Hikers of the Mad River section of the Ganaraska Hiking Trail should take note that Ganaraska Trail blazes have been vandalized and hikers will need to refer to the Ondago App for trail location. The small section of trail impacted is located south of the Village of Glen Huron and runs east from Concession 8 Nottawasaga Road (formerly County 62 Road) alongside a corn field and an apple orchard up to the forest edge.
Category: Mad River Club
Blog Posts for Mad River Club News & Events
2023.10.12 – Work Begins to Develop Rail Trail Between Stayner and Angus (Mad River Club Trail)
A recent local news report announced that work has begun to remove railway ties and rails on the abandoned railway line between Stayner and Angus as a first step in the conversion of this corridor to a recreational rail trail. The work to remove the ties and rails is expected to be complete mid-December this year, but the total conversion project will last until late 2025.
Starting immediately, sections of the Mad River Club trail that follow the rail line will be inaccessible where work crews are active. Signs will be posted preventing access to work zones and in some situations there will be a ‘watch person’ to prevent access.
As the work will be intermittent and section-by-section this stretch of the Ganaraska trail will not be closed but all hikers are advised to follow the instructions of all posted signs and avoid areas where work crews are active. Also, hiking this section of the Mad River Club trail is not required to earn a Ganaraska End-to-End badge for the foreseeable future.
WARNING – WILD PARSNIP on MAD RIVER TRAIL
Wild Parsnip has been noted along the Mad River Hiking trail section in the Glencairn Conservation Area (this area is found at KM 25.3 on both the Ondago mobile app and Map 25 of the downloadable Trail Guide). Take caution when hiking through this area.
Wild parsnip is a member of the carrot/parsley family, and like giant hogweed, produces sap containing chemicals that can irritate human skin.
Further information on this plant can be found on the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority (NVCA) webpage.
Wild Parsnip Fact Sheet. www.nvca.on.ca/Shared%20Documents/Wild%20Parsnip%20Factsheet.pdf
Brentwood Tract – logging finished
Further to our April 6 post, the logging operations in the Brentwood Tract have been completed and that section of the trail is open for hikers. Enjoy!
2023.04.28 – Notice of Non-Maintained Section on GHTA Mad River Trail
The section of the GHTA trail from the junction of the railway line and Brentwood Road (44.35386, -79.96300) to the junction Concession 3 and the railway tracks (44.35384, -7996378) follows an abandoned railway line. Railway ties and considerably overgrowth of shrubs tangled with vines makes numerous sections of this portion of trail very difficult to hike.
Maintenance of this section of trail is planned for the future, with the County of Simcoe considering transformation of the abandoned railway line into a multi-use trail (hopefully in the not-too distant future).
This trail section remains open for use, but the Mad River team wants hikers to be aware of the difficult hiking conditions.
Logging in Brentwood Forest
Note that logging has started in the SW corner of the Brentwood Forest, through which the Ganaraska Hiking Trail runs near Glencairn. During logging, hikers are expected to comply with the No Entry signs. Thanks!
Forestry Day September 24
Mad River Ganaraska Section
Mad River Ganaraska section mostly back into shape
Last fall, we had reports that the Mad River section of the Ganaraska Trail, between Utopia and the westerly cairn of the Ganaraska Trail in Glen Huron, was in dire need of some TLC. Since the Mad River club did not have the capacity of doing the maintenance on this 50 km section of Ganaraska Trail, adjacent clubs came to the rescue, and thanks to the excellent weather in the late fall, and with the help of many volunteers, we managed to bring the trail back into shape… for the most part.
In total, we organized 6 trail maintenance days between the end of October and mid November and reblazed 38 kms.
We had to deal with wind storm damage, a myriad of new trails in the Brentwood Forest after a controlled forest fire, new fencing at the Glencairn Conservation Area, hydro poles that had been replaced, and we cleaned up around the cairn, etc. Twenty five volunteers from the Midland, Wasaga Beach, Mad River and Barrie clubs, as well as Ganaraska President, Bob Bowles, contributed a total of 36 volunteer days to bring the trail from km 11.9 in New Lowell to the cairn in Glen Huron, where the Ganaraska meets the Bruce Trail, back into shape. Many thanks to all volunteers!
Unfortunately, we have not found a solution yet for the section from km 0 in Utopia (end of Barrie section) to New Lowell. This section currently follows the now fully abandoned and badly overgrown Barrie-Collingwood railway line. We may need to organize a re-route for this section. In the interim, this section of the Ganaraska Trail remains closed.
Frieda Baldwin