GORBA opens 2024/2025 mountain biking winter loops

Get your studded and fat tires ready, because the Guelph Off-Road Bicycling Association (GORBA) has officially opened its mountain biking winter loops for the season. 

There are 500 acres of mountain biking trails near Guelph Lake, but mountain biking is a more specific activity in the winter, said GORBA president Lorenz Calcagno.  

“Just because the snow is here, doesn’t mean we stop riding,” he said. “People will put studded tires or use what’s called a fat tire – a bike tire with a much larger, wider width, so it’s better in snow and ice. So we put together three routers through the whole system, specifically for winter riding.”

While the entire trail system is open year-round, these three specific loops (and a few select others) are maintained throughout the season by GORBA volunteers, by dragging an old car tire while walking with snowshoes on to flatten the snow so it’s easier to cycle on.

The network of trails has been there since 1992. But the winter loops, all nested within the same trail, are changed each year and see hundreds of cyclists every winter season. 

“It's a unique route each time,” he said. “We just change it up to make it different.”

This is in part because some parts of the trails aren’t easily accessible during the winter – for instance, it can be hard to bike up a slippery hill. They’ll also direct people away from wet areas in the winter. 

The longest is 10KM, and the shortest is 4.5 KM. They’re marked by coloured medallions. 

“The shortest one is just a shortcut of the long one,” he said, so if you’re tackling the long or medium trail and have had enough, you can follow the blue medallions to get home faster.

Loops are to be ridden in one direction. Trail conditions are frequently posted here.  All the loops start and end at the Farmstead Junction, at the north end of Middle Ground. 

Those interested can become members to support the maintenance of the trail system when membership opens up again in January. 

“It’s not funded any other way but through membership and donation,” he said. “It doesn’t matter whether they’re mountain bikers, we have a substantial amount of hikers who are members, because we have crews that maintain the trails out there every single week.” 

Calcagno said there are rules to keep in mind on the trail, the primary one being “to be nice to each other.” 

“You’ll have a nicer day because of it,” he said.