Shabomeka Legpower Pathfinders Trails

Note: PDF has a typo and should read 65km NOT 5km

It’s not often that we discover trails that are relatively close to our home that I haven’t heard of or run on before. That was the case recently at a Trails Advisory Committee meeting. I was giddy with excitement leaving the meeting having heard that there is a 65km network of developed trails on private and crown land situated North-East of Cloyne (about an hour’s drive north of our place). I couldn’t wait to tell Sara, and then go check them out!

The fact that I love this area of rugged, wild country just added to the excitement. I’ve always marveled at the beauty of the Land O’ Lakes Region and have many fond memories of there. From running the old Mazinaw Ten Mile Race, to camping and trail running at Bon Echo Provincial Park, and especially of vacationing at a summer cottage in Plevna as a kid.

Researching a little more into these new trails (well, new to us), we discovered that the Shabomeka Legpower Pathfinders (a very small, but extremely committed group) have developed these trails exclusively for foot traffic and that they are indeed very well maintained. For more information on SLP and to receive a trail map, you can check out this link. We received our trail map in the mail last week and have spent a lot of time reviewing it…and drooling.

Endless pine needle trails

Thanksgiving Monday seemed like it was going to be the only day we were going to be able to make it to the SLP Trails for a while. I was sick all last week and reduced to only a very easy 20 minutes of running each day, but I was hoping to be able to get out much longer. Luckily, I was starting to feel better as the weekend progressed and felt very fortunate that I would at least be up to a moderate length run.

Driving north, it almost seems like a light switch goes off as soon as you pass highway #7 heading towards Cloyne. True to it’s name, this is the Land O’Lakes. Everywhere you look there seems to be a lake, marsh or pond.

It was refreshing to arrive at the trailhead and see that it was very primitive. No trail center. No facilities. Just a small notice board with a map and basic information about the trails.

Fun in the Forest, while Focusing on the Foilage.

Starting off on our run was a little challenging for the first few minutes. We took a small loop that had us back to Floyd the Forester in about 10 minutes. Once we took a closer look at our map and figured out the trail markers we were in a better place to dive into the trails much deeper.

The trails themselves are in great shape and obviously well cared for. You could see that brush and logs had been regularly cleared from the trails, though heavy leaf covering did make for tricky navigation. Trying to figure out your location kept you on your toes as there aren’t as many trail markers as you would see in a provincial park. However, with a map in hand you would eventually be able to find where you were by the trail numbering system used. I would not want to attempt the SLP Trails without a trail map as you could get terribly lost. We also made a point of taking our GPS watch with us so we’d have the ‘back to start’ option if we did get turned around.

The trails we ran were mostly single track that weaved through the forest and had you thinking you were in the middle of nowhere, which essentially you were. Some of our favorite sections of trail included extended pine needle segments, beaver dam crossings and just plain endlessly rolling single track.

We figured that we covered maybe 10-20% of the trails offered at SLP, and are just dying to get back now that we have a bit of an understanding of the trail system. Can’t wait!

Trails were often lined along the edges with rocks to mark the route

Beaver Dam Trail

How the Land O'Lakes Region gets it's name

The trails that we ran were probably only about 10-20% of what is actually there.