Laurentian Escarpment Community Trails project formalizes decades of unofficial trails
The four-season Laurentian Escarpment Community Trails project could boost local tourism.
Progress is being made on the Laurentian Escarpment Community Trails Project.
“There are small sets of trails that have been mapped and are official and signed for, for several decades. But there is a very, very large network of trails that are unofficial trails, that were built by local users that were not officially sanctioned or permitted,” explained project coordinator Mike Ward.
“And so, we’re taking these trails, we’re mapping, we’re doing some improvements so they can be used by the community, by visitors, and also used for events as well.”
Ward also noted that the project has received government funding, and volunteer labour is helping to keep costs down.
“Essentially, what we’re doing is working on this project backed by FedNor funding to try and consolidate a trail network that has existed for a long time, but has needed more signage and management,” said Ward.
The project is being worked on in collaboration with the North Bay Mountain Bike Association, Discovery Routes, the North Bay Mattawa Conservation Authority, the City of North Bay, and private landowners.
The Department of National Defence is involved as well.
The project focuses on trails that exist between the ski hill to the east, over to the DND property.
The combined trails system will provide plenty of room to play.
“I believe there’s over 20 km of trails if you take all the little loops that are up there; there’s quite a large web of trails, especially up on the east end of the project area,” shared Ward.
“The area covered starts on the eastern side of the ski hill itself, from either the bottom or the very top beside the conservation authority, upper lodge ski hill building. And then the project scope goes all the way over to the property above the NORAD tunnel, where the Department of National Defence property is. So, we’ve secured several land use agreements and memorandums of understanding with various landowners. We’re still working on the details with the last couple of landowners.”
Ward says the project is coming together nicely.
“We have already put in a couple of new access trails. We have a signage coordinator who we’re working with, who is revamping and redoing the entire signage plan. So, the trails will be properly labelled, we’ll have intersections labelled, we’ll have route markers so people can follow a hiking route or a certain bike route and just follow markers and find their way around,” Ward explained.
“By the end of December, we hope to have these trails packaged and ready to be used as a nice, formalized trail system.”
The idea is to create a four-season trail system.
“Over the last several years, the trails have been unofficially groomed by a couple of volunteers in the wintertime. Their main priority is grooming them for the sport of fat biking, which has really grown. As a result of that, we have these trails being groomed. Even by walkers, these trails are some of the most highly used trails in the winter because it is so easy going in the wintertime. You don’t have to break trails, they’re just smooth and easy to go,” shared Ward.
“It was for fat biking, but I would say most of the actual winter use is non-bikers because of the grooming, so we want these trails to be officially groomed from here on out with a grooming plan and organization.”
It is a non-motorized trail network.
“No ATV’s, no dirt bikes, no snowmobiles. Motorized vehicles would tear up the trail, especially dirt bikes getting in there. Part of this trail network is actual Conservation Authority land, which is really strict on motorized vehicles.”
This week, work was being done on a section of the ski hill’s lower parking lot on Ski Club Road near Bolton Road to create a trail access.
Part of that work included the creation of a concrete foundation to house a new, large wooden trailhead kiosk.
“We’ve created the only official access trail into the entire network from the bottom of the escarpment,” said Ward.
“There will also be some regulatory signage. So again, it is just another resource if someone wants to organize an event or meet a running group or a bike group. It gets people off the street and using the parking lot.”
Connecting the trails under one umbrella has its benefits.
“By bringing them together, the community can use them, we can map them, we can market them. As an example, there has been unofficial fat biking in here for several years, so Tourism North Bay can’t market it as fat biking at all, but now we can because of this project. These trails were unable to be used for events at all because they weren’t official, but now we can use the trails for events,” stated Ward.
There are opportunities to bring tourist dollars to the city, as was evident this summer.
“We already ran an enduro, which is a downhill mountain bike event, and we hosted a provincial-level event as part of an Ontario enduro series. We’ve already run several fall events. We had a hike, bike, run poker run family event a few weeks ago, so we’re already making use of the trails for events. There are organizations that run trail events in town that are interested in doing future events. So, there are a lot of possibilities here. It is another place to hike, another place to bike as well. These trails are excellent for multi-use.”
In addition to being the project coordinator, Ward is also the president of the North Bay Mountain Bike Association, which manages the 13 km Three Towers Mountain Bike park, a labour of love built up by volunteers since 2019.
Three Towers won’t be connected to this trail system project because of the disconnect, being at the very end of Tower Drive.
However, it is a shining example of how a well-maintained, quality trail network is drawing people from across the district and beyond.
Line Lloyd and her 10-year-old grandson Kai Deschatelets recently drove from Sturgeon Falls to tackle the Three Towers trails for the first time.
“I heard about it from someone I know from Sturgeon Falls who does a lot of mountain biking. She recommended it, so here we are,” grinned Lloyd, who wanted to use the experience as a way for her grandson to brush up on his skills and to encourage trail bike riding.
“I bike a lot, but I mostly go on roads,” stated Deschatelets.
”One of the things I want to do is get to the Olympics.”
Thanks to the dedication of so many organizations and volunteers, there is no shortage of trail systems to explore.
By Linda Holmes
