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The Midland Ganaraska Hiking Club reports that unfortunately the western blue-blazed side trail loop of the Ganaraska Hiking Trail is currently under water. There is no access to the lookout tower or the boardwalk until the water recedes. As an alternate trail, go east of the Visitor Centre, and complete the 6 km loop along the Carolina and Trotter Dykes, and enjoy the beautiful view along the way.
We have just received confirmation from the Simcoe County Forestry organization that logging operations in SCF Crawford Tract are now complete and the trail is open and available for use. This is the section of the Barrie Club trail in Oro-Medonte between Lines 5 & 6 just south of Sugarbush Estates (south of Horseshoe Valley Road). There is a bit of trail clean-up and maintenance to be done but the trail is useable. Enjoy!
Effective November 5, 2021, the bridge segments will be disconnected and heaved up onto the bank to keep them high & dry over the winter season. After the bridge is out, we can still cross safely on the fallen tree (aka the “Four Brothers”) that spans Montgomery Creek about 250 metres upstream from the private bridge. The bridge will be replaced in the spring.
West of North Smudge Lake near campsite 12, a number of beaver dams including one that is part of the Ganaraska Trail have blown out recently. Please follow the temporary reroute (not flagged) to a beaver dam that is still standing. The reroute is 1.2 km, adding .5 km to the total distance of the trail.
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.
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.
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.