Terry Lamont has been discovering Bruce County’s fields and forests with his ATV since 2006. “I put roughly 8000 km on a year on my ATV, and I volunteer with the club and help do trail maintenance. It’s good for your mind,” said Lamont. “Let’s you get outside, enjoy the outdoors, away from all the other stuff that goes on in the world, and you can just get out and relax and have a good time.” Lamont is one of the first ATV enthusiasts to use a new 8-kilometre trail, constructed by the Huron Shores ATV club, spanning four concessions in Southern Bruce County. “This trail, for a lot of years has been used unofficially by people. And it was getting fairly rundown. Not a lot of management and oversight on the trail,” said Tyler Jonston, president of the Huron Shores ATV Club. “So, we were prepared to take that on, in partnership with our other trail users and groups. So, we’ll be monitoring the trail, and making sure that everybody’s safe and compliant, so they’ll be able to explore utilizing the trails.” Unofficial use of hiking trails by ATV users has, for years, caught the ire of local conservation authorities, and hiking groups, by causing ruts and damage. More “sanctioned” places to ride, like the Sideroad 30 trail, should help reduce outcomes like that, caused by a small handful of ATV drivers. “We’ve cultivated some great relationships with the Municipality of Huron-Kinloss and with Bruce County, proving to them that the ATV club is a great trail partner in trail management and maintenance, as well as oversight for the trails to ensure that we have a safe place to ride,” said Johnston. “It’s a sanctioned place to ride, so that all of our recreational users have a place that they can enjoy.” The new trail adds to more than 100 kilometres of trails stretching from Wingham to Port Elgin, maintained by the Huron Shores ATV club. This new section, an important link, joining forest loops in Southern Bruce County together. “It’s a great thing to have it open. It helps connect all of our other group of trails down in this area, and keeps us off the main paved roads,” said Lamont. “It allows our ATV users to connect to all our county forest trails down here in the region and gives us an opportunity to be able to do some more exploring down in Southern Bruce,” said Johnston.
