Falling Leaves and Upsizing Tires - Season Change in Ontario’s Cottage Country

As far as seasons go, fall’s perfect qualities for mountain biking can't be disputed. Cool days, bug-free, and oh so visually gratifying. But the window into the best of fall is a fleeting beast, it can last as little as a few days, a couple of weeks at most. Sure you can take your chances and chase the colour show all over the continent but the expression, “The grass is alway greener somewhere else,” does not necessarily apply when the grass turns brown. Sometimes your best chance to enjoy a ride during fall’s best is to keep it in your own backyard. With the Canadian Thanksgiving long weekend providing an extra day for play, we strap our two wheelers onto the four wheeler and point it north. A couple of hours from home, the Muskoka region of Ontario is no slouch when it comes to fall colour, in fact judging by the bus loads of selfie stick touting tourists it’s quite a hot spot. For us, the fall spectacle is just a well-appreciated backdrop but with three trail networks to explore it’s all about the ride.


Buckwallow Cycling Centre
I can’t believe that it’s been two and a half decades since my first ride at Buckwallow and a few years since my last, things have changed but not really. Sure there are more trails and better facilities but the roots and rocks look just as they did twenty-five years ago, tangled, dark, and slick. Back then I was in the company of friends, all of us in the discovery phase of mountain biking, before families, mortgages, and careers. Now I’m back in the company of my teenage offspring, who at the ripe age of fifteen, is already a better rider than his old man, and I wouldn't have it any other way. The 30 kilometres of trail is well laid out, mapped and rated in difficulty, and it goes from flow to, ‘oh crap’. Yep, it’s as good as I remember and now seeing the smile on my son’s face after a rip through the trails, makes it even better.




Owner Mike McLaughlin and crew have buffed the 500-acre chunk of Canadian Shield into one of a well-known trail system in the province. Their efforts go way beyond the trails, wash station, change rooms, a fire pit with all you can eat marshmallows, and the sit, relax, stay a while atmosphere definitely leaves an impression. Mike is a big part of the Buckwallow experience, most days you will find him hanging out in the parking lot as the official meet and greet ambassador, on a first name basis with the regulars and willing to talk bikes and trails with all, a trait that is most appreciated when you already have 30 kilometres of trail in your legs, a lunch in the belly and it’s time to head out for another lap; you can call it conversation or procrastination depending on your energy level.




Porcupine Ridge
Challenging times make the best memories, that’s what I keep telling myself every time I ride Porcupine Ridge. Perhaps the most tightly woven collection of roots and rocks in Ontario, it will have you cursing on the way up, whooping on the way down, and puckering up when things get steep. This is not a trail that should be measured in distance but in the effort—you will finish tired, sweaty, and likely bleeding, but by the time the first round of recollections is done around the campfire, you will be ready to go back. We met up with a couple of locals including Peter DeMos, owner of Liv Outside in Bracebridge, and fatbike connoisseur, to show us around. The trail is well marked but with the fresh blanket of leaves it’s nice to just follow some local knowledge. Though a dual sprung enduro type of mountain bike would be my tool of choice to deal with the trail imperfection, I walked away with a new respect for the fatbike and its wheel’s ability to roll over anything in their way.




Torrance Barrens
Welcome to the epic landscape that is the Torrence Barrens. The loop is about 10 km and intermediate skill at best, but it’s what’s beneath the wheels that keep us coming back. The trail traverses exposed slabs of the Canadian Shield, stunted vegetation, and skirts sparkling lakes, an experience like nothing else in the area. I always set off with a plan to do a couple quick laps and make it about the ride, but the scenery always wins and it becomes more about hanging out than hammering. The trail can be ridden on any bike but the constant rock crawling and spongy tundra like dirt makes it perfect fatbike fodder.



This is Muskoka cottage country where a garage for your boat can set you back a million bucks, so a fine meal is not hard to find, but all our “where should we eat?” inquires pointed us to the Grilliciouse Gourmet Food truck. Thanks to a nine degree celsius October day and being way past the summer tourist season, we are the first and only in line. I must say the people know what they speak of; the burger was top rate and the truck’s location in the parking lot of Sawdust City, one of the area’s stellar craft beer breweries—what can I say, perfect. As for accommodations and dining, you can get as fancy as your wallet will allow. We opted for parking the pop-up trailer at the local KOA, which just happens to be behind the Buckwallow Trail Centre and most of our meals were trailside, coming in a wrapper that promised endless energy.



The idea of far flung destinations might fuel the mountain biking passion but it’s the local trails that keep the fire smouldering. With today’s social media driven frenzy of showing off everything everywhere, it is easy to get caught up in the "wish I was there" mentality, forgetting that there is plenty of green grass to be had right in our own backyard. Spending less time getting there and more time being there is a win-win equation for good times.