Toronto Metro Jam 2007.
Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
March, 2007.
Every year we head to Toronto during the first week of March to see the biking contest, known as the Metro Jam.
Usually, the highlight of the trip is the ride up to Toronto; but this year, I had to work afternoons and people couldn't handle drinking throughout the night.
Once we got to Toronto we were greeted with a salty and anti-shirt Dzimaarsky...
Bodies and mattresses soon headed his way; this was 6 a.m.
Steve Davis rocking the fur coat and his gun that shot little yellow balls from air force...
After taking too long to do this update; I can't remember if we went to bed or not...or what we did at all?!?
Oh well, the next day (Saturday), was spent walking from our hotel to the contest. You see kids; the key to drinking in public is getting 9.9% alcoholic beverages that just look like energy drinks.
This is nuts; GRAMS atop some phone booths on quite a busy road...
We walked past Much Music...
We saw some dude in a fur coat with an air pressure ball gun put up a bunch of 'fuck Matt Babel' stickers.
You know...
Matt Babel...
We walked the alleys that we walked last year...
...we did see some rad dumpsters though.
Dzimaarsky found some new wheels...
Excellent billboard.
After getting all Joozed up; I thought it would be a good idea to hop this fence.
Bad idea. Sprained my heel and had a good limp the rest of the trip.
And it's still bruised today.
And there was nothing down there.
AND the fence gate was just open and jumping the fence was completely pointless.
Anyway, we finally got to the contest and it was fucking terrible.
There were barely any seats and barely any people that we knew...
I ended up going over to the flatland area and sitting comfortably on the grandstands. How did the flatland section have 5 times the seating of the street course?
Oh well. I enjoy flatland just as much & enjoyed watching Hiroya Morizaki (I believe that was who I was watching...e-mail me if I'm wrong).
The Saturday at the contest was quite uneventful. We ended up bussing home and sat around in the hotel room; trying to determine what we were going to go do...
We decided on some strip club action...(well actually, Don & Steve decided on some strip club action because I hate going to the strip club when I don't have a girlfriend...)
It ended up being pretty bad as well; the girls weren't very attractive & if I have to go through the agony & awkwardness that I feel being around females; then at least they could be good looking...
Leaving Sunday morning, we left quite a mess in the hotel room afterwards. This isn't that bad because Janice once told me before how she had went into rooms and every guy in there had came on the television...a few napkins and bottles are nothing...
Sunday morning/afternoon; I had planned out a building to urbex while everyone was at the contest. I didn't think anyone else wanted to go; but everyone ended up going...even if Seth didn't really like it.
So, the six of us went on our way into The Inglis Factory.
Built in 1881, the Inglis factory gained a place in the history pages when it became the place of creation for the Bren Gun; a light, small machine gun that had a great effect on World War 2. Many women worked here during wartime to produce the Bren Gun while the men were away at war.
You can find a great site, with plenty of information about the factory here.
Afterwards, when the men returned home; the factory went back to making the washers and dryers that Inglis is known for today.
The factory became abandoned in 1989 & people have been pursuing its demolition since 1996; to no avail.
The yellow paint on the left of the door makes me laugh.
The building was average, I knew this beforehand from the internet pictures I found. I knew this would be the case, but just wanted to get some urbex in.
Anyway, the nearby graffiti store meant that the inside was quite colorful.
Don claims this is an abandoned Mercedes-Benz.
A better overview shot of the first building where the car was found.
I decided to pose by the car and managed to look high as hell as well...
Moving through the first main room; you could start to see the second main room.
Into the second room and over to an area with some couches and a cleared out area. When we first walked up; there was a middle-aged couple placing objects and taking pictures.
I wonder if they were scared by 6 dudes (3 visibly drinking) entering the building...
It was also funny, because they said this was one of the best, or the best, building in Toronto.
Man, I'm glad I live next to Detroit.
This room actually had more stuff...even if it was mostly junk.
Couches & Teddy Bears.
Clippers enjoying the window view.
An overview of the second room.
The second main room led to a back room with a loading dock and some large garage doors.
The back room had a ladder that led up to the attic type area. The middle floor wasn't all that safe; so you had to stick to the concrete side pillars or quickly make your way across the floor.
Seth & Steve stayed on the ground level; I stayed on the ladder side & Clippers, Dzimaarsky & Donnie crossed the wood floor to see about the possibilities of a ladder.
There was in fact a ladder and Dzimaarsky & Donnie proceeded to scale the giant billboard atop the factory. Then proceeded to call me a pussy for not going over there.
I stayed on my side of the attic & enjoyed my view of the CN tower.
While on the other side; Donnie wanted my camera to snap a picture of the abandoned car through the hole in the wood floor.
He messed up though, taking a blurry picture.
After taking my camera back; Donnie snapped this one of me being a serious urban explorer.
Right.
After finishing with the attic; we headed back towards our entrance.
Stopping along the way to take a group picture.
The only thing left was to check out the truck round back...
Oh look, it has a car in the back.
Well, you don't see that everyday...
Anyway, Metro Jam is usually more than eventful; but this year was probably the worst year. Working afternoons and postponing the festivities of Friday was definitely a mistake and I'm sorry.
Navi.
Sources: 1. pBase Inglis Factory (Retrieved 03/21/07)
2. Oh Lenna flickr (Retrieved 03/21/07)