Lost In The Forest

Christie Lake near Dundas today. It looked like it rained much more than we thought it did. Great trails here for all levels and one-directional trials.

York Regional Forest, Hollidge Tract, and King Woodlands. are part of the York Forest Region https://www.york.ca/environment/forests/york-regional-forest It was such a great day, All access trails, Lung Oysters and friendly people. We started here https://www.trailforks.com/trails/accessible-trail-382124/It is a very relaxed and nice place to go for a ride, I also think if it was raining it could be a great place to visit.This is the link to the Oak Ridges Trail https://www.oakridgestrail.orgIce Cream shop https://tourism.discoverstouffville.ca/listing/coolest-little-ice-cream-shop/

Jefferson Forest Mountain Biking Trails near Richmond Hill Ontario close to GormleyUnder the Toronto and Region Conservation Authorityhttps://trca.ca/parks/oak-ridges-corridor-conservation-reserve/The local trail association is https://durhammountainbiking.ca/york-mtb/While it is York, York is just part of Durham Mountain Bike Association, IMBA Canada also has local involvement, they are an organisation to support and help.For me parking is at Bethesda Parking Lot (access from Bethesda Rd east of Bayview Ave) You can park at Wilcox Lake, you have to pay but there are proper washrooms.Other links.Trails https://www.trailforks.com/region/jefferson-forest/The food you may want to make https://lostintheforest.world/ediblesOur store https://lostintheforest.world/shopIf you need some piggy love https://sweetacrespigsanctuary.comDrop us a line on the website if you would like stickers.

The Kolapore Wilderness Trails consist of approximately 50 kilometres of marked trails that are managed for cross-country skiing in the winter and biking and hiking in the summer. Below is a quote from the Kolapore website.In winter the trails are intended only for cross-country skiing; please no walking, snowshoeing or biking, and leave your dog at home.The trails are located in a rugged, semi-wilderness area along the Niagara Escarpment in The Blue Mountains, about 20 km southwest of Collingwood. The trails are carefully blazed with orange triangle blazes, but the network is complex, so a map is strongly recommended.Where we parked at the Bottling plant on Osprey townline https://www.trailforks.com/poi/54329/The area website https://www.kolaporetrails.org

This is the link on Trail Forks, this is a ski hill https://www.trailforks.com/region/kimberley-1525096491/?activitytype=1&z=12.7&lat=44.36365&lon=-80.54474It seems there are a lot of winter lodges that sit empty in the summer. Typical Bruce Trails not so hard as just rocks everywhere. Navigation was okay but the bugs were tough. I do think this place would be a lot of fun on a dry summer evening. Rain makes for hard trails, slippy steep up hills.

The Soo is 8 hours north of Toronto it is trying to be the new Mountain Bike Capital of North America. All the jokes aside it has had a huge amount of money pumped into it and it has a good chance of becoming a real mountain town. The local Mountain Bike Club https://www.saultcyclingclub.ca has done a lot of work to maintain and keep trails running. They seem to have a welcoming friendly feel.Our trip was slightly marked by Jessica having a fairly bad crash and like a trooper managed to get out of the trails and back to the car. She sadly is now in plaster. https://www.trailforks.com/region/sault-ste-marie/trails/

Jessica while being out of action is turning to sharing some of the recipes we use when consuming wild edibles.

Glenelg Klondyke is a 398-acre managed forest. Mixed hardwood and conifers, quite hilly and loose rock underfoot. A small lake can be viewed that is quite special, with a lot of butterflies, dragonflies and other insects, abundant bird and plant life, and lots of mushrooms, but on this day they were quite old. There is the Glenelg Nordic Ski Club and I would think this would be a cool place to Fatbike in the winter. Side note this land was farmed from 1868 until 1962. The forest you see now has grown up since the early 1960s managed by the Corporation of Grey County. Tick Key here https://tickkey.com Trail parking is here https://www.trailforks.com/poi/14998/

Walden Trails Sudbury Ontario is a place built by mountain bikers for mountain bikers. This is a stop-off point on our way to the Soo, it is fair to say you could do a weekend here and if combined with the trails in the Soo you could make a long weekend of it. 15k of tails over 350 acres of land, with blueberries earlier than anywhere else. https://www.waldenmbc.ca/our-trails

Brant Tract near Paisley. A great way to spend a couple of hours. Some Pheasant Backs and an Ice cream store called Magic Ice Cream Shophttps://www.themagicicecreamshoppe.comhttps://www.trailforks.com/region/brant-tract/?activitytype=1&z=13.4&lat=44.24704&lon=-81.21699Also to explain the word TractA tract of land pertains to an identifiable portion of land. Basically, a land tract is bordered by geographical formations; this makes the tract easy to portray and discuss. For instance, if an identified land area is surrounded by a river on one side, and has gently sloping hills before being bounded by high mountains on the other side, the tract of land could be easily recognized by the local inhabitants as the tract of land between the river and steep mountains.

Today we went for an easy ride that ended up not being quite as simple as we thought. We parked here https://www.trailforks.com/poi/81213/The Park website is here https://www.trailforks.com/region/firemen-s-park-40369/The other mountain bike trails off the Bruce heading towards the falls are here https://www.trailforks.com/region/firemen-s-park-40369/We talk about the route finding on the Bruce, discuss the lack of wild edibles on the Bruce, find a shoe tree and discover what we know already, don't underestimate any rides on the Bruce Trail https://brucetrail.org

Grand Canyon 6 2022 Review I ride a Deviate Highlander 140 with a We Are One Wheelset, I run Sram Breaks that work better than the breaks in my car, have run AXS but am back on cable shifting, the charging when I ride so often is quite annoying even with two batteries and with radio mics, cameras and recorders, plus phones and bike computers I need a break from batteries. This high pivot full suspension beast of a bike makes up for every mistake I make though and I do ride anything else and feel lazy, scared and more of a pilot than a passenger. For the first time in a long time I decided to try and run one bike, I mean I have a fat bike and a city bike but my 4 rides a week on my mountain bike were taking its toll on my bank account. Out of curiosity and because I follow Sam Pilgrim on Youtube I took a look at Canyon.I went for the Grand Canyon 6 it arrived and in truth, I had tried to cancel it, I was not excited and felt a bit fed up, I unpacked it and noticed the bike had a bent hanger, not Canyon's fault more likely the carrier leaving the box in the rain so it soaked through and the bottom fell out. Canyon no questions UPS’ed me a hanger. Back to the bike, I was sad it is so basic, not even cable routing for the spare dropper post I had…..So I managed to fix the dropper post, I changed the Bars and Saddle to some spare parts I have hanging around I made it Tubeless even though the tires on it stock didn’t mention tubeless, I feel after converting our Fat Bikes and a dirt jumper I can make anything with a tire Tubeless especially if its Stans No Tubes. The stock wheels seated the tire super quick I did both wheels in 20 minutes. Pumped up and held air overnight.So, I took it out on my local trails in the woods expecting to hate it and I didn’t, I thought the 5mm quick release from a decade ago, I missed this on the spec, would be an issue, it wasn’t and has not been, even though I keep grabbing the wheel expecting some play, there is none. This continues to be the case five rides in. As for the Suntour Fork I just wanted an axel, the Suntor system worked loose on my trails, not a lot but enough feel, I messaged Suntour and the contact sent me a link to a video, it has helped maybe not eliminated the issue completely but I am a 6ft 3 14.5 stone human who is hard on bikes. I also upped the pressure in the fork so it is only every so often using the full 100mm of travel. Now when you fly off anything I can feel it drop, I think I just need to slow the rebound down. The ride on this fork is plush though and I have ridden much worse for more money. So far it confirms my thought if you are looking to purchase a new fork give Suntour a look.I took the Canyon for a ride in my local woods, nice blue and green trails, and lots of roots, sand and rocks, I know this place well so don’t mess around on any of the descending sections. The wheelset is so impressive for this price, I have put them through it already and they are still running true. The handling has been good so far, even on the limestone slabs of the Bruce, I did put wider bars as mentioned, but most of that is down to my riding style I find the narrow bars quite odd to deal with.Well done Canyon on an epic bike for the price, I am not easy on bikes and have had it out every day I have ridden since it came home. It proves that you can have as much fun on a cheaper bike as on a top-end full suspension and you might even be faster on the cheap one.www.canyon.comwww.srsuntour.comwww.notubes.com

I wish we had some artwork of a Raven in shoes. Ravenshoe also known as Brown Hill Tract is an hour North of the city, one side is flat and rooty and the other has small rolling hills, it is easy to spend a few hours here. It is one of the best places to Fatbike. We found oyster mushrooms here today, we cooked and ate them when we got home.https://www.trailforks.com/region/york-regional-forest-brown-hill-tract/?activitytype=1&z=14.3&lat=44.20949&lon=-79.36868 Also, we went to https://www.facebook.com/thecoolestlittleicecreamshop/ Please like if you get a chance it helps.

Today we did a bit of the Gord Harry Trail but found a cool quarry to ride around, rock slabs and loads of potential, We then found a way into Port Colborne, use it or lose it and you know what it might go anyway.We recorded this in the car in the rain so you may hear some noises.https://npca.ca/parks-recreation/conservation-areas/gord-harry-trailhttps://www.trailforks.com/region/limestone-hill-35801/

Morel hunting in the woods and riding lost trails.Awenda is an area I have looked at on the map. We did spend some time on trails in the area during the winter on Fat Bikes.The Tranche Loop is a bushwhack, but there is a sweet downhill at the end, and you feel miles from everywhere.I wish someone would take this trail on, I think we will do some trail work next time we are up.https://www.trailforks.com/region/awenda-provincial-park/?activitytype=1&z=11.6&lat=44.83492&lon=-79.99216We parked at the baseball field.

When everyone else is shopping at the mall we head to the woods, it was so quiet we had it to ourselves on a Saturday sunny afternoon. We talk about the wild edibles, and what is in season to collect and end up having a cone. This is a place we have ridden for a year including all winter on Fat Bikes. Sorry for the sound quality, we will do better.Link to Hodgson here. https://www.trailforks.com/region/simcoe-county-forest-hodgson-tract/?activitytype=1&z=13.3&lat=44.15618&lon=-79.643463 Scoops 11 Barrie St, Bradford West Gwillimbury, ONPhone: (289) 231-1193

Greenwood Conservation AreaA re-visit to a place we have been before but found new trails and had a great adventure. The only trail to avoid is the Black Daddy-O it needs some love and route-finding is a challenge.North Carpark we went from, the bugs were biting.Trailforks link is here.https://www.trailforks.com/region/greenwood-conservation-area/Great ice cream shop, link here https://www.villageicecream.caGood for beginners through to intermediate enough to keep anyone interested for an hour or two.

A cool spot near Toronto with some interesting trails and wildlife, it also often has film crews there. https://www.trailforks.com/region/claireville-conservation-area-16835/

Managed to ride three times this weekend, Rock slabs, sand and mud. It was a win as no Ticks got me despite trying and the midges are not biting yet. This recording is in the car on the way back from my last weekend trail ride. We were here: https://www.trailforks.com/region/centennial-park-8694/https://www.trailforks.com/trails/bruce-trail-victoria-avenue-to-mountainview-road/Best place we found to park to access these trails.

This is a podcast that covers in high-level terms our riding at Short Hills, St Catharines, Port Colborne and Beamsville. The links are below in the description.This is our opinion of the trails we like to ride often in bad weather.Port Colborne where we parked https://www.trailforks.com/poi/6585/Short Hills I think the best parking place https://www.trailforks.com/poi/3755/Beamsville we parked where the trail crosses the roadhttps://www.trailforks.com/trails/main-bridge-connector/St Catharineshttps://www.trailforks.com/poi/2445/

Centennial Park is a mountain bike and hiking trail system in the region of King City to the North of Toronto.This is a series of loops three in total, this is a great place for beginners to learn some skills like corners, roots and variable terrain.Great carpark, undercover area, work stand of sorts.Links here https://www.trailforks.com/region/centennial-park-8694/

This is a review of our ride today at Albion. It is one of the first weekends of the year to ride here, the lack of people makes it magical.The link is here https://trca.ca/parks/albion-hills-conservation-area/Trailforks link is here https://www.trailforks.com/region/albion-hills/

You can find this riding on Trailforks here https://www.trailforks.com/region/claireville-conservation-area-16835/Ride the blues it is fun. This is the authority websitehttps://trca.ca/parks/claireville-conservation-area/If you want a one-hour quick ride near the city this is a place to hang out.

Here is some information about where we parked https://www.ontarioparks.com/park/shorthillsThis is the Trailforks linkhttps://www.trailforks.com/region/short-hills-provincial-park/Short Hills is just South of St. Catherines, when you look on a map or even drive towards this park you feel you are in an urban environment and even the carpark feels dirty and litter filled. As you roll down the first hill you find yourself in the wild. Maybe the odd bit of road noise but this place makes you feel like you’re in the country. Trail changes from woodland, farm, rock, steep hills and singletrack then back to fields.

I parked in the car park that is off Woodspring Avenue there is a modern archway on the hill you can’t miss. This is the Trail Forks link https://www.trailforks.com/region/woodspring-trails-33085/This is a good spot for a ride on a wet day or if you happen to be in the area with an hour or two you need to waste.

The first visit to Long Sault Conservation Area and it was an interesting visit. Below you will find links to Trailforks and the park website. There is a parking fee of $6 and a long downhill with some interesting trails and the odd feature.https://www.cloca.com/long-saulthttps://www.trailforks.com/region/long-sault-conservation-area/