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Ontario boasts over 80,000 km in trails. Whether you're in downtown Toronto or North of Superior, we have a trail for you. The Ontario Trails Council is a registered charity, led by volunteers who promote the development, management, use and conservation of Ontario's trails. You'll find everything from gentle walking trails to rock faces for climbing and water routes to canoe and kayak.
Showing posts with label #ontairotrails. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #ontairotrails. Show all posts
Thursday, April 13, 2017
Ontario Trails News - April 13, 2017
Tuesday, August 16, 2016
Ontario Trails News - sometimes we require more than money to make great trails. Please donate today!
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Donations Wish List
At the Ontario Trails Council we require support in forms other than money.
Currently we require:
Computer upgrades - 2 iMacs 2014 or later, 2 Mcbooks 2014 or later
Handheld devices for Trail Audits - 8 - IOS
240 sign posts
240 3X4 unpainted aluminum signs
4 EZ up tents
4 Portable tables
8 Portable juice jugs
2 Pick up trucks
1 Trailer
Monday, July 11, 2016
Ontario Trails news - a news archive about Ontario Trails, use, development and activity that takes place on trails
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Toronto slowly improving its bicycle network
New downtown lanes a game-changer, says bicycle advocate Yvonne Bambrick
City bike plan
Staff/Metroland
A cyclist makes her way along the Sherbourne Street bike lane at Carlton Street on Thursday. June 16, 2016
York Guardian
In 1991, 15-year-old Yvonne Bambrick rode the streets of Toronto with the brash confidence – making the considerable daily commute from her family home at Victoria Park in East York to Jarvis Collegiate by bicycle, along busy downtown streets that made scant accommodation for bikes.
“Back when I was a naive teenager, I didn’t think twice about it,” recalls Bambrick 25 years later, sitting on a sunny patio in Kensington Market, steps from one of the city’s massive on-street bike racks and just over a block from the busy College Street bike lanes.
“The concept of bike lanes wasn’t on my brain at all. I did know it wasn’t safe – I got doored on the Danforth and had a wipeout on bad road conditions. Otherwise I was just a teenager on her bicycle, happy to be free getting where she’s going. It meant I could have all the ice cream I wanted.”
In 2016, the Toronto that Bambrick bikes around is a much safer place. Toronto has a total of 558.4 kilometres of on-street bike lanes, including white bicycle lanes, contra-flow lanes that run against the flow of traffic, so-called “sharrows”, signed routes without pavement markings, and even a few kilometres of cycle tracks that are fully separated from traffic.
A lot of people use those lanes. According to the 2006 Census, Torontonians bike to and from work like nobody else in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, with 19,780 commuting by bike compared to 14,925 in 2001.
In 2015, Bambrick published a book for those cyclists: The Urban Cycling Survival Guide: Need To Know Skills and Strategies for Biking in the City. It was a book culled from her work advocating for cyclists as the head of the Toronto Cyclist’s Union – now Cycle Toronto – and her years riding Toronto’s sometimes tricky streets.
There’s a lot to know: how to make a safe left turn (there’s more than one way); how to suit up for cycling in bad weather; dealing with potentially hostile interactions; and how to navigate all those different styles of bike road infrastructure.
Currently, most of those routes are in neighbourhoods surrounding the downtown core – including the relatively new cycle tracks on Sherbourne, Adelaide and Richmond streets.
“Richmond-Adelaide were a game changer,” says Bambrick. “I was having to ride there all the time (before), and I’m a confident rider but even for me it was tough. This is amazing. Transformative.”
Bambrick and other cycling advocates are hoping for more change like that, on roads that extend beyond the downtown. This summer, the city will be embarking on a pilot project to try a cycle track along Bloor Street through the Annex neighbourhood – a test, to see whether a city-spanning track could be installed the length of Bloor Street and Danforth Avenue.
And the outcome of that could determine the implementation of parts of the city’s next big plan for cycling expansion: the Cycling Network 10 Year Plan. Under that plan, Toronto’s bikeway and bike trail network would be extended to the ends of the city: north along Yonge Street to Steeles Avenue; on Kingston Road in Scarborough from Eglinton Avenue to the Highland Creek Trail; Kipling Avenue from Bloor Street to the Waterfront Trail; and Midland Avenue, from Steeles to Lawrence avenues.
Toronto’s Chief Planner Jennifer Keesmaat said to provide an effective cycling alternative, the network needs to expand in the same way that transit networks expand – in a continuum. Do that, she says, and it becomes viable to commute, at least to downtown, from nearly anywhere in the city.
“With cycling, distance isn’t that much of a problem,” says Keesmaat. “The city is really not that big, and 10 kilometres, 20 kilometres isn’t really a big deal. And from the centre of the city you can get pretty much anywhere on a 10 kilometer bikeway. If you’re cycling from Scarborough to Etobicoke, that’s a big trip. But from the centre of the city you can get anywhere – all you need is safe infrastructure.”
The other thing that a cyclist needs, of course, is the will, and a bit of know how. Bambrick is an evangelist for the former and a resource for the latter. When asked what it takes to get on a bike, after dutifully recommending a careful read of her book, she suggests a step-by-step approach. Borrow a bike-share bike; go riding with a friend on a quiet street. If it’s been awhile, take a BikeShare course.
And remember: roads were originally for bikes.
”We paved our roads because wheelmen’s clubs advocated to get the roads paved. The bicycling movement has been around for a long time,” says Bambrick. “It’s never gone away.”
Monday, June 27, 2016
Monday, June 13, 2016
Ontario Trails News - rail trail needs help, ATV'er killed, and cycling route look for support
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Guelph to Goderich Rail Trail Looking for Support
Link for More infoMan, 64, killed in ATV crash in northeastern Ontario
Police tape is shown in a file photo.
The Canadian Press Published Saturday, June 11, 2016 6:19AM EDT
ENGLEHART, Ont. -- Investigators with the OPP's Temiskaming detachment say a man has died after crashing an All-Terrain Vehicle in Englehart in northeastern Ontario.
They say the man was driving the ATV Thursday night when, for unknown reasons, he lost control of the machine.
Police say 64-year old Gary Laflair of Englehart was pronounced dead in hospital.
Investigators say Laflair wasn't wearing a helmet at the time of the accident.
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Monday, April 11, 2016
Ontario Trails News - Bill 100 moving ahead with landowners, only easements are easements, easements don't trump other access ways.
Ottawa Valley Business News Talks Trails
From the Manitoulin Expositor - April 5
ONTARIO—Patrick Connor, executive director of the Ontario Trails Council, is sick and tired of the fear mongering tactics of the Ontario Landowners’ Association (OLA) when it comes to Bill 100, the Supporting Ontario Trails Act, 2015 and the havoc it’s wreaking on trails of all kinds across the province.Mr. Connor said that despite Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport Michael Coteau releasing statements to try and quell the fears of landowners on what this bill actually means (including to this newspaper) and even OLA founder Randy Hillier coming forward to state that Bill 100 is not what it’s being made out to be, “the OLA is not listening to what anyone in a position of authority is saying.”
“While there might be some concerns, people just don’t understand the legal wording,” he added. Mr. Connor pointed to last week’s article in The Expositor (‘Bill 100 interpretation sees closure of two main snowmobile trails ahead of next season,’ Page 1) as a case in point. In the story, it states that one Sandfield landowner has pulled his land from the Manitoulin Snowdusters snowmobile trial system due to wording in Bill 100 over ‘special trails.’ “They are not special trails, they are trails of distinction,” Mr. Connor explained. “They are special, but not in the fact that the minister is going to take someone’s property away from them.” He explained that trails of distinction are ones of some note, such as the Georgian Bay Coastal Trail.
Mr. Connor called the OLA’s tactics in spreading falsities with the bill “irresponsible.”
“Who does this benefit?” he asked of the shutting down of trails. “Small businesses will surely suffer. The closure of a snowmobile trail does a lot of damage to a local economy.”
“There is no reason to close a trail because of this Act,” the executive director continued.
Like the Manitoulin Snowdusters have said previously, the Ontario Trails Council also plans to work with landowners over the summer to try and reverse the damage that has been done by the OLA.
“Forty years of good relations or more is being lost because of fear mongering,” he added. “We have always worked hard to work with the landowners.”
“We hope that by the fall we might have some of this cleared up, Mr. Connor said. “What might be a ‘no’ today might not be a ‘no’ tomorrow.”
Friday, April 1, 2016
Ontario Trails News - new trails for Kingston, Niagara Falls engages public and more trails developments with landowners!
Niagara Falls Discusses Millennium Trail - April 13, 2016
Millennium Recreational Trail - Future Section Development
INFORMATION SESSION AND PUBLIC MEETING
Niagara Falls, ON, March 29, 2016 – The City of Niagara Falls invites residents to an Information Session and Public Meeting on Wednesday, April 13th regarding the future development of the Millennium Recreational Trail. The evening will provide an opportunity for the community to see the proposed remaining sections of the recreational trail, ask questions, and to provide comments. The Millennium Recreational Trail utilizes the Ontario Power Generation (OPG) hydro canal corridor which runs roughly North to South through the City. The first section of the trail was completed in 2001 with subsequent sections completed in 2011 and 2015. Two sections remain in order to connect the City from North (Whirlpool Road) to South (McLeod Road).
Residents who are unable to attend the information session and wish to provide feedback may complete the Millennium Recreational Trail Survey that is available on the City’s websitewww.niagarafalls.ca/trails.
NOTICE OF INFORMATION SESSION AND PUBLIC MEETING
Wednesday, April 13th, 2016 6:30 to 9:00 pm (6:30 pm Open House, 7:00 pm Formal Presentation)
Gale Centre, Memorial Room 5152 Thorold Stone Road, Niagara Falls, ON, L2E 0A2
For more information, contact: Jeff Guarasci Community Development Coordinator, City of Niagara Falls, Recreation & Culture MacBain Community Centre 1-7150 Montrose Road Niagara Falls, ON L2H 3N3
P: 905-356-7521 ext.3341 W: www.niagarafalls.ca
Kingston Announces Investments in Cycling Infrastructure
Millennium Recreational Trail - Future Section Development
INFORMATION SESSION AND PUBLIC MEETING
Niagara Falls, ON, March 29, 2016 – The City of Niagara Falls invites residents to an Information Session and Public Meeting on Wednesday, April 13th regarding the future development of the Millennium Recreational Trail. The evening will provide an opportunity for the community to see the proposed remaining sections of the recreational trail, ask questions, and to provide comments. The Millennium Recreational Trail utilizes the Ontario Power Generation (OPG) hydro canal corridor which runs roughly North to South through the City. The first section of the trail was completed in 2001 with subsequent sections completed in 2011 and 2015. Two sections remain in order to connect the City from North (Whirlpool Road) to South (McLeod Road).
Residents who are unable to attend the information session and wish to provide feedback may complete the Millennium Recreational Trail Survey that is available on the City’s websitewww.niagarafalls.ca/trails.
NOTICE OF INFORMATION SESSION AND PUBLIC MEETING
Wednesday, April 13th, 2016 6:30 to 9:00 pm (6:30 pm Open House, 7:00 pm Formal Presentation)
Gale Centre, Memorial Room 5152 Thorold Stone Road, Niagara Falls, ON, L2E 0A2
For more information, contact: Jeff Guarasci Community Development Coordinator, City of Niagara Falls, Recreation & Culture MacBain Community Centre 1-7150 Montrose Road Niagara Falls, ON L2H 3N3
P: 905-356-7521 ext.3341 W: www.niagarafalls.ca
Kingston Announces Investments in Cycling Infrastructure
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