiful, all these people supporting what I was doing… and more importantly, supporting why.

It was a Saturday, I think (Ed. Note: Sunday), but too late in the afternoon anyways for anyone to have been there by the time we got to Queens Park, but by that time there was so many of us the whole entire thing was an event anyways.

I finally got to meet Matthew, a young activist I’d been messaging with a lot, talking about the planet, the climate, the future, people, change… I did, and still do, really appreciate his perspectives and insights and questions, and I respect him till the cows come home. Then, he was juggling university, work I think, and serious regular activism with both Fridays for Future and Extinction Rebellion.

So was another young university student I met that day, Albi… his sister had recently been almost killed, and left a paraplegic, by a hideous, and hideously stupid and preventable accident caused by a culture that needs to get rid of so many people driving everywhere in stupidly bad environmental and mental conditions, and a culture that really needs to defund the police and start making the word make sense instead. But that is A- a whole ‘nother book, and B- Alberoni’s story. He gave me a message which I was honoured to take to try to deliver to the Prime Minister.

That’s also when I met Ness, a human-shaped force of nature determined to make a difference. Ness is young and already has more sense of self, and self awareness, than most people will ever have… and which the world needs us to develop, so much. They also make the best mushrooms I’ve ever had – I was able to visit, and stay a couple nights, while in Peterborough.

Once the sun gave up on the city and people made their ways home, Matthew and Albi and Sarah and I went to get take-out pizza, to celebrate Mr Myrtle’s fourth and a half birthday (dogs need more birthdays because they live quicker) at Sarah’s place. It had actually been a couple days earlier, but there hadn’t been any gluten free pizza around at the time so he’d offered to postpone his party till now. We all talked till late into the night.

Date: Sept 2-9, 2019 Toronto

Sarah apartment is a warm and welcoming art studio/gallery in the labyrinthine basement of a turn of the century downtown brownstone not far from Kensington Market, an area I knew well a long time ago. When she practices her guitar, it sounds like a locationless ghost is playing for the building; you can barely hear it, but it whispers through the heating system if you listen.

Sarah and I shut down traffic twice with XR while I was there. Neither of us had done it before, and it was pretty exciting to be part of a major disruption – twice, even.

We mostly talked for hours and hours, and we went for dim sum. While she worked, I decided on, and mapped out, the next chunk of the trip. I hadn’t decided whether to go through Peterborough or Kingston, but the next thing I knew, Ness and Joleen and others were planning a Walk arrival event in Peterborough. I was happy to be able to see them again (I hadn’t seen Joleen since Calgary, but her family had moved back here to her home during the summer), and excited about the event.

Meanwhile, I played hooky one day. A dear friend from when my son was very little, whom I’d lost touch with, had found my email address while going through some things. It had been so good to hear from her, so now she started driving from London while Mr Myrtle and I hopped on a Go train, and we met in the middle and spent the whole day just catching up. It was beautiful.

Date: Sept 10, 2019

Kensington, Toronto toward Scarborough ~ 20 km?

The day I started leaving Toronto, Sarah was working, so we arranged to meet for dinner – she’d catch a subway to where I’d’ve made it to walking. It does sound funny and we did both laugh a lot but I’m glad we could do that.

That night I camped in a lovely family’s back yard partway towards Scarborough, and in the morning we kept going east. They’ have a brilliant daughter, and make as much time for serious activism as possible.

It honestly never felt like we left Toronto until turning north in Bowmanville, though officially it ends much sooner. Only on paper, though.

(Editor’s Note: And that’s all we have for now! The rest of Ann’s book is still in note form, and it all will probably be revised from what you have read here if she gets a chance to finish and publish it. I imagine it’s very painful right now, but I hope the story can be completed. I for one want to hear about life in the Climate Emergency Camp in Ottawa! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about this incredible journey of hope, and that more readers find this blog and become inspired and feel less alone in their own struggles for the future of our world and in particular, this beautiful country and her beautiful people. – FG, July 30, 2022)

https://forourgrandchildren.ca/blog/2019/10/07/walk-to-waken-the-nation-about-climate