This cache FINALLY completes our series on facilities attributes. Previous ones dealt with wheelchair and stroller accessibility, as well as parking, public transportation/picnic tables, drinking water, telephone/camping, and public restrooms/food nearby. Now it's time to find some fuel! ⛽ 🚙 🛢️
Or not. Maybe? According to my internet sleuthing, this cache is located behind what used to be a Texaco gas station in the 80s. There was similarly another gas station further down Kingston Rd, across from the Toronto Hunt Club. When sites like these close up, what happens to the giant fuel tanks underneath them?
I'm not surprised to see both sites have been replaced by big shiny buildings rather than smaller structures. I'm guessing only major developers are going to buy old gas station sites, where the cost of removing the tanks and contaminated soil is largely covered by digging for major foundation work. You certainly can't tell by looking now, but the fuel was nearby...and maybe some of it is still underfoot.
Of course you won't be thinking about that when you lay hands on this container and realize that there is a trick to opening it. This one should hold up fairly well if you don't force it. But if you're having trouble, and particularly if there's ice, you may want to temporarily bring it to a nice warm car.
As for putting it back: it's probably snug enough in its nook without the perching mechanism...but that was included just in case, requiring a bit of a flex and a skew to reset.
I purposefully did not waypoint the parking lot at GZ. Please don't park there if you can help it, out of respect for residents (who are routinely running their trash out to the dumpster nearby) and to reduce attention to the area. There is plenty of street parking nearby. BYOP.
There is also plenty of other fuel nearby. The neighborhood is lousy with gas stations, so just for fun I'm including some archival photos. If you happen to walk from GZ down Kingston Rd. past the Hunt Club to Blantyre, you can contrast the Petro-Canada of today with the Supertest of the 60s. (You can still recognize the building across the street, which has not changed.)
Or check out the southeast corner of Morningside & Kingston Road, which used to host Davie's Shell station:
And I'd love t know just where this Cities Service gas station used to be on Kingston Rd in Birch Cliff (photo from Scarborough Historical Society):
What a gas!
Congrats GordEtob & DLC Eagle Eyes 😊 FTF 19 Jul 2026 @ 4:50pm