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OCTRA Equestrian Event Notice

Hi everyone! Just a note to let everyone know that there is an OCTRA equestrian event happening this weekend (May 18th-22nd).  They will be camped out in the field to the south.  They will be using the equestrian trails throughout the entire Forest during all times of the day for the weekend. The cycling trail crosses the equestrian trail at several places so please exercise extreme caution at these intersections. If you are the lead rider please make it your responsibility to ensure the safety of all users and yield at these crossings. If you have a bell (personally I believe everyone should in a multi-use forest environment) give it a quick ring when approaching intersections. If you do come upon an equestrian speak up so the horse can recognize you as a person.

I imagine with rain tomorrow the trails will be busy for everyone over the weekend. Please remember as cyclists we are required to give way to equestrians. As always be friendly and I would anticipate that you will be received well.  Cooperation as always is the key to everyone experiencing a harmonious enjoyable day in the Forest!

Enjoy the trails, thanks to the efforts of many, they are in excellent condition! See you out there.

Upcoming Ride Guide

Good morning All,

rides for the week have been added to the calendar.

Cheers

Ford key fob

Hey everyone (or at least all Ford owners!). Steve has found a Ford key fob in the Main Tract parking lot. If you may know who it belongs to you can contact me through the “Contact” tab.

Monday Ride 1:30pm

I’m planning on heading out Monday to Dufferin at 1:30. Thinking of a bit of a longer ride (20-25km?). After the rain yesterday the trails should be awesome and the Forest should be super alive and green.  Keep your eye out as the trilliums are coming out!

See you!

Caledon Cycling Club Donation

This is long overdue…

3 weeks ago I met with Mike from the Caledon Cycling Club at Albion Hills before their spring BBQ. Mike had previously contacted me regarding some equipment that the club had decided to donate to TVG.

I must put out a very large thank you out to Mike and all the members of the Caledon Cycling Club for the contribution to us. They donated a chainsaw and three weed whippers (which are set up with blades perfect for those raspberry bushes that are starting and after the “wind storm” the extra chainsaw came in handy! ) to the TVG cause of keeping the trails in the Dufferin Forest always safe and ready to ride. We are a small club with financing for our endeavours based on our generous donations so this is an amazing contribution to us. It’s ironic that we have been using our own personal chainsaws and weed whippers to do trail work so it’s nice to now have “club tools”.

So next time you see anyone out there from the Caledon Cycling Club please say thanks as this is a very major contribution to us.

Thanks to everyone at the Caledon Cycling Club!

Shelburne Heritage Music Festival – The Trews

For anyone who is a Trews fan, they are coming to Shelburne! Yes Shelburne (Ontario).

Click the below for all the details.

Date:  August 10th, 2018

The Trews

Team Colin – 8hr Blog

As always Colin does an amazing write-up on his experiences at races.

The 8hr was no exception.

66. Spring Epic 8 Hour

Spring Epic 8hr – Race Report

This past weekend, was the Spring Epic 8hr hosted by Chico Racing, held at the Mansfield Outdoor Center.   As always, it is an amazing event, great atmosphere, and using some fantastic trails.

Team Van Go had 4 teams entered into the event, plus Solo Lee.  Everyone had a great time, but for the race report, it will be focused on the team of Tyler, Johnny, Chris and Heather, mainly because that was my focus over the course of the day.

Out first for us was Mr. Chris, who was our speedster, and laid down an awesome lap to put us in contention right off the start.  The first lap is always the toughest, you get a lot of traffic, and a lot of bottle necking in the single track, but if you are like Chris, you can get out front early, to avoid some of the headaches.   Heather was next out, followed by Johnny, then Tyler as the anchor.

Now you are probably thinking, 8hrs of racing must be a long time, but the time flies by so fast, that after you finish your lap and get settled, you are almost having to get ready to go again.  The lap length was roughly 9.5km, and we were averaging 30min laps, which for us made it really easy to figure out when the person came in and when the next person needed to get ready to go.  The course layout was similar to years past, starting with the climb from the outdoor center up the double track, that everyone dreads.  Then a little bit more double track, then the fun begins on some fast flowing singletrack.  The course was set up so nicely, that the first 5-6km seemed like nothing, it went by so fast, but then, dun dun dun, you get to the solo pit area, knowing what was up ahead.  The Kijiji kilometer, then the punchy singletrack climbs… Surprisingly though, it could have been the off season training, or knowing what was coming, but it didn’t feel that bad at all this year.  Sure the legs were screaming, the lungs were burning, you were cursing yourself, but it seemed to be okay.  Then the final decent, down to the start finish, down Exit wound.  A really fun, switchback descend, that makes sure  you stay on your toes.  All in all I personally would have to say it was one of the most fun 8hr courses there has been, so again a huge thank you to Adam Ruppel and the Chico Racing folks for doing what they do best!!!!

What is nice about these races is you get the chance to see familiar faces and have chats with people along the trail.  Some crazy folks out there doing solo, such as Team Colin, who was rocking a geared bike for half then a single speed for the second half of his solo effort.  That man is an awesome machine!!!!!  Check out his website, I’m 99.999% sure he will have an awesome write-up coming soon.  https://teamcolinblog.wordpress.com/

Other crazy solo riders, were Mark McIssac from Bike Zone, who was always smiling and having a great time! Then if lucky enough some of the other Team Van Go riders you would catch or see on course.  Always fun to come up behind someone you know, it gives you that extra bit of energy that you needed!

At the end of the day our team had completed 16 laps in 8hrs 15min and 45sec, which was good enough to place us 2nd in our category out of 20 teams.  Not going to lie, it felt really good to do that well!  All 4 of us were pretty close in laps times, and everyone stayed very consistent, and other than Chris having a slight mishap with a tree breaking a brake, we all survived and smiles all around.

Overall, the team van go teams did amazing!

Team Van Go awesome:  14 laps, 11th Place out of 27, 8hrs, 12 min – Chris, Andrew, Tyler, Craig

Wolf Pack:  14 laps, 9th Place out of 20, 8hrs 16min – Monika, Scott, Taylor, Andy

Team Van go EVST:  14 laps, 10th Place out of 20, 8hrs, 25min – Eric, Vince, Shawna, Dan

All results are posted:

http://www.timeral.info/Archive/SpringEpic8Hr2018.html#Cat4s13

Upcoming Ride Guide

Good morning All,

Rides for the week have been posted up to the Calendar.

Cheers

Looking for Epic 8 teammate

Shawna’s team is looking for one more teammate to complete their epic 8 team. As always, it’s all about the fun! If you are interested let her know or me through the “Contact” tab. Should be a great day.

Upcoming Ride Guide

Good morning all,

Wednesday night ride is posted to the calendar.

Cheers

Trail Clean Up Morning May 7th

Hello all. Quite the weekend windstorm and with that comes debris on trails and quite a number of downed trees as well out in Dufferin Forest.

A group is heading out tomorrow morning (May 7th) meeting at 9am in the main parking lot to start the clean up process. Sorry for the last minute notice but this just came together recently. There are at least 8 trees down across the trail and lots of small debris. We will be able to provide transport to the work sites and have 3 chainsaws, rakes, weed whipper and a leaf blower going out as well as some hand tools. If you happen to be able to make it and wish to help please e-mail me tonight before 9pm so we can be organized for tomorrow.

Please also be advised that you must be a member of Team Van Go and have a waiver filled out to be covered by our insurance for trail maintenance and to participate. Here is the link to the waiver…print it off, fill it out and bring it along tomorrow.

http://www.imbacanada.com/sites/default/files/imba_canada_waiver-1.pdf

The work is all part of having the privilege of using this lovely Forest! Enjoy the day.

OTRA Equestrian Event May 4-6

Hi everyone, please be aware that there is an equestrian event happening this weekend in the Main Tract. OTRA will be there May 4th to the 6th and will be conducting various rides throughout the weekend.

Please exercise caution while out there this weekend. Pay extra attention when crossing the equestrian trails as not to surprise an equestrian and their horse. If you come upon someone, please stop and speak up so the horse will become aware that you are present. If you ride with a bell, a quick ring as you are approaching the crossings would also be a good idea to alert riders. Visibility is quite good at the moment as there are no leaves on the trees so wearing bright colours would help the equestrians see you as well. As always be courteous and friendly.

Between everyone cooperating and paying attention I’m sure everyone will have an uneventful enjoyable weekend. It’s all about mutual understanding and respect for each other.

Enjoy your time in the Forest.

Three Stages Trail Meeting

Good day everyone. Our good friends in the Collingwood area are having a meeting on Monday with Ontario Parks to discuss the trails at Three Stages.

If you have never ridden there you should try it out someday as they are some of the best trails in the area with a great combination of technical (read rocky!) and flowier (is that a word??) trails. Some awesome climbs which means awesome descents and great views as well. Finish the day in Collingwood at one of many fine establishments for post-ride snacks and refreshments and you can’t help but have a great day!

Anyway, Ontario Parks is looking for input from the public and is holding a meeting Monday night in Nottawa. If you can attend to show your support that would be great. We where meant to R.S.V.P. by May 3rd (oops) but hopefully we could still do that today and still be received. Attached is the notice that was posted (thanks Bernie). I believe Bernie has posted this on the Facebook page as well (I’m not on Facebook so I can’t view or contribute to the contents of that site, so I though I should post it here as well for us non-“Bookers”.)

Have a great day everyone, Johnny

Double click on the notice and it should expand for easier reading!

Waivers, Insurance and other stuff

Happy Spring! With spring brings the annual requirement for waiver completion for the year as our insurance policy payment is now due. Same routine as previous years. As we require insurance, our insurance company requires everyone that comes on group rides or participates in trail work to complete a waiver. If you are a member of TVG then you only need to do this once annually. How to become a member hasn’t changed…still no mandatory fee prescribed, just what you feel like. We get donations from $5 and up and we appreciate every one of them!

2017 was a very busy year, lots of trail maintenance to clean up after logging, a couple trail reroutes and some new equipment acquired to help us all out cleaning up out there. The addition of our winter “groomers” (as well as a heap of work from everyone out there) helped us keep 14km of single track in great shape for winter fat biking. Overall 2017 was a great year and your donations help this along every step of the way and we thank everyone for that.

2018…We are off to a great start. Trails are in amazing shape, some clean up required but nothing too serious. We already have our land use agreement in place for the neighboring “Toss Tract” in Simcoe County and it’s a good thing as it had some pretty serious logging go on last fall.  This will require a bit of effort to clean up so we will likely arrange something in the near future. Good news if that we may not see much logging in Dufferin this year. The last few years kept us quite busy keeping up with trail work afterwards but I must commend the logging companies and our County Forest Manager as going out on site visits with them before they started and marking the trail proved to be very beneficial.

Lots of fun stuff on the go for 2018, stay tuned!

We have already been receiving donations even before they were required so thank you to everyone who has already helped out. If you would like to contribute use the “Donate” icon to the right. The link to the waiver is below (please read thoroughly and sign, initial and witness in appropriate spots). You can give them to either Tyler or Johnny.

2018 should be great! See you on the trails and enjoy your time in the woods.

http://www.imbacanada.com/sites/default/files/imba_canada_waiver-1.pdf