South March Highlands Beaver Pond Paths and Trillium Woods Trail

The clearcut and destruction of the Beaver Pond Forest by KNL/Urbandale means that the dirt mountain biking trails such as the Lost and Found trails, behind the Goulbourn Forced Road (GFR) parking lot in the South March Highlands (SMH), will be destroyed forever. The land is already posted with No Trespassing signs and most of the access is fenced off awaiting blasting for the construction of roads and ticky tacky subdivision houses.


Fortunately the lands north of the rail line are in the protected city-owned Trillium Woods. The Trillium Woods Trail is comprised of natural dirt trails west of GFR, including a trail up to Terry Fox Drive providing access to the SMH Conservation Forest trails, also on protected city-owned land. The Trillium Woods Trail is a beginner level mountain biking trail.

The Trillium Woods Trail continues on the east side of GFR where it is primarily a gravel path that previously connected to the path from the Beaver Pond parking lot to the GFR parking lot as well as to a path along the rail line. These connections have now been fenced off with no trespassing signs. However, when I mapped the trails/paths vigilante residents had opened up the connections, including cutting through the wire gate at one point. The section of Trillium Woods Trail from near the bridge on the gravel path southwest to GFR is also a dirt trail but is usually very muddy in sections in the spring and after heavy rainfalls.

The gravel path from the Beaver Pond parking lot to the GFR parking lot follows a narrow corridor. Although this is a just a gravel path it does have it's challenges due to several hills, including some very steep sections (see altitude profile below). When I mapped the path it clearly had been allowed to deteriorate with quite a bit of erosion on the steep sections.


As you will see from the map, what were interconnected paths are now three unconnected paths. Note that on the map the permanent sections of trail and paths are indicated in red. The blue section, that has been opened up by vigilante residents, goes through the Zone of Destruction and is subject to permanent closure at any time.

GPS gpx Files

The gpx file for this trail system (and other trail systems) can be downloaded by clicking the link below:

GPX files - Google Docs

If you do download the gpx file please email me at richardw.woodley@gmail.com and let me know so that I have an idea of how many people are downloading and using the files.

Posted 2011-05-22
Updated 2010-10-04