Felhaber-Two Island-Kargas-Fire Tower-Bush Roads

Fire Tower – Sacred Heart – Felhaber Rd. Mountain Bike Loop

Information

GPX File Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t___pAaHfCnbaqPEUYE3JDYiI8KgHBNf/view?usp=sharing

Equipment:

• Suitable for mountain bike or fat bike or hybrid with aggressive tread tires

• Drinking water

• Compass

• Map or GPS with mapping

• Allow about 3 hours for this route     

Cautions:

• Part of this route travels over unmarked forest trails and access roads. You should be confident in your abilities to follow a map and to use a compass if you become lost. While the route is fairly easy to follow there are wrong turns that can be made. Make sure you are dressed for expected weather and that you have let someone not on your ride know where you are going. Cell phone do not work on sections of this route.

• There is nearly always some sort of logging activity in this area and they tend to make their own roads. If you find yourself at the end of a trail that just seems to disappear, you have made a wrong turn and you need to go back to the last place where you knew you were on the right track. ALSO if there is logging in the area they usually post signs to be aware of logging trucks. Listen for them and if one comes along, move off the road until they pass. It does not happen very often.

Directions: (From Felhaber Road start)

• (Driving)From the Opeongo Road in the vicinity of Lake Clear follow the Baptist Church Road to the Y intersection where you will take a right hand turn onto Felhaber Rd. Follow it to where it narrows to a single wheel track just past a yellow farm house. A few metres further on here will be a gated road on your left. Just past this is place where you can pull off the wheel track and park. Make sure you are completely off the traveled track.

• (Bicycle)From this starting point head north back along Felhaber Rd. through the Y intersection and left onto Baptist Church Rd. Shortly past the church on your left is the beginning of the Perry Sound Trail. Follow this rough trail to its end where it intersects Rosine Rd.

• Turn left onto Rosine Rd. and ride to the intersection with Fire Tower Rd. (There is another parking area at this location if you drive in on Rosine Rd.) Turn left onto Fire Tower Rd. After a down hill and short up hill section you will see the intersection with a private logging road. Stay straight ahead onto the more narrow Fire Tower Rd. for about 9 kms. After crossing a bridge over Little Enens Creek you will come to the intersection with Sacred Heart Rd.

• Turn left onto Sacred Heart Rd. and follow it to where it narrows to a wheel track just past a farm house on the right. You will follow the trail up a hill to where it will make a sharp turn to the right. (There is a gated trail straight ahead. This is private so stay out) After turning to the right the trail turns sharply left and heads downhill to a junction with another trail. You want to follow the trail to the right. It may be muddy but the mud does not extend more than a few metres. This trail will come out to a clearing that was used as a log dump. Here you want to turn to your left and follow the trail that goes off in that direction. This section ends at the junction with a wider and more heavily used gravel road that is shown on some maps as an extension of Kargas Rd. (Look for the bicycle in the tree)

• Turn left onto Kargas Rd. (There is no road sign) and follow it to where it ends at its intersection with Two Island Lake Rd. (Again, no road sign) Turn left onto this gravel road and go a short distance to the north where Two Island Lake Rd. makes a turn to the right. STOP.

• At this point you want to stay straight ahead onto the less traveled and more narrow trail that leads north. This is an extension of Felhaber Rd. You will follow it mostly uphill to the location where you parked. (or continue to Fire Tower Rd. if you parked there using the directions at the beginning of this description.)

• In a few kilometers be careful NOT TO FOLLOW a trail that branches off of this portion of Felhaber Rd. on the right and that goes eastwards to Highland Lake. Aside from this one possible wrong turn the trail back to the top of the mountain and the parking spot is fairly easy to follow.