A place for reflection, peace, tranquility, friendship, stress relief and a return to nature.
Update 2021.10.01 – BLAZING AND TRAIL MAINTENANCE NOW COMPLETE! ENJOY THE TRAIL.
The logging on private land between Lines 4N and 5N on the Oro-Medonte trail is now complete (reference the posting dated June 7, 2021). The trail is useable but needs to be re-blazed – scheduled to happen by the end of September. Our Ondago app will keep you on the trail until the blazing has been refreshed. It is great to have the Oro-Medonte trail once again available from end-to-end. Enjoy the fall hiking.
Note that the City of Orillia has restricted parking in any of the waterside parks, including Tudhope Park and Centennial Park, for Fridays to Sundays, for the summer season. Only City of Orillia residents may park there. There is a fine of $80 for non-residents who park in these restricted parking lots. It is possible to park away from the water-side in the city, but attention must be paid to no parking signs, or municipal parking lots allow paid parking for several hours.
The Midland club of the Ganaraska Hiking Trail is extremely excited to announce completion of an extension of the Ganaraska Hiking Trail on Tiny Marsh property. The new main trail route allows hikers to enjoy the beauty of the marsh from the Trotter and Carolina dykes, whereas previously the Ganaraska Hiking Trail skirted the marsh, and one would barely get a glimpse of it. In combination with the old route, which was blazed as a blue side trail, the new main trail route forms an approx. 6.1 km loop on the east side of the Visitor Centre, starting from the Trotter Dyke parking lot.
The Midland Ganaraska Hiking Trail club also blazed an 2.2 km blue side trail loop on the west side of the Visitor Centre which includes the look out tower over the marsh, the recently re-opened board walk and the Beaverland Trail to Mole Mountain.
The dykes and boardwalks are excellent birding spots and make for great snowshoe destinations. Enjoy the gorgeous views of the marsh, in all seasons.
Access to these trails is free, and we thank the MTM (Matchedash-Tiny-Marl) Conservation Association for their cooperation in making this expansion a reality.
A map of the 2 loops is attached.
The Midland club of the Ganaraska Hiking Trail is extremely excited to announce an extension of the Ganaraska Hiking Trail on Tiny Marsh property. This new main trail route will allow hikers to enjoy the beauty the marsh from the Trotter and Carolina dykes. In combination with the old route, which will now be marked as a blue side trail, the new main trail route will form an 8-9 km loop on the east side of the Visitor Centre.
There will also be an additional blue side trail, forming a 2.4 km loop on the west side of the Visitor Centre which will include the look out tower over the marsh, the recently re-opened board walk and the Beaverland Trail to Mole Mountain. Volunteers from the local Midland Ganaraska Hiking Trail club will start the re-blazing of the main route and blue side trails this Friday July 30. Please follow the blazes. Mapping of this section will be updated shortly.
With the re-opening of Ontario as part of Step 3, effective Friday July 16, 2021, we looked into the carpooling situation for hiking clubs, and feel confident that our clubs can allow carpooling again, but with some “ride share” restrictions.
To ensure the safety of all hikers, we recommend:- limit of driver and 1 passenger (sitting diagonally behind the driver)- wear masks while in the vehicle- open windows (and avoid re-circulating of air)- wash or sanitize hands upon arrival
However, some people may not feel comfortable carpooling, and so we leave it to individual drivers and passengers as to whether they choose to do so at this point.
Also, while up to 100 individuals can now meet outdoors, it will be the hike leader’s decision as to how many hikers are allowed on the hike, and priority should be given to Ganaraska Hiking Trail members. Space permitting, non-members can also participate. Non-members will have to sign the waiver form.
All the other Covid-19 protocol is still in place – including maintain social distance, wear masks where not possible to be distanced, and don’t attend if you have symptoms. Contact/attendance lists must still be maintained. We recommend pre-registration for hikes as this facilitates keeping the contact list, but also gives the hike leader an opportunity to bring new members/non-members up to speed with regard to our Covid-19 protocol, as well as brief them about hike difficulty, etc.
Happy Hiking to you all
Frieda BaldwinPresident, Ganaraska Hiking Trail Association Inc.
705-245-1005
The Ondago map for Wasaga Beach and Tiny trail sections has been updated to show the two trail sections are now connected. Our thanks to all the volunteers that found the route to close the gap and gathered the information needed to share the updated map with all hikers.
The attached picture is a screen shot of the Ondago map for the area.
The province has changed the outdoor gatherings limit to 25, which means that the Ganaraska Hiking Club can allow hike group sizes to increase to a maximum of 25. As many hike leaders are uncomfortable with larger groups, we encourage them to limit the size of the group to whatever they feel comfortable with. Otherwise, the GHTA Inc. Covid-19 protocol is unchanged – still no car-pooling allowed.
We have received an email from the Simcoe County Forest that hikers have been violating the “no trespassing” rule in the Crawford Tract, where logging is now taking place. The original notice of tract closure was posted on December 2, 2020, but it is still current. We risk losing access to these treasured forest tracts if we do not comply with the SCF requirements, so we trust that our hikers will not hike in this tract while the rule is in place.
We will update “Trail changes” when we can again enjoy this tract.
Carol Strickland, for Frieda Baldwin, President, GHTA Inc.
Click here for the latest updates from Ondago – including tips and new maps!
June 2021 – Logging operations are currently active on private property between Lines 4N and 5N on the Ganaraska Oro-Medonte trail. The duration of the logging operation is unknown. Avoid using this section of the trail until a notice is posted that the logging is finished.
