Small Town Clubs + Outdoor Activities (Small Town: Haliburton, Ontario)
Small Town Natural supports and sponsors several small town clubs + outdoor activities. Located in Haliburton County we have started our 1st year in business giving back to our beloved small town with plans to include and support other small towns in the coming years. Our core values are driven by a sense of community and lending a helping hand to clubs and outdoor activities who share our love of the great outdoors!
In 2023 we sponsored: H.H.N.T.A. (Haliburton Highlands Nordic Trail Association), H.H.L.T. (Haliburton Highlands Land Trust), H.M.B.C. (Haliburton Mountain Bike Club) and have plans to expand our donations and sponsor-ships to help promote small town natural outdoor sports and adventures.
Below we explain what each of these organizations contributes to the betterment of small town active living:
You can help too! With every purchase of Small Town Natural 'HALI ON!' hat and/or sweatshirt $5 will be donated to HHNTA, every Naturally Haliburton Highlands Hat and/or sweatshirt $5 will be donated to HHLT and with every Hali Rocks Hat and/or sweatshirt purchase $5 will be donated to HMBC! These clubs and associations need our monetary help just as much as they need volunteers in order to keep offering these outdoor activities to our community and its visitors. Please help in any way that you can. Before using these trails: Be sure to purchase a membership! Volunteers donate their time but money is needed to pay for club insurance, equipment and maintenance of equipment as well as trail maintenance.
H.M.B.C. Haliburton Mountain Bike Club: https://www.haliburtonmtb.ca/
This club cares for the Glebe Park mtb trail system. Volunteer maintained.
Purchase a membership before riding these trails! To do so visit the above website.
-2 parking lots: 1 located at the very end of Museum Rd. 1 located at the very end of Fleming College Drive. Please visit the signs at entrance from either parking area for trail map and other information.
- 1 washroom is an outhouse style single stall building beside the entrance from Museum Rd. This washroom is municipally cleaned and maintained daily all year round.
- 1 water bottle filling station with a drinking fountain too. This is located in front of the museum entrance. Open from May to October.
- Great signage at every trail head for mtb single track trails!
Approximately 4.5 kms of trail within Glebe park and another approx. 6kms of trail out on the West side. This is a single track trail system with the possibility to ride the fire roads (which are the HHNTA Glebe nordic ski trails in winter). The single track trails are XC style mtb trails with challenging rooty and rocky terrain. This is a great XC skill building trail system. I would not suggest this trail system for anyone who prefers fast and smooth bike park trails that are machine made. These are slow moving in most sections with the occasional downhill to coast. More info to follow in the Spring of 2024.
H.H.N.T.A. Haliburton Highlands Nordic Trail (& Ski Club ) Association: https://www.skihaliburton.com/
You must have purchased a day pass or full membership to use these ski trails! You can do this through the above website or at the trailhead in Glebe park or Moosewoods. See above for the description of facilities (parking, washroom, picnic tables) these trails are located in the same park as the mtb trails.
Below is an excerpt from the Haliburton Highlands Nordic Trail Association's website:
HHNTA is a totally volunteer run organization dedicated to the promotion of Nordic Skiing in the Haliburton Highlands.
Glebe Park: 13.5 kms groomed for skate and classic.
Moosewoods: 12.5 kms groomed for skate and classic.
Twin Lakes: closed for the season. Please respect the fact that this is private property and not open to the public during a logging operation.
Small Town Natural's outdoorsy miss adventurer has been skiing the H.H.N.T.A. ski trails for over 12 years and has found the grooming and conditions updates to be quite regular and very accurate.
Check their website before heading out for your ski! This way you will know when the trails were last groomed and what the opinion of the groomer was of the trail conditions.
Our outdoorsy miss adventures have taken place all over Haliburton County and small towns beyond! The ski trails maintained by H.H.N.T.A. are the best we have experienced within a 1.5 hr driving radius of Haliburton village.
One thing that we find important is that you can count on the grooming to be consistent on H.H.N.T.A. groomed trails. We cannot say this has been the case on trail systems that are not maintained by H.H.N.T.A..
Happy Skiing!
H.H.L.T. Haliburton Highlands Land Trust: https://www.haliburtonlandtrust.ca/
There are two properties protected by the H.H.L.T. that allow public trail use. Both are unique properties consisting of forests and fields and wetlands. These are great places for bird watchers, hikers and snowshoers to immerse themselves in the wilderness of Haliburton County. Enjoy a stroll down these trails and possibly get to see some wildlife too! Please make a donation or adopt an acre through the above website.
Barnum Creek:
https://www.haliburtonlandtrust.ca/our-properties/barnum-creek-nature-reserve/
Location: #1118 Gould Crossing Road (Google Maps mistakenly calls Gould Crossing Road, Cowan Road. There are two signs together on Gelert Road. One says Gould Crossing Road, the other Barnum Creek Nature Reserve.)
7 kms of hiking, cycling, snowshoeing, back country un-groomed ski trails through forests, fields, and wetlands. Please stay on the designated trails this is protected land with fragile ecosystems.
Parking at the trail head in summer months can accommodate approx. 10 cars.
Washrooms (none)
Picnic tables and benches (none)
Garbage bins (none, pack in pack out! This includes doggy poo bags! Even if they are the biodegradable kind!)
We have hiked, cycled and snowshoed at Barnum Creek. Outdoorsy Miss adventures also tried fat biking these trails but found it to be a very frustrating experience. There are not enough snowshoers using these trails in winter to pack down trails enough for fat biking. The trails were too fluffy. This was worse than beach sand for the fat bike.
Also important to note that the parking area in winter is further from the trail head than it is in summer. You will need to park before crossing the Haliburton Rail Trail. This parking area is not marked with a sign but is usually ploughed and an obvious place to park approx. 4 cars. The trail head is then approx. 50 metres from this parking area by walking uphill and around a bend. We do NOT advise you to drive up to the trail head in winter! This road seems to be privately maintained and the uphill bend (corner) is pretty much blind to anyone driving up or down this road. The times that we have used these trails in winter we have found the uphill walk to be very icy.
Be sure to check out the website for Barnum Creek (see above) before you go! There is some very interesting history and other information as well as maps to guide you!
Dahl Forest:
https://www.haliburtonlandtrust.ca/our-properties/dahl-forest/
Location: Turn off of Gelert Rd. onto Geeza Road, Gelert, Township of Minden Hills, County of Haliburton (emergency address= 1307 Geeza Road, Gelert, Minden Hills, Ontario, Canada)
Parking: There is no real parking lot. It is more like a widened turn around at the end of Geeza Rd. So you will be parking along the road with no designated nor marked parking spots. We guesstimate there is parking for 5 or 6 cars. The trail head is less than 5 metres from the parking area.
5 km (7 hiking trails) by the Burnt River
Washrooms (none)
Picnic tables and benches (none)
Garbage bins (none, pack in pack out! This includes doggy poo bags! Even if they are the biodegradable kind!)
No swimming access to the Burnt River. Water is very fast current and inaccessible.
We have hiked and snowshoed at Dahl Forest. Our Outdoorsy Miss Adventures has explored Dahl in all seasons. These are very easy trails to enjoy a relaxing walk. There seems to be a large pinery in this forest but there are also some areas of mixed forest. The above website is very informative and an interesting read. You will also find maps and forest management information on that website.
ALL of these great organizations are examples of small town natural fun filled active living at its best! There are many more organizations and clubs that are great providers of opportunities to enjoy the outdoors in Haliburton Highlands! Small Town Natural will be writing blogs on these various ways to explore on a regular basis!
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