Hiking the Alay Mountains of Kyrgyzstan (Part 2)

On Tuesday, August 11, I published Part 1 of my experience hiking the Alay Mountains of Kyrgyzstan. If you haven’t read that post yet, I suggest you do to get caught up on the first four days on the trek before reading on to Day 5. 😉

Day 5

This was the first time during our trek when we had pancakes for breakfast, while we also had Ayran and another kind of porridge. My left leg felt a lot better than the prior day but going downhill was still a bit stressful. Meanwhile, the day started with our first yak spotting of the trek.

Bartley Smith Greenway and the Vaughan Super Trail

This week has been a stinker for Toronto’s cycling community. On Tuesday, mayoral candidate Brad Bradford called for the Bloor bike lanes in Etobicoke from South Kingsway to Resurrection Road to be removed. Earlier today, the Ontario Court of Appeal overturned Justice Paul Schabas’ ruling from July 2025 in favour of Cycle Toronto by arguing the bike lane removals along Bloor, Yonge, and University were unconstitutional. While it remains unclear whether Cycle Toronto will choose to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada – which only hears a limited number of cases deemed in the national interest – I used my day off work today to explore the Bartley Smith Greenway. I’ll also explain how it fits with the larger Vaughan Super Trail initiative.

Hiking the Alay Mountains of Kyrgyzstan (Part 1)

During our trip to Kyrgyzstan, our focus was the eight-day Best of Alay Mountains Trek hosted by Visit Alay from July 19 to 26. They offer several trekking, horse, and cultural tours within Kyrgyzstan, as well as tours along the Pamir Highway in Tajikistan and within Uzbekistan. Our group had six trekkers including Zoe and Braden from Australia, Danilo from Italy, and Leila from Canada; as well as two guides Simon and Daniel. Our trip started and ended at the Visit Alay office in Osh, while most of our evenings were spent at yurt camps. Given the amount of content, I will split this post in two.

West Toronto Railpath 2026 Update

Last week, the City of Toronto confirmed the West Toronto Railpath had finally reopened to the public; a closure which has happened for the past four years as part of improvements to Bloor GO station. I also found out from the Urban Toronto forums that a new multi-use path is currently under construction along the Barrie GO line which would connect with the West Toronto Railpath Extension. This afternoon, I checked it out as well as some other infrastructure in the area.

A Brief Recap About Kyrgyzstan

Two years ago, Helen and I visited Central Asia for the first time including Uzbekistan and Almaty, Kazakhstan; plus a few days in Istanbul. We enjoyed Uzbekistan’s rich history and cuisine including plov – their national dish of rice, meat, and vegetables – and shashlik meat skewers; while Shymbulak Peak in Almaty was a decent day hike. Since we wanted to further explore that part of the world and get some serious hiking in, we visited Kyrgyzstan this year including an eight-day trek in the Alay Mountains. I will do a separate post about that trek and will use this post to briefly recap Kyrgyzstan.

Calling Out Excessive Pedestrian Street Policing

All right, folks! We need to talk about the excessive policing in this city! Especially when it comes to pedestrian streets, open streets, and other street events.

Back in late June, the Toronto Star and other media outlets published reports stating that the Church Street Pedestrianization Pilot costs more than tripled to $500,000; about $300,000 of which was used for policing and security costs. If that didn’t sound bad enough, the Toronto Police Service originally requested $3 million for a 24/7 police presence there!

Marking One Year Since Cycle Toronto’s Court Victory

This evening, Cycle Toronto marked one year since their court victory against the bike lane removal provisions of Bill 212 with a rally and ride from Ramsden Park to the courthouse at University and Armoury. Having just returned from Kyrgyzstan last night – more on that soon – I joined the almost 40 people who showed up despite the jet lag.