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Published: October 6th 2009
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Biking Penetang's Waterfront and TINY township Trails
The Basics: Number of times biked: 3
Last updated:{/b] August 2015
Location: Penetanguishene (aka Penetang) to north of Elmvale Ontario
Distance: 23 kilometres
Trail Surface: crushed stone and some paved
Access & Parking: Trail Head (and see below)
Trail Head: none found
Washrooms: in the towns (& see below)
Towns on/near trail: Penetanguishene, Perkinsfield, Wyevale, Elmvale
Water: only in the towns
Signage: fair
Rest areas: few
Garbage disposal: limited
Rest Areas: few
Points of Interest: some
Other: As the name indicates, The Tiny Township Trail is located mostly in the township of Tiny in Simcoe County, and does not refer to the size of the trail! It is a rails trail and also forms part of the Ganaraska Hiking Trail. It follows the route of the old North Simcoe Railway built in 1878 to join Barrie and Penetanguishene.
The trail is crushed stone and most of the time is very good. There are a few rough spots where it is sandy and a few others where drainage is not good and the entire trail forms a small lake during
heavy/prolonged rains (see photo). An exception, is for about 1 kilometre outside of Penetanguishene where the trail is actually paved as it winds its way around, up and down over 11 small bridges that span Copeland Creek. The bridges are all modern, having been built recently and each has a sign giving the bridge’s history. This section is also one of the more wooded sections and very scenic, especially in the fall. Also in the fall you may have some obstacles. In places the ground is littered with apples from trees growing along the trail (see photo) . By the way there are 3 more bridges before the trail ends including a longer one that spans the Wye River.
Parking is available at Penetanguishene Rotary Park and Perkinsfield at Bernie Leclair Memorial Park. Wyevale has a nice large paved parking area with the only pit toilet that I found on the trail in early October. Maybe some of them are removed for the winter? Wyevale also has 3 picnic tables, garbage, recycling and a mini mart across the road.
There is also parking at Elmvale and limited parking at the
intersection of Concession 4 (east-west) and country road 6 (north-south). The trail crosses 12 concession roads and sometimes you might find a place to pull over and park, but no specific areas have been set aside except for the above mentioned location.
If starting from Penetang, head for
Penetanguishene Rotary Park (Robert Street West and Centre Street) where there is a parking lot and also the beginning of theWaterfront Trail. This is a newly paved trail that winds along the waterfront for a few kilometres. There are NO signs for the TINY trail but if you turn right on to Robert Street West from the parking lot, the TINY TRAIL is just 1/2 a block away or follow Robert Street to Overhead Bridge Road, which passes over the trail.
In Perkinsfield there is a parking at the intersection with Balm Beach Road (Bernie Leclair Memorial Park). Here you will find a large sign, a parking lot, a large grass area, a covered shelter and 2 picnic tables but no water, no toilet and no garbage.
South of Perkinsfield and starting at Concession Road 7 the trail parallels County Road
6. The Tiny Trail actually ends at the Tiny/Floss townline 3.5 kilometres from Elmvale. At this point it becomes the
North Simcoe Rail Trail as it continues to Elmvale and further south (see a separate blog on the
North Simcoe Rail Trail) On one trip, I found the trail south of concession road 2 to be sandy and difficult to ride. The trail allows horses and on this day two horses had been ahead of me. There is no separate path the hoofs had dug deeply into the sand and riding my bike was like riding over a railway trestle!
Water etc. Only available in the towns/villages.
Rest areas There are no benches along the trail except for Perkinsfield and Wyvale that have picnic tables.
Signage is only fair. There are no distance signs. There are very small signs at each concession road indicating that this is the Tiny township Trail. An exception is just outside of Penetanguishene, where each of the bridges has a sign indicating the history of the bridge. Perkinsfield and Wyevale also have large signs.
By the way
it is possible to bike from Penetaguishene to the Midland Waterfront Trail, Tay Shore Trail, Uthoff Trail (all have separate blog entries) but you must use some streets and is a bit complicated to describe here. Just ask for the Connector Trail to Midland.
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