Biking at St. Williams Conservation Reserve? | GTAMotorcycle.com

Biking at St. Williams Conservation Reserve?

doozerdave

doozerdave

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Can anybody tell me the current legal riding situation at St Will's? A friend of mine rode there a few years back, but since then apparently a bunch of trails have been closed and there was some sort of noise by-law battle. Is it still a good place to ride (we're used to places like Ganny and enjoy technical single/double track).

Thanks for any input.
 
Hmm... that doesn't sound good. It's fairly close for us, so we'll probably check it out to see what it's like anyway.
 
The greenies and retired city people moved in to the area and got it shut down.
Funny, all those trails have been in there for decades because of the off road guys and we are now the ones not allowed to use it. Its a sore topic for me, it's one of the spots I learned to ride, and its where me and my buddies used to go in and have awesome days back in the bush not bothering anyone. One buddy owns farm property right next to it and you could never hear bikes... Unless they were ripping down the road or tresspassing... Which is now what kids out there will be left with.
Luckily, if you don't park where people normally would park and you get in there and know the trails, it would be pretty much impossible to get busted. Not that I do that kind of thing anymore.

At least I can still hunt from the beach in Turkey Point, in full view from the front window of the now $1,000,000 cottages and kill geese/ducks on Christmas morning.
 
Is it completely shut down now for bikes or can we still use "multi-use" trails?

That's some kind of sick irony that the trail makers are not allowed anymore...
 
doozerdave said:
Is it completely shut down now for bikes or can we still use "multi-use" trails?

That's some kind of sick irony that the trail makers are not allowed anymore...
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Welcome to the world that ATV'ers live in. Our club (near Lindsay is the largest single ATV club in Ontario), and we spend tens of thousands of membership dollars every year on trails that the "leaf lickers" want to take away from us. Again too many "citidiots" have retired there from the Toronto Beaches and only want bicycles used. hell they even got city council to kick out horse and buggies..lmao

Having dealt extensively with "multi-use" trails they are generally NOT open to dirt bikes, SOME, (very few), still permit ATV's, (as they are generally much slower than dirt bikes), and most have now also removed sleds in the winter, (if we even get enough snow for a sled).
 
Damn, sorry to read about this. My parents had a boat in Port Rowan so I grew up down there. My buddy with dirt bikes just moved near TMP so I was hoping to finally get to ride this place but I guess it will never happen. Oh well, there's always killing the lake shore road on my R6 I guess :(
 
just picked up another MX bike, was hoping to ride these trails again but I guess not. What about the turkey point trails? Or do you guys consider them the same
 
kellen said:
just picked up another MX bike, was hoping to ride these trails again but I guess not. What about the turkey point trails? Or do you guys consider them the same
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Yeah, St. Williams and Turkey Point are about 3 minutes away from each other on the road.
 
I'm not sure what other people are talking about but I was there last month riding. There are sections of the reserve closed to motorized vehicles and all of it is closed to motorized vehicles over 300 kilos (full size trucks), but a big section of 2 track and single track were open with signs telling you where to ride. It's not as good as Ganny but it's a good day none the less.
 
lucky2 said:
dont know if you need to be a member of there forum to see this thread or not.


http://www.odsc.on.ca/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=20671
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Well I saw the discussion in the ODSC site and I'm still not understanding what is being stated. People that ride at St Williams enter the reserve trail head off the 6th Concession and not the 4th Concession (the road in dispute in the local matter). If you ride to the back of the reserve you can get to the locked gate that seems to be in question, I guess. The 6th concession is about 1/2 mile long and has at least 2 private property driveways off it and all of the non-motorized trail heads also running off it. The 6th Concession also runs between Forestry Farm rd. & E quarter line rd. So for the trail head to be block would actually take 2 gates, 1 on the East cross road and the 2nd on the West cross road.

I've been reading for the last couple of years on the internet about the imminent closure of St. Williams and each time I go down to ride I have a great day riding. Maybe this time you all are right and it is closed to everyone. Maybe a few people are trying to start up a 300 acres of public Sasquatch reserve.

I remain skeptical of this thread.
 
BBC said:
Well I saw the discussion in the ODSC site and I'm still not understanding what is being stated. People that ride at St Williams enter the reserve trail head off the 6th Concession and not the 4th Concession (the road in dispute in the local matter). If you ride to the back of the reserve you can get to the locked gate that seems to be in question, I guess. The 6th concession is about 1/2 mile long and has at least 2 private property driveways off it and all of the non-motorized trail heads also running off it. The 6th Concession also runs between Forestry Farm rd. & E quarter line rd. So for the trail head to be block would actually take 2 gates, 1 on the East cross road and the 2nd on the West cross road.

I've been reading for the last couple of years on the internet about the imminent closure of St. Williams and each time I go down to ride I have a great day riding. Maybe this time you all are right and it is closed to everyone. Maybe a few people are trying to start up a 300 acres of public Sasquatch reserve.

I remain skeptical of this thread.
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We have the same issues when it comes to ATV'ing. It is posted virtually everywhere that a trail system is closed, (could be many reasons, maintenance, transfer of land ownership etc). Then people come along and they "find a way" that hasn't been signed or signs have been removed/stolen. They then think "well I didn't see a sign so I can ride there" or "well an OPP passed me and they didn't stop and club me to death so it MUST be ok to ride there"..LOL

Riding in an area that has been closed down, and it "appears" to be the case with this area, (going by this thread and the ones on various ATV forums all of which state it is now closed), only ensures that it will remain closed rather than letting the various orgs, (OFTR, ODSC, OFATV, etc) work to lobby to have it reopened it only gives ammunition to those who want it closed forever. They WILL show up at council and say look even when it was closed they just ignored it and continued to trespass, they, (dirt bikers, atv'ers etc) can't be trusted.

It is a fact that there are less and less areas for those of us with recreational motor sports to enjoy our sports, but ignoring the rules won't fix that.
 
Well since I felt like a drive today I went to the St Williams' trail-heads (which includes Turkey Point). The same trails that have been open for the last 2 years are still open as of today. The Yellow arrow and yellow dotted lines on the map are the "multi-use trails" (which include motorized vehicles). A similar map is at the Turkey Point trail-head.

Either people here don't know what they are talking about and are just parroting stuff they have seen on the internet or some people have a personal agenda that directly conflicts with the purpose of this web-site, to encourage all types of motorcycle riding.
 

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You could ride every yellow line on that map in 15 minutes. Where's the big open section of singletrack you were talking about?

Edit:

30 seconds on google turned up these:

http://swcr.ca/library/SWCR - Trail Map - St. Williams Nursery Tract.pdf
http://swcr.ca/library/SWCR - Trail Map - Turkey Point Tract.pdf

The yellow trails are the only trails motorized vehicles are allowed on. Not much left. I don't think any of it is even singletrack.

This is the same thing that has happened in Northumberland. You can ride the fireroads and some double track but the singletrack is out.
 
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Growing up and having the entire area to ride was epic. I don't think I've even been to every hidden spot in there. To ride it legally now would just be a kick in the nuts from what it once was. The best parts are closed up. Used to spend hours ripping through tight twisty sand, fun challenging climbs and going in and not seeing another group until you get back to the trail head was awesome. I never once saw a horse, a hiker or a mountain biker back in where we would go because of some of the terrain. The majority of users in there now are tourists, and I include those citiot retirees that move in for the summer months.

Even snowmobiling down to TP is not as fun as it used to be (when we had snow).
 
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