MOUNTAIN LIFE - Blue Mountains | Spring 2019

18 ML BLUE SPRING 2019 Back in the late ‘90s and early 2000s there weren’t that many places to mountain bike in Ontario. There was Hardwood Hills, Kelso and a few others. If you wanted some seriously technical trails, you had to head to Porcupine Ridge. The trailhead is right across the road from Santa’s Village in Bracebridge. It’s a mess of rooty, rocky, steep terrain that’ll challenge just about any level of rider. But in October 2017, the new owners of Santa’s Village (they own the property that Porcupine Ridge is on) shut it down. “We had a Porcupine Ridge Mountain BIke Club and we were affiliated with IMBA (International Mountain Bicycling Association) so we could get insurance for those trails,” says Roy Davies, president of the Muskoka Off-Road Cycling Association (MORCA). “But the new owners are high finance people and they’re investors and they have people that do nothing but pore over the fine print. Those people came up with the conclusion that the policy wasn’t worth the paper it was written on. So to protect themselves they wanted it immediately closed until a solution was found. They wanted a solution to be found.” That solution came with the formation of the very club Roy is president of: MORCA. Working with the town of Bracebridge, along with IMBA and the new owners of Santa’s Village, MORCA is excited to announce that Porcupine Ridge will again be open this spring as soon as weather allows. Riding there will be free. They’ll have a scan code at the trailhead for you to donate to MORCA if you want. All money will go towards insurance and trail maintenance. Or you can become a member of MORCA (perks include one free pint from Sawdust City Brewing). There are 12 kilometres of trail at Porcupine Ridge, but consider yourself warned: “It’s super technical,” says Davies. “There are no green trails. Actually there is barely a blue trail there. There’s a sign at the trailhead that warns people of that. We don’t want people to go in there looking for a family experience and then hating it.” While Porcupine Ridge was closed, it gave MORCA a chance to develop another place to ride: the Bracebridge Resource Management Centre (BRMC). “The terrain there lends itself well to having both very easy green trails and some rugged stuff as well,” says Davies. “There are existing trails groomed for cross-country skiing—all of that is rideable mountain bike trail. There’s a great trail that follows the Muskoka River for three kilometres. So there’s about 11 kilometres of cross-country ski trail and we’ve built six kilometres of mountain bike–specific trail and we have a permit to build another four. But we’ll apply for a new permit once we’ve built that.” With outhouses, a parking lot and the existing doubletrack trails, the BRMC was the perfect place to build some easier trails. And this success is stoking MORCA’s enthusiasm. “We’re not done looking at trail-building areas yet,” says Davies. “We’re going to talk to the Township about Torrance Barrens because nothing is happening there. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done there, it’s a great, great place to ride.” morca.ca —Colin Field UP FRONT PORCUPINE RIDGE: BACK AND BURLIER THAN EVER Rafael Olejiczak dropping into Porcupine Ridge. PAULO LABERGE “There are no green trails. There is barely a blue trail there…We don’t want people to go in there looking for a family experience and then hating it.”