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Forest Angels Have Created New Trail System

3309 Views 35 Replies 12 Participants Last post by  rkj__
I thought I would not see the day when a new trail system would open up specifically for mountain biking. :eekster:

As posted in the news section of Chico Racing's website:

" New Mountain Bike Trails in King Township!

The Township of King, in co-operation with the International Mountain Bicycling Association, IMBA, are pleased to announce the opening of a new, Mountain Bike specific trail system within their township.

The Township of King, in co-operation with the International Mountain Bicycling Association, IMBA, are pleased to announce the opening of a new, Mountain Bike specific trail system within their township. In a time when more trails seem to be closing than are being created, the organizers of the project are excited about the upcoming grand opening.
The grand opening is scheduled for Wednesday, July 19, between 6 and 9:00 pm. Families and bike enthusiasts alike are invited, free of charge, to ride the new trails and take part in the festivities that include a free BBQ. Bikes will be available to take for a ride, and some representatives from the bike industry including Chico Racing will be on hand to take part and ride a lap.
The new trail system is located at the old Centennial Park lands, just south of the Aurora Side Road at 14855 Jane St. Look for the radio tower and two large stone pillars that outline the park’s entrance.

Hope to see you out! "

And it is free and supported by the municipality. Reminds me of the good old days.
Will be away on vacation, but post some reviews please.
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Yay, that is good news! Indeed it does seem that more trails are closing than opening. To see MTB trails open is great.:thumbsup:
damn...I may have to check that one out....am on holidays that week and will be in that area!
This is Great news. Does anyone have more info than what is on Chicos web site? How long is the trail?
Built by Sustainable Trails

These trails were built back in April by Sustainable Trails. I rode them when there were very new and they had good flow even then. Now that they are a bit more polished I'll be happy to see how they turned out.

They are about 6-7km of intermediate level single track. And while they were built with mountain biking in mind they are still intended to be multi-use trails.

BTW they were built using IMBA techniques, not "cut the lawn, wack down a few trees" techniques. Please go ride them and post your thoughts. I'll relay them to the Sustainable Trails folks.
NEW TRAIL?!?!??!??! YEEEEEE HAAAAAAWWWWWWW!

Wednesday at 6? I'm in, baby! ;)

Thanks for posting Rick!!!!!! :thumbsup:
By the way, how is the Dagmar trail access coming along Jason??
Anyone care to post a map to this place? How far north of toronto is it?
Best way there is take 400 north to King rd. exit right, & the first set of lights is Jane St. Turn left heading North. It will be on your right. Look for a Communication tower.
Still waiting on the traffic study

Ricksom said:
By the way, how is the Dagmar trail access coming along Jason??
We're still waiting to hear back from the Region on the traffic study. There is a stewardship meeting on Tuesday and I hope to hear some (good) news then.

But it is summer and things move even slower in the summer. Please be patient.
BUMP! Just a friendly reminder to all.
Grand opening tonight

I'd love to be there but I'm meeting with the Greenwood Stewards.
How many kms is the trials in total? By chance would anyone know more about the route?
A total of 6.5km

If I'm remembering right the intermediate/advanced stuff is a total of 6.5km. It is a stacked loop system. Coming out of the parking lot you have an intermediate loop that can be ridden in either direction. About half way along that is an expert loop that can be ridden in both directions as well.

Sorry I'm not sure of the distances of each loop.

If you want more be sure to tell the township, after you thank them for the efforts they've already put in. 6.5km of trails built by machine is not cheap and they'll want to see if their investment will pay off.

I believe that there is a beginner trail as well, but from what I was told that is simply mowed lawn.
I like it! It's short, sweet and to the point. Meaning, shut up, ride and have fun!

Here's the breakdown;

Access - you'll want to be carefull when entering the parking lot. Driver's LOVE to speed along Jane Street and if you're not carefull you'll easily miss the entrance or cause an accident. Please, miss the entrance and double back - it's safer! You'll want to be looking for the tall tower that's part of the property - let it be your guide.

There's a good size parking lot, with plenty of parking on either side of the driveway atop a mowed lawn. Also, two port-a-potties are there, although i'm not sure if they're a permanent fixture or not - sorry, forgot to ask.

Layout - call it a tri-loop stacked system. There's a beginner, intermediate and advanced loop. Each loop is accessed halfway through the easier loop, so - you need to ride halfway through the beginner to get to the intermediate, then ride halfway through the intermediate to get to the advnaced. To get out you need to do the opposite. As Jason pointed out - you can ride each loop in either direction - not that you couldn't anyways, but they're cut in a way that's it's fun both ways.

As mentioned - it's SHORT! Beginner is 1 km total, part mowed lawn and part cut trail. FRESH cut trail, so right now it's loose, almost sandy, but it'll improve with useage (get out there!). Very flat, no climbs.

The intermediate loop is 2 km total, all cut trail weaving through trees and such. Again, fresh cut trail, BUT it's more packed than the beginner loop. No real climbs worth mentioning. There's some trail debris that needs maintaining, but this will be taken care of with time and useage. Good flow to be found here.

The advanced loop is 2 km total. Same type of terrain as the intermediate, but with some climbing. Better flow then the intermediate, with a few REAL berms (like 2 feet tall - damn they are F-U-N!), not that sissy Albion Gnarly Berms stuff. More trail debris than the intermediate and parts of this section could do with some smoothing out (small ups and downs that totally kill momentum and flow), but still fun nonetheless.

Again, I can't stress this enough - it's SHORT! Don't go there expecting anything like Albion or Kelso or Kolapore ..... you WILL be sorely disappointed. Now, if you wanna go there and run 3 or 4 loops to make it 15 or 20 km of fun and flowy riding then you'll be okay. (actually, I could go there and run the advanced all day just to hit those berms ..... **** they're fun. It's strange to have the bike sideways and looking UP to see where you need to go!)

The food was really good, too. Those sausages were yummy! Ummm, the cooks were, too. Great atmosphere, a decent turn out (60 - 70 riders?) and a fun time to be had.

Okay, that's all I can blab. I'll wait untill it's a bit more packed to take any pics for y'all to see what it looks like. I'll update then.
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Thanks for the report Andrew. I really like the idea of building new trails. I don't want to sound all negative and stuff, but it almost seems like a waste. There is no way i will be riding there in the near future. Obviously not something worth making a trip for on its own. But, for anybody who is located close, i hope you enjoy it.
rkj__ said:
Thanks for the report Andrew. I really like the idea of building new trails. I don't want to sound all negative and stuff, but it almost seems like a waste. There is no way i will be riding there in the near future. Obviously not something worth making a trip for on its own. But, for anybody who is located close, i hope you enjoy it.
I don't think your comments are negative at all, Ryan. Not one bit. It would be absurd for someone like yourself who live's in the Niagara region to come up all this way for just this network. I call it being realistic, if anything. :cool:

Now, if you were in the area making a day in something along the way ..... then you could always stop in and check it out. At the very least it wouldn't take you long to get through it. See? Positive. :thumbsup:

Also, something like this should show the "big shots" that even smaller networks like this can be beneficial - to the locals.Think of the younger kids in the area that need a place to go - better than the street (or in that area, minor highway!) and cheaper than Wonderland. :rolleyes:

This is why I psoted with such detail - to give everyone a good idea of what to expect. :)

BTW, all - I believe it doesn't need to be said this trail network is FREE to ride, right? Okay, I won't mention it then. :nono:
I thought the trails were nicely laid out. Flowing and fun. Having the trails bi-direction can be a problem. Especially for the people who don't obey the traffic system in North America where you go forward on the right hand side. Not the left.

Trail is sanding right now... makes for interesting cornering. It's 5km total if you do the 3 loops. No real hard climbs. Fun though.

I'll be back a couple of times atleast this summer.

The food was great. But the chef's looked like Jail bait to me.
Andrew TO you hit the nail on the head. We need trails for more than just us "hard core" folks. If you are going to get the kids into the sport, even the older "kids", then you need local, easy to get to, easy to not get lost, types of trail systems like this.

It's the same reason more communities need jump/free ride parks.

For MTB to try to be a viable sport for the kids like baseball, soccer, etc. we need facilities. I.e. trails.
AndrewTO said:
I call it being realistic, if anything. :cool:
Yup. definitely not realistic for me. You make lots of great points though. Beginners need a place where they can go, not get intimidated and not get lost. Everybody needs to start somewhere. Sometimes all it takes is one short dose of MTB to get somebody hooked. There will always be beginners, and therefore i believe there will always be bikes on the trail.

You definitely did make it sound like those berms were pretty fun though.
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