Marmora mine to Bancroft | Page 2 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Marmora mine to Bancroft

I have a pass because I live there. I've never seen anyone enforcing anything on the main rail trail. As long as your plated and insured, I would think you'd be fine for a few kms at a time. Even if you were stopped, once you explained what you're up to, I think they'd tell you to have a nice day. Life is chill out here. This isn't the GTA! ?

If you find yourself enjoying what it offers, support it by buying a pass! ?
 
It’s $20 for a day for the Hastings trail from their website. I’ll give it a go and see how it is then maybe get the annual one. I’m still a noob on trails on my big KTM too.
 
That area of Ontario has many roads perfectly suited to your 1190: Old Hastings Road, Hughes Landing Road, Pine View Ridge Road, Lingham Lake Road. Once you start exploring though, you'll wish you had a smaller bike...

Mike

Hey guys
I’m fairly new to adventure bikes, but I’m starting to get a little more adventurous and ride off road.
Still very green when it comes to riding the big girl in the dirt. Looking for rail beds and gravel roads for now. Still running the stock Conti trail attack tires.
Back in early 2000’s I was riding ATV’s and used to ride around the mine area and there was a rail line that ran north. I was told you could get all the way to Bancroft on this. I never tried on my atv because at that point in my life I wanted to climb hills, rail berms, and hit jumps not cruise a rail line to no where.

My goal in purchasing this bike was to take back roads and light trails. So far been riding 99% black top.
I’ve ventured onto a couple trails but keep ending up in sand. I’m not ready for sand and mud at this point. She’s a big tall bike and I’m a newb with short legs.
Before you tell me I should have bought a smaller bike. I bought the 1190 because I wanted to be able to do it all. Most of my rides are 450+ km of pavement venturing down the odd bit of gravel.
 
That area of Ontario has many roads perfectly suited to your 1190: Old Hastings Road, Hughes Landing Road, Pine View Ridge Road, Lingham Lake Road. Once you start exploring though, you'll wish you had a smaller bike...

Mike
Sorry for the dumb question, but are the roads such as the ones quoted above considered public roads that anybody is allowed to ride on, or are they some kind of trails that require a pass?
 
Maybe I’m mistaken then but isn’t the OFTR pass different from the one in the link above?
I think you are correct. The O in OFTR stands for Ontario, which would make one reasonably assume that their pass covers all of Ontario, but apparently it doesn't. As somebody venturing off pavement for the first time, I am beyond confused. I'm trying my best to follow rules and not ride where I'm not allowed, but they don't make it easy.
 
I think their original objective was to *try* to connect Ontario via a single trail system (just like OFSC) but so far they haven't been able to come close to what the OFSC has accomplished.
 
I think you are correct. The O in OFTR stands for Ontario, which would make one reasonably assume that their pass covers all of Ontario, but apparently it doesn't. As somebody venturing off pavement for the first time, I am beyond confused. I'm trying my best to follow rules and not ride where I'm not allowed, but they don't make it easy.

The cost of an OFTR membership is $55. For comparison, the OFSC permit currently is $190 rising to $270 after December 1.

For $55 you get membership to a club and access to their "home" trail system and a magazine subscription. They also put on a large number of organized trail rides and events, but they do charge entry fees. The events are a good way to introduce yourself to off-road riding.

The wording is a bit misleading on the site, though to be fair there are 100's of km's of trails associated with each club.

OFTR is still a small, volunteer run organization as far as I know, as are all the clubs. There's no comparison to OFSC as it is bigger, has more money, has more political influence and is much older.

A province-wide permit would be great, but I don't think many would be willing to pay enough for it and I'm certain that places like the Ganaraska have zero interest in such a thing.
 
Quite a few times I’ve been halfway down a trail or at a fork and then seen a sign that says something like “trail pass required”. I have no intention to trespass but they sure don’t make it easy to comply with regulations when there’s disparate groups offering the passes. A province wide system would be good but I agree that private land owners probably wouldn’t like that idea.
 
Sorry for the dumb question, but are the roads such as the ones quoted above considered public roads that anybody is allowed to ride on, or are they some kind of trails that require a pass?
Many patrolled trails out our way are on decommissioned railway beds, some trails are for snowmobiles only, some is possibly part of the cross canada trail network, in my experience the best place to ride that is considered public and not require a permit is township property because then you are there by the grace of the township and you won't get hassled unless you upset other people who are already out there abusing the place. Most places require a camp fire permit now too, watch out for that or it could become an expensive fire. You have to ask the right people to know what all the rules are and that is a problem, permits might be available at some club at the local legion or a local corner store, I've seen all of those.
 
Wow I had no idea it was this broken.
I have little to no interest in riding my big bike around one particular area. ie the Ganny or similar. Absolutely correct I would want a smaller bike for that style of riding.
What I’m looking for is to break up a 400km street ride with maybe two or three 25km blip down a train or abandoned rail line.
So those two trails could be 150km away from each other and in two different districts require two different passes.
So my take is yes they need to get their crap together like the OFSC has.
I generally ride with no actual planned route.
I’m not going through the trouble to buy a weekend pass or a year pass for one ride on a trail I may never ride again or even at all. This would cost a bloody fortune.
I live less the 15min from the Ganny but I don’t want to rip around in there on my big bike. I would pick up a little drz if that was my interest.
 
Sorry for the dumb question, but are the roads such as the ones quoted above considered public roads that anybody is allowed to ride on, or are they some kind of trails that require a pass?
All the roads I mentioned are municipal-no permits required.
 
Wow I had no idea it was this broken.
I have little to no interest in riding my big bike around one particular area. ie the Ganny or similar. Absolutely correct I would want a smaller bike for that style of riding.
What I’m looking for is to break up a 400km street ride with maybe two or three 25km blip down a train or abandoned rail line.
So those two trails could be 150km away from each other and in two different districts require two different passes.
So my take is yes they need to get their crap together like the OFSC has.
I generally ride with no actual planned route.
I’m not going through the trouble to buy a weekend pass or a year pass for one ride on a trail I may never ride again or even at all. This would cost a bloody fortune.
I live less the 15min from the Ganny but I don’t want to rip around in there on my big bike. I would pick up a little drz if that was my interest.

The OFTR was created SPECIFICALLY to allow off road motorcycle riding in places like the Ganaraska to continue. They're not focussed on your (and my) type of trail use.

I have a 690 Enduro and enjoy the same type of riding you do. I'm not terribly worried about permit requirements on the rail-trails I ride on because they mostly connect one area to another. Anytime I've met someone who I would think would care that I was there they just wave and smile as we pass. They're not particularly interested in old guys on licensed dual purpose bikes, they're looking out for the guys on MX bikes and ATV's that tick off the land owners adjacent to the trail. Trespassing and noise complaints are their concern.

I'm in Port Hope and there's no shortage of great secondary roads, unopened or seasonal road allowances and multi use trails north and east of us.
 
I'm not terribly worried about permit requirements on the rail-trails I ride on because they mostly connect one area to another. Anytime I've met someone who I would think would care that I was there they just wave and smile as we pass.

The only pass I buy is OFTR and Gananraska, and that is only to support the overall efforts in Ontario and be legal in my main weekday riding area (I ride the Ganny at least 3x per month, well into November). Everywhere else, I just carry cash and when stopped by a warden pull a long face after showing them my OFTR card and looking confused. So far every time they didn't even care to take cash for an on the spot day pass, or did anything for being on ATV-only trail... except asking me to get off at the first road intersection... which I would sometimes do (or if far enough away, simply ignore and continue). The disjointed nature of the trail passes/systems in Ontario is ridiculous.
 
So back when I lived in Hastings about 12 years ago I used to ride atv on the rail bed from Hastings to outside Campbellford. I would have to run a bit of road to get into town.
This was frowned upon back then. Not a problem now.
Anyhow I was very surprised to find the trail now extends and spits you out right behind the Canadian tire and Tim’s which was perfect timing as I had yet to eat this morning.
The ride was wet but fun and I look forward to heading farther next time.
VVsTKcY.jpg
 
The only pass I buy is OFTR and Gananraska, and that is only to support the overall efforts in Ontario and be legal in my main weekday riding area (I ride the Ganny at least 3x per month, well into November). Everywhere else, I just carry cash and when stopped by a warden pull a long face after showing them my OFTR card and looking confused. So far every time they didn't even care to take cash for an on the spot day pass, or did anything for being on ATV-only trail... except asking me to get off at the first road intersection... which I would sometimes do (or if far enough away, simply ignore and continue). The disjointed nature of the trail passes/systems in Ontario is ridiculous.

So playing dumb is your answer? Every year the various trail system stewards are crying for volunteers to help make the trails a simpler, better place to enjoy riding. And every year fewer people offer to help. Typical of Ontario, just complain about how "disjointed" it is, play dumb and don't pay and use it anyway, and then complain when it's gone. If you want to volunteer, and offer up your ideas on how to amalgamate the largest provinces trail system, and come up with a pay once/use all pass system, please do. It's not as simple as you think. ☺
 
Today I rode Old Hastings road. Mostly hard packed dirt with the occasional slightly sandy spot.
 

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