After officially taking over the lease on the entire 127-kilometre abandoned rail line stretching Goderich to Guelph from the province on July 1, the G2G Rail Trail organization is busy working towards two more goals on the path to a fully operational, continuous trail from downtown Guelph to the shores of Lake Huron.
![Members of Woolwich Healthy Communities enjoyed the Kissing Bridge Trailway during the G2G fundraiser “Spring on the Trail” back in May. [File Photo]](https://www.observerxtra.com/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/post_g2g.jpg)
By the end of this summer, the group is planning to install way finding signage along the whole line, and before the end of next summer, they are hoping to complete stone dusting and grading for the route that includes the Kissing Bridge Trail here in Woolwich and Wellesley townships.
“July 1 marked the date that we took over the lease, as far as officially taking on the unleased portions of the land between Milbank and Auburn,” G2G executive director Doug Cerson of West Montrose explained. “Up until this point, there were sections in the east and the west ends that were unleased and some smaller portions in municipalities like Blyth and Milverton, and those leases are now under G2G as kind of an oversight group to be able to bring everything together.”
The trail runs along the former Canadian Pacific Railway bed, which was abandoned and turned over to the province in 1988. Since then, numerous steward group have emerged, looking to utilize the trails for hiking, biking and recreational purposes.
The Kissing Bridge Trail group for example, launched in 1998 and has maintained a 45-kilometre stretch from Guelph to Milbank with support from the Elmira and Linwood Lions Clubs, the Conestogo-Winterborne Optimist Club, the Golden Triangle Snowmobile Association and the Guelph Hiking Trail Club.
In the early 1990s, the G2G group was formed to try to connect the Kissing Bridge Trailway with the western portion of the rail line, including the Lake Huron Route and the Perth Harvest Trailway.
But it hasn’t been an easy road. While the rail bed makes for a relatively smooth and ideal trail – the grade doesn’t exceed three degrees – there are several bridges that were destroyed, including a large passage over the Grand River near West Montrose and another over the Conestogo River near Wallenstein that still need to be reconstructed to eliminate major detour routes.
Currently, the Region of Waterloo is working on a $40,000 engineering study at the West Montrose location, with a similar study expected for the Wallenstein bridge in the near future.
Those projects – G2G envisions small suspension-style bridges – could cost some $800,000 each, Cerson said, and the G2G continues to fundraise and look for partnerships with local service clubs and stewardship groups.
Another issue recently spotlighted on local television is that of unhappy property owners, concerned about privacy and trespassing on their farms.
One group in Huron County is planning to raise their concerns to their local council.
Cerson says G2G is always willing to work through issues with property owners, and he urges anyone with concerns to reach out to the group.
“First of all and foremost, the rail line went through their properties approximately 120 years ago and since 120 years ago, those properties have changed hands and those properties, in some cases, are severed by the rail tracks and that is a very small percentage of land,” Cerson said. “That swath of land has been a piece of private land that has been sitting vacant, if it has been unleased, since 1988, which would have been the last time that they had anything go through there. And it’s no different, in our mind, than any other piece of property that is being purchased, you know, you have your private land and I’m moving beside you then I’m your new neighbour. And that’s the approach that we took four years ago by going to Huron and Perth Counties and asking them to make sure to be inclusive with local groups and along the way, starting four years ago, we got representation for the agricultural community landowners association and representation from municipalities and we also formed a working group between Huron and Perth County, by ourselves and the agricultural community and the landowners and some of the municipalities and have already drafted an agreeable plan on how to operate the trailway.”
He continued, “Unfortunately, since the advent of the reality of the lease going in, we have seen a handful of landowners bind together and put a message out there that is opposing the trailway. I don’t know that I can comment accurately because the group hasn’t reached out to us, they have only gone to the media and now they are going to Huron County council to tell their story. We are completely open and transparent and completely welcoming and encouraging to any landowner or any group who has concerns to forward their concerns to us.”
In the meantime, the G2G group will continue installing signs, clearing overgrowth and stone dusting the trail while encouraging Southwestern Ontarians to get outdoors, walking, biking and staying active.
