Showing posts with label CBC Radio. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Ontario Trails News - find your favorite ice-climbing trail, and cyclists push for lanes in Toronto.

Find your favorite Ontario Ice-climbing trail

Courtesy Paul YoungMembers of the Ward 30 Bikes group at Cherry Beach last summer, as they advocate for bike path to the lake.

A local cycling advocacy group wants the Riverdale area to create safe bike lanes that would connect the neighbourhood to the waterfront.

Ward 30 Bikes has called upon the expertise of 4th year students from Ryerson University’s school of urban and regional planning to study the feasibility of the project. Class professor Don Verbanac turned the challenge into a practical planning course for his students, and they’ll present the final report at a community meeting on Monday.

It is important for the people of Riverdale to have alternate and safe ways of getting to the lake, not only by driving, said Paul Young, a member of Ward 30 Bikes.

“The number one reason people don’t cycle more in the city is because they don’t feel safe,” he said.

“Riverdale is one of the parts of the city where you can’t easily get down to the lake. We sometimes just forget that we live close to the lake because there aren’t any direct routes to the water from the community.”

The bike lanes would give people direct access to many “fantastic” recreational destinations on the waterfront. These include the Leslie Spit, Cherry Beach and the Martin Goodman Trail, said Young, who is also a health promoter at South Riverdale Community Health Centre.

“It would add an improvement to people’s daily commute and give them some control over conditions that affect their lives,” he said. “Cycling is beneficial to people’s physical and mental health.”

Options being presented in the report include a bike path on Leslie Street (currently under construction but no plans for bike lanes), as well as Cherry Street and Carlaw Avenue, he said.

In the past, Ward 30 Bikes successfully advocated for the creation of bike lanes on Dundas Street East.

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Ontario Trails News - Atikokan trail volunteers develop trails

Find your favorite trail in your favorite region of Ontario

Beaten Path volunteers take

'countless hours' to clear

Atikokan trails

Beaten Path trails are groomed without grooming machines

CBC News Posted: Dec 16, 2014 11:12 AM ET Last Updated: Dec 16, 2014 11:12 AM ET

Cathy and Peter Burton are with Beaten Path Nordic Trails in Atikokan. (Supplied)

Volunteers with Beaten Path Nordic Trails in Atikokan have been busy for months clearing brush from nearly 40 kilometres of trails.

The club is touted to be the largest, by distance, volunteer-led cross-country ski club in northwestern Ontario.

Club president Peter Burton said Beaten Path may be one of the only clubs with no employees at all — and simply clearing trails takes hundreds of volunteer hours.

“Many people have been out here countless hours already. I think we're going out probably 30, 40 hours ourselves,” he said.

“And there are other people who maybe have done even more."

Beaton Path Nordic Trails5:13

The club operates using membership revenue and “occasionally grants that we are successful in applying for,” Burton continued.

"We're fortunate ... people are always jumping in to help out on different things. We have an adopt-the-trail program. We have about 40 kilometres of groomed trail. People in the community adopt a certain section and come out every fall and get it ready for the ski season."

Many ski clubs across northwestern Ontario rely on grooming equipment to help smooth out their trails, but Beaten Path trails are groomed without grooming machines. Burton said trail brushing usually starts in August.

'It's pretty cool'

Burton is proud of the work they do.

"For a small community — [and] I've travelled around to ski resorts all across Canada — I don't think I've come across one that is any better,’ he said.

"We were voted as being one of the coolest adventures in Canada by Explore magazine a few years ago, so we are pretty proud of that. It's pretty cool."

The magazine focused on Beaten Path’s Cross Quetico ski tour, which runs on March 21, 2015.

Burton’s partner Cathy Burton said their work is ongoing.

"We're trying to get [the trails] wider a little bit every year, and there's always tag alders that fill in every year, so you need to actually go along and clip those,” she said.

“Sometimes there's big rocks you're trying to remove because the snow machines ... bang into them, and they cause us problems with the grooming equipment. So we're trying to smooth out trails and maybe make the corners not quite so sharp as what they are."

Peter and Cathy Burton are with Beaten Path Nordic Trails in Atikokan.