Most regretably, there is an on-going dispute between certain landowners and the District Municipality of Muskoka centered on the Draft of a new tree-cutting by-law. The by-law is designed to protect the forests and ensure their sustainability, it's well intentioned and speaks strongly to conservation, but some of the loggers and landowners feel it goes too far. It's a draft... and the District is trying to get back to the table with the landowners to work on it.
Sadly, in the midst of this, the spin-off has been the closure of some of the Algonquin Snowmobile Region trails, notably in the Bracebridge, Bala, Muskoka Lakes area. NOT ALL trails are closed -- the MSR is posting all their trails as 'limited' and are recommending that sledders please check the MSR website for updates.
The trails around Lake of Bays, including Baysville, Dorset and into Haliburton (Algonquin Highlands)are OPEN. Being outside of Muskoka, the Algonquin Highlands trails running from Dorset are not affected.
We think the whole issue is badly timed and serves no-one, and we really hope that both sides will come together to continue discussions and work it all out.
The snowmobile trails just got caught up in it, as a pawn, and that's most unfortunate. The Snowmobile club works incredibly hard to provide some of the best trails in the entire province, and they don't deserve to be in the middle of something like this. Nor do you, the recreational riders.
BUT we want you to know that there is still plenty of room to ride up here in North Muskoka, and plenty of winter left for it.
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