Ontario Trails News - Pan-Am Funds support Trans Canada Trail; Bruce Trail Day and more

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Pan-Am and Parapan Funds complete Trans Canada Trail

Ontario is expanding its world-class trails system as a key legacy initiative of the 2015 Pan Am and Parapan Am Games.

The Pan Am and Parapan Am Trails initiative (PPAT) will help complete 250 kilometres in gaps in Ontario's Trans Canada Trail and connect communities from Ottawa to Windsor and Fort Erie to Huntsville. The province has invested more than $3.5 million in the Pan Am and Parapan Am Trails initiative to help create a continuous trail of more than 2,000 kilometres. Since 2009, Ontario has invested more than $80 million in trails.

QUICK FACTS

• The Pan Am and Parapan Am Trails (PPAT) are part of Ontario’s Promotion, Celebration and Legacy Strategy for the Games.
• Completing these gaps will provide a continuous route along the Trans Canada Trail of over 2,000 km, from Windsor to Ottawa and from Fort Erie to Huntsville.
• PPAT will also connect to four major Pan Am and Parapan Am Games venues – CIBC Pan Am/Parapan Am Athletes’ Village, CIBC Pan Am Park, CIBC Hamilton Soccer Stadium and Pan Am/Parapan Am Fields.
• All consultations related to Pan Am and Parapan Am Trails will address accessibility requirements under the new Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act.
• Ontario will also work with First Nation and Métis communities and organizations to incorporate Aboriginal markers along the trails to honour the history and culture of Aboriginal communities in Ontario.
• The province has approximately 2,500 trails and more than 80,000 kilometres of trail; the second-largest network in Canada.
• As part of this initiative, Trans Canada Trail has been contracted to complete 250 km of trail gaps along the Trans Canada Trail (TCT) in Ontario.

Ontario Parks protects and manages approximately 2,200 kilometres of trails and boardwalks.

Thousands of kilometres of trails and roads are on provincial Crown land that are open for the public to use free of charge.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Ontario’s Pan Am and Parapan Am Trails

View full press release (PDF)

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Free Guided Hikes on Bruce Trail Day.
 

The access trail to Bruce's Caves, which are found along the face of the Niagara Escarpment in Bruce's Caves Conservation Area, northeast of Wiarton on the Bruce Peninsula. (Postmedia Network files)

NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, Ont. -- In the Niagara wine region, students from Niagara College will lead hikes to explore a reclaimed wetland.
At Owen Sound's Pottawatomi Conservation Area, members of the Sydenham Bruce Trail Club will show visitors striking rock formations and a variety of forest types.
The Oct. 4 outings are part of this year's Bruce Trail Day, an annual celebration of Canada's oldest and longest footpath. The main trail spans more than 885 kilometres along the Niagara Escarpment, from Niagara to Tobermory, Ont.
Clubs in the Bruce Trail Conservancy will host free guided hikes and family activities.
The events include hikes in City View Park in Burlington; Limehouse and Scotsdale Farm in Halton Hills; Blue Mountain and Kolapore Uplands west of Collingwood; Forks of the Credit Provincial Park in Caledon; and Mono Cliffs Provincial Park near Orangeville.

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