The Scoop: On Recreational Trails

What They Are & How They Originated

The Kawartha & Haliburton regions offer residents and visitors various recreational trail experiences. These adventures come with a user responsibility to help protect and sustain trails by respecting them, as well as the volunteers and landowners who make them possible. Your responsibility starts with understanding when and where to ride, so here’s a recreational trail primer to help keep everyone on track.

By Craig Nicholson

Trail Categories

Organized recreational trails fall into two broad categories: non-motorized for activities such as hiking, cycling, horseback riding, cross country skiing and dog sledding; motorized for powersports like snowmobiling, ATVing and adventure motorcycling. Activities from each category occur on designated trails on public or private land with permission from property owner(s). In some cases, a user fee is charged for trail access and usage (e.g. snowmobiling), while others are “free” thanks to taxpayer dollars. Most recreational trails networks are either local or regional.

Within each category, trail usage can be restricted (seasonally or year-round) to a single activity, or to several activities within the same category (e.g. all non-motorized or all motorized). “Multi-use” refers to trails where usage is shared by several activities (sometimes a mix from both categories), as approved for each specific corridor and season. Typically, multi-use trails are near communities, on public land such as abandoned rail lines, unopened road allowances or managed forests.

Gamechanger

It’s easy to take organized recreational trails for granted. As if these incredible assets have always been there. But organized trails didn’t start coming into their own in Ontario until after the 1959 debut of snowmobiles built for one or two riders. Originally intended for utility and work, these ‘personal’ snow machines quickly revolutionized winter recreation – with game-changing effect on recreational trails in every season.

At first, no designated snowmobile trails existed. Most riding happened on someone’s back forty, trapper’s tracks or local goat paths, and along road shoulders and ditches. Then, early snowmobilers began forming community-based clubs, volunteering to build their own trails. Each club operated their own trails independently with few connections beyond their local area. By the mid-1960’s, grassroots clubs were smoothing narrow corridors with old bed springs and helping defray costs by each charging their own local user fee.

In 1967, visionary clubs decided to ensure the orderly growth and sustainability of all local snowmobile trails by forming the Ontario Federation of Snowmobile Clubs (OFSC). This not-for-profit, volunteer-led association would represent all member clubs: one voice for organized snowmobiling; one seamless provincial snowmobile trail system; one provincial user fee to fund and access all club trails.

New Benchmarks

Fast forward to 2024. The OFSC and its 179 member clubs now manage and operate about 30,000 kilometres of recreational trails, Ontario’s only integrated provincial trail system. It’s the world’s largest, connecting 100’s of snowbelt communities by snow. In fact, Ontario counts more kilometres of snowmobile trails than there are provincial highways.

The OFSC’s recreational trail system is also the only one recognized as “Prescribed Trails” by the Government of Ontario, meaning that provincial law requires a valid Ontario Snowmobile Trail Permit for trail access. To achieve this, OFSC trails set the bar for trail strategic planning, maintenance, accessibility, interconnectivity, signage, mapping and volunteerism to name but a few. Consequently, OFSC trails serve as a model for other recreational trail groups to emulate in organizing their own trails.

For the Kawarthas & Haliburton, the presence of over 2,000 kilometres of OFSC Prescribed Snowmobile Trails not only provides superb winter recreational opportunities. These trails also generate about $80 Million annually to benefit our regional economy, local businesses and communities. No other recreational trails in any season come close to this economic impact regionally or provincially.

Behind The Scenes

So, what does it take to organize recreational trails? All trail operators share similar challenges, scaled to the size and complexity of their own activities. By way of example, here’s a behind the scenes look at the provincial snowmobile trail system.

Snowmobile trails require multi-year investments in equipment refurbishment & replacement ( OFSC grooming fleet estimated value: $60 Million), for infrastructure improvements & maintenance (bridges, culverts, trail re-routes, etc.), and navigation & directional signage. The OFSC also allocates annual funding for autumn trail prep (trail repair/brushing/grading, clearing storm damage, sign installation & replacement, etc.), and for winter trail grooming & equipment maintenance. Many OFSC trail improvements also benefit other user groups in multiple seasons.

I’ve ballparked the annual amount required to deliver OFSC recreational trails. It’s at least $18 Million – a substantial yearly sum largely funded by snowmobilers buying Ontario Snowmobile Trail Permits in the fall so trails will be ready to ride for that winter.

Irreplaceable Asset

So, whatever your choice of recreational trail activity and season, the work and dollars involved mean users should take preserving trails very seriously. It’s essential to respect volunteers and landowners by staying on the trail, to support trail associations/clubs by lending a hand to help, – and to buy a trail permit as required. Our recreational trails are an irreplaceable asset, so let’s treat them right!

Contact Your Local Snowmobile Club:

Buckhorn & District – buckhorn@district2ofsc.ca

Haliburton County Snowmobile Association – info@hcsa.ca

Havelock & District – hdsc-info@district2ofsc.ca

Kawartha Lakes Snowmobile Club (Fenelon Falls) – klsc@sympatico.ca

Old Hastings Snow Riders (Bancroft) – ohsrvolunteers@gmail.com

Paudash Trail Blazers (Apsley) – volunteer@paudashtrailblazers.on.ca

Stoney Lake Sno Riders – stoneylake@district2ofsc.ca

Twin Mountains (Bobcaygeon) – twinmountains@district2ofsc.ca

Learn More About Snowmobiling:

Ontario Federation of Snowmobile Clubs – ofsc.on.ca

Craig Nicholson, The Intrepid Snowmobiler, is an International Snowmobile Hall of Fame journalist and a long-time Kawarthas cottager who also provides tips and tour info for snowmobilers at intrepidsnowmobiler.com and for PWC riders at intrepidcottager.com.

Photo Credit: Top – Conservation Authority Caption: Storm damage obliterates recreational trail.

Photo Credit: Bottom – Craig Nicholson Caption: Trail Groomer at work.