Great Skate #48: The Barbara Ann Scott Ice Trail (renovated)


Good grief, this is the 9th year of my Great Skate Project. And for my Great Skate #48, I returned to the site of Great Skate #1: the Barbara Ann Scott rink at College Park in downtown Toronto.

In 2012, I skated at the previous incarnation of this rink on a damp New Year's Day with my friend Cathy and her son H. The rink closed the following year due to a condo build. The renovated rink opened to the public in November 2019. On January 7, 2020, I headed to the rink after work to check it out.

Like many new rinks in Toronto, the Barbara Ann Scott rink is now an "ice trail" that loops through a park. There are benches and landscaping that will be attractive and useful in the warmer months as well as in winter.

And there are giant frogs, which is not a phrase I ever thought I'd be typing on this blog.

Statues of frogs at the Barbara Ann Scott Ice Trail.

The rink building is architecturally impressive; you would never mistake it for a maintenance shed. The interior is fairly basic. It's heated and there is a washroom. There are no lockers, so you need to either trust that the staff person is keeping an eye on things or place your belongings in a pile on an outdoor bench where you can keep an eye on them yourself.

On a frigid weeknight, there were about a dozen of us doing laps at the rink. They included the usual suspects: a woman holding up a small child who was still learning how to skate; a man waiting patiently while his older children enjoyed doing laps; a group of 20-somethings wearing hockey jerseys; and a woman practising figure skating moves.

While I was more wobbly than expected when I first stepped onto the ice (for which I blame my skates that badly need sharpening), it felt good to be skating again.

I am not sure when or where my next Great Skate will be. And I am not sure if I am going to keep blogging about skating. But there are lots of rinks out there, and some cold days still coming, so who knows?



More Great Skates

Bryant Park Rink in New York City

Gage Park Rink in Brampton, Ontario

Rideau Canal Skateway in Ottawa

The list of all my Great Skates so far




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