If you can wipe out the distant hullabaloo of traffic and sights of high-rises, there are places along the Don River, which can trick you into thinking that it is wasteland.

But the ubiquitous smell of dirt coming from dozens of gale drain pipelines and drains that pour into the Don cannot be imagined away, a stinking reminder of the work that is still required to clean it up.

On a canoe ride on Sunday in the annual Paddle the Don event, sponsored by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, people discovered amazing beauty along its twisty course, in contrast to the dreary iron shoring and multi-lane traffic down its lower stretch.

Around 600 persons in canoes and kayaks navigated 16 kilometers of the Don, from E. T. Seton Park, near Leslie St. and Eglinton Ave., to the Keating Channel, with some raising funds for the Conservation Foundation of Greater Toronto, to be utilized for river renovation projects.

The Don is in general so shallow that canoes cannot be used to traverse it; an upstream dam was started to increase the water level enough so as to permit to float the boat.

Gord MacPherson, the Conservation Authority's Manager of Restoration and Environmental Monitoring, clarified that when the storm gutter overflows gets in touch with the river, the disparity in water temperatures increases an already bad smell.