The Township of Sioux Narrows-Nestor Falls launched its expanded Red Pine mountain bike and hiking trails on Friday with a community barbecue and cake to celebrate.
The trail expansion comes as the result of a financial partnership between the town and the federal and provincial governments. Both the Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario (FedNor) and Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC) contributed $249,750, while the township invested $55,500 of its own funds toward the expansion.
Community Development Officer with the Township Heather Gropp says the hope is the trails can help diversify the local tourism base.
“Tourism is our strongest industry,” she said.
“There’s been a really strong reliance on fishing and hunting and this provides one more option and one more group of people to come here. These trails will be groomed 12 months a year, so it helps create a 12-month a year destination. We look forward to hosting larger winter fat biking events on these trails, summer bike races on these trails. It’s going to give accommodation providers and restaurant providers opportunities to expand their hours, expand the shoulder season and expand into winter.”
Thomas Jordan is one of the trail’s designers with landscape architects Scatliff, Miller, Murray and he showed the Times around part of the new expansion.
“Essentially what we’ve done on this site, there was an existing kind of spaghetti bowl of trails here, nature trails, and walking trails,” he said.
“Because of the big elevation gain and the top of the hill, it was a candidate site to develop a bit of a trail park. We essentially designed it to create a big long climb trail which serves as a multi-use trail for cyclists, and for hikers. It takes you up the spine of the ridge and then there’s several options to descend the ridge through various flow trails and technical biking trails. There’s also some walking trails.”
One of the critical elements to developing the trails was doing it in a sustainable way which wouldn’t allow the hillside to be washed away.
“Building the trail sustainably is really a critical component of it all,” Jordan said.
“It’s not just getting on a machine and blazing a trail through the bush. There’s more nuances in the design and in the build that allow drainage to shed off the trail rather than run down the trail into the road.”
The trails are set up so that they vary in difficulty, with beginner, intermediate and more complex levels.
“There’s going to be a big sign at the trailhead so you can assess ‘oh I’m a beginner rider, I want to take the green trails or I’m an intermediate rider, I want to take the blue trails or I’m a bit more advanced, I can take the black trails.’” Jordan said.
“The idea with flow trails is, essentially, you don’t need to pedal, you don’t need to ride your brakes, you can flow the bike down, and every couple of seconds the bike is moving underneath you… You don’t have to jump on any of our trails, you can roll over anything.”
While you don’t have to jump your bike, there are certainly opportunities for more advanced riders to be able to do so if they’re looking for a bigger thrill.
The expansion also included a new parking lot at the trailhead, as well as picnic tables and a portapotty which will be in place through the summer months. The parking lot keeps trail users from potentially disturbing people at the cemetery.
Some of the first mountain bikers to use the rails was a group that made the trip from Kenora for the grand opening.
Jane Matthews was among the group and praised the new trails.
“It’s fantastic, the trails are easily accessible for different skill levels, it’s great to have the skills park right by the parking lot,” she said.
“It’s a completely different kind of forest than we ride in. We’re used to roots and rocks and they’ve done an amazing amount of work here to make this something that a beginner could ride and more experienced riders can get air of the same things that beginners are riding over, so that’s fantastic.”
While it’s a bit of a drive down from Kenora, the group all felt very keen on returning to use the facility again.
Also present at the opening celebration was Chief Jeff Copenace of nearby Ojibways of Onigaming First Nation. Copenace says he was pleased his community was invited to be included by Sioux Narrows-Nestor Falls.
“I’m proud to be here today to see these trails and the expansion. Really, really happy for our neighbours, but not just for our neighbours, but because they’ve invited us. They’ve invited us to be a part of this, not just in terms of the expansion and the day of the grand opening, but they’ve been pretty consistent in inviting us to be involved in the development and the planning, and so we’ve known about this for some time. It’s not a big surprise, and for us, that’s how municipalities can work in good partnership with First Nations. So we’re grateful that they’ve included us from the inception,” the chief said.
“Certainly, we’d love to see our history more portrayed here at some point. I know that there’s been talks about putting up some signs. We’d like to be a part of that. But mostly we’ve had discussions about the opportunities for our community members to come and join in right and to come and take some walks and take some tours, to get on the bike trails to possibly do some workshops, learn how to write a mountain bike safely and have a lot of fun while you’re doing it. So we’re grateful for that opportunity as well.”
Copenace added that his community has been in a state of emergency for several years now due to an ongoing suicide crisis and he hopes that having another opportunity to spend time outdoors can be helpful in alleviating that continued stress.
“We’re trying to create a community of young people that are dreamers, that are optimistic and ambitious about their futures, and providing them with opportunities like this is part of that,” he said.
“Being able to come and have some fun with our friends, being able to come out in nature, being able to be out with wildlife, under the sun, with all of these trees, and good exercise. So for us, anything that helps to alleviate the state of emergency, anything that helps to create healthier environments for our young people. Of course, we’re trying, like every other family, to, you know, try to have sober, safe activities as much as possible, so trying to reduce the usage of alcohol and drugs in our community. And so safe events like this fall into place, and we would love to see more and more of it. And we’re just grateful to Mayor Gail and her team for inviting us out here. And certainly, as they continue to expand, we want to be part of that expansion. We want to be part of that development. And if our young people are able to use the trails, then we’re really happy for that.”
Sioux Narrows-Nestor Falls Mayor Gale Black says she hopes the trails are the start of adding more things for families to do in the area.
“Fishing is still very important, but families are coming up now and they want different things to do besides fishing,” she said.
To reach the Red Pine Trail, take a right turn at Bear’s Den Restaurant heading north on Highway 71 in Nestor Falls. Red Pine Trail is marked on Google Maps as well.
