A place for reflection, peace, tranquility, friendship, stress relief and a return to nature.
A printable Wall Map of the complete Ganaraska Trail is now available. Approximately 83cm x 58cm it’s best printed on photo paper at a print shop. There are two versions Complete GHTA Map without sections and Complete GHTA Map with sections.
For detailed printing instructions click here.
Many hikers collect badges to show their achievements: where and how far they have hiked, etc. The Ganaraska Hiking Trail Association also offers a series of badges, ranging from section badges for the various club section End-to-Ends, as well as for the overall 500km Ganaraska Hiking Trail End-to-End. Our newest badges show that the hiker has done 50, 100 or 200 hikes of at least 1 hour in a calendar year. See Badges – Ganaraska Hiking Trail
The 100 hikes badge launched in 2021, we added the 50 and 200 hikes badges in 2022, and we are considering if we should add a 150 and 250 hikes badges, as this challenge of setting a personal goal, seems to have taken off in a big way.
If you follow the postings on the Ganaraska Hiking Trail Group in Facebook, you will see reports of hikers’ progress towards their personal goal. We congratulate all those who set goals for 2023 and achieved them and we would like to encourage other hikers to set a goal, whether it is an End-to-End Badge or a number of hikes badge, or any other badge. The benefits are enormous, not only for your own physical and mental health, your sense of accomplishment but you will also be visiting gorgeous trails, enjoy fantastic landscapes, see or hear nature at its best, and meet many like minded hikers along the way.
One such hiker is Lilla Fodor. She is a Ganaraska Hiking Trail member, but her home club is the Beaver Valley Bruce Trail Club. She is an avid badge collector, which is sometimes referred to as a badge hound as is evidenced in the pictures below. Here is Lilla’s story about her badge collection.
The first badge I earned was the Beaver Valley BT Beaver Bites (side trails) badge in 2018 when I retired. It started when we moved to the Beaver Valley, I wanted to familiarize myself with the Bruce Trail in the area and I think I became a bit addicted. My goal became to hike an end to end and then the side trails earning the badges along the way.
The next trail I hiked end to end was the Ganaraska during Covid when we were able to move around. It gave me new focus during a difficult time and as a result the Ganaraska holds a special place for me so I’ve kept up my membership.
Next, I started to hike some of the Bruce Trail challenge hikes and the BT sections over and over, just to challenge myself and earn more pretty badges. Badges eventually became a great incentive to explore other trails and areas I’d never think to hike, such as Oxford and Woolwich Counties.
I don’t officially belong to any other hiking club besides the Bruce and Ganaraska, although when I hike a Club’s trails, I always make a donation beyond the cost of the badge or join the Club for that year so I can contribute by paying my way that year.
The most difficult badge to get, was the BT Peninsula Club’s 100 Birder Badge. I know little about birds, I like them well enough and learned a lot, but that one took more patience than I have and a lot of sitting and listening, I prefer just hoofing along a trail.
Physically the toughest and longest was the Dufferin Hi-Land Bruce Trail Club’s One Day Badge where I hiked approximately 56kms in one go. My favourite one was probably the Caledon Hills BT Club’s Loppet Badge because I got to cross country ski the trail to earn that one, combining the trail with another favourite activity, and I got to help two other hikers earn that one. On others I learned about ferns, wineries, Canadian history, and even the history of the Welland Canal system.
In the past I regularly hiked close to home in Caledon Hills for over 20 years before discovering badges, but the fun thing about badge collecting for me has become the incentive to hike in different areas, on different trails, discover something new, or to challenge myself to different terrains and longer distances, and to just keep getting out there, moving and discovering.
Oh, and I’ve also met some great people along the way, forming some wonderful friendships in the hiking community.
By Lilla Fodor
We encourage all hikers to set personal goals for 2024, and beyond. Beside the Ganaraska Hiking Trail badges, note that Hike Ontario also offers some long-distance hiking badges Hike Ontario Long Distance Hiker Awards/, and the National Hiking Trail just launched the National Hiker Award National Hiker Award
For those of you who are setting a 50/100/200 goal, here is a simple spreadsheet to keep track of your progress.
Happy Hiking,
Ganaraska Hiking Trail Association Inc.
Getting outside is good for your inside
2023 The Year in Review
A year of growth and progress:
The Trail:
The Achievements:
In closing, I would like to:
And finally, I wish you all a happy, healthy, peaceful 2024, with lots of great hiking adventures throughout the year, on the Ganaraska Hiking Trail and beyond!
Happy hiking
Frieda Baldwin
President
Ganaraska Hiking Trail Association Inc.
Getting outside is good for your inside!
The logging operations in the Arbour Tract that had blocked that section of forest for hiking are now complete. Arbour Tract is now open and available. (west of LIne 7 and Bass Lake Side Road).
Regarding the overhanging branches about 1/2 km west from the parking lot at 1832 Line 8 Oro-Medonte, one has been pulled down, and the other has been bypassed by a short loop around the overhanging branch. The trail is “obstructed” from both sides of the hazard, and a semi-circular trail marked with pink ribbons guides hikers around the hazard. We hope that winter will bring the overhanging brach down, but for the meantime, hikers should use the re-route.
Frieda Baldwin, President of the Ganaraska Hiking Trail Association received the Award of Excellence during the Hike Ontario Annual Summit in London, Ontario, on September 23, 2023. For the complete article visit Hike Ontario Award of Excellence 2023.
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.
There are two overhanging branches on our trail about .5 km west of the parking lot at 1832 Line 8. They are about 200 meters apart, and one can bypass them by going around the overhanging branch, but hikers probably should not pass underneath them until they are cleared.
Another post will follow when these have been cleared.
The Breedon Tract of the Simcoe County Forest is closed due to logging. This affects the Orillia Section between Lines 9 and 8, the most easterly half. Attached is an image showing the (2-3 year old) re-route of the Ganaraska Trail from Line 10 south to Old Barrie Road, along Old Barrie Road and north along Line 9 to the entrance to the Breedon Tract. The Ganaraska Trail is shown in pink, and the Red Cross-hatches indicate active logging operations as per the Simcoe County Forest. This map also takes in the Arbour Tract as noted on Nov. 2, 2023. We have not heard of re-opening of the Arbour Tract as of today.
As soon as we hear of a change in the status we will update on Trail Changes.
The Arbour Tract of the Simcoe County Forest (the westerly tract of the two tracts that lie to the north of Bass Lake Side Road West between Line 7 and what would be Line 6 if it extended north of Bass Lake Side Road West) is commencing tree cutting and therefore off limits for hikers. This affects the Ganaraska Hiking Trail for the last 1 – 1.5 km of the Orillia section (roughly Km 68.3 to Km 69.8, Orillia). Signs are posted. Effective immediately, hikers must stay out of the logging area, and be aware of possible heavy equipment moving along forest roads. We will update when the Arbour Tract is again available for hiking. Meanwhile, the Ganaraska Hiking Trail and the SCMBC trails in the Johnson Tract are still open.