THAT'S A WRAP! KATVA 2022 SEASON

THAT’S AWRAP! KATVA 2022 Riding Sea son

By Carolyn Richards katva.ca

It’s a wrap! The 2022 riding season is over for most ATV, SxS and dirt bike owners in the Kawartha Lakes. As of December 1st the shared trails are turned over to the snowmobile clubs to get ready for their riding season and the KATVA and KORMA volunteers take a much needed rest over the winter. It’s been one of the best riding seasons in Kawartha Lakes but the same can’t be said for some of our neighbouring riding areas such as the Ganaraska Forest.

After the Derecho swept through the area back in May, the Ganaraska Forest was left devastated and the unimaginable happened, a riders life was lost in the forest during the storm. An indescrib able amount of damage was done with trees cov ering most of the trails and forest access roads. As forest staff and contracted logging companies worked to assess the damage and start the cleanup, it was clear that the forest would not open back up for most of the 2022 riding season. Eventually the Ganaraska staff reopened some trails to current members as of September 30th, but the trails were very limited and almost no single-track trails were reopened. It was mainly forest access roads that were cleared. The work continues in the forest and the forest staff have a cleanup and restoration plan that they are working with. It’s hopeful that most trails will be reopened in time for the 2023 riding season, and we want to thank the Ganaraska staff for all their hard work over the past 6 months.

We understand the challenges facing them. The KATVA trails in the 5 Points were hit with several microbursts during a major storm back in 2011 so we understand the work involved in safely clean ing up the debris from the storm. We had sever al people trapped in their hunt camps after the storm who had no way of getting out without us

clearing the trails to reach them. The first day of the cleanup it took crews 8 hours to clear 1.5 kms of trail. In the 5 points we are dealing with much larger, older trees. Some of the trees that came down were 5 to 8 feet in diameter. It took many weeks and several volunteer crews working every day to work their way through the trail system to open all the trails back up. This was the first time that all the trail users worked together. We met at the Tim Hortons in Bobcaygeon every morning to map out where we were going to send the crews that day. We called in volunteers from the OF4WD, the local snowmobile clubs, KATVA and HATVA to help clear the trails. This built the foundation of an ongoing stewardship agreement between these organizations that has lasted 11 years now and will hopefully continue as long as there are trails. We accomplish so much more when we work as a team.