24
|
SPRING
2016
THE
LONG
AND
WINDING
TRAIL
Words | Photos | Tom Hakala
Whenever I ridemybike
along the
newly paved section of the Tom Thomson
Trail inOwenSound, I am transportedback
to the timewhenagroup Iwaspartof, started
building this first section of trail, and how
proudandoptimisticwewereof this accom-
plishment. That first sectionwasdedicatedon
June27,2004,but itactually tookover three
years just toget to thatmilestone. I remember
our chairperson, RuthAnnEnglish, confiding
in me that when she took on that role as a
“Millennium Project” she thought it would
take about three years to complete the trail
fromOwenSound toMeaford.Now—almost
15years later—wearestillat it.Wearenotas
naive aswewere back then but are still just
asdetermined to finishwhatwe started.
Youmaybeasking,why is this trail taking so
long tobuild?The short answer is this route is
known as the “Missing Link”. Trails like the
Georgian Trail hadan abandoned rail-bed
tobuildon,but therewasnevera railwaycon-
nectingMeafordandOwenSound.
Except for the abovementioned first section
(which is on theCP rail-bed)most of the trail
had tobe constructedonunopened roadal-
lowances,alonghydrocorridorsaswellas lit-
tleused side roads. Because that first section
did followan abandoned rail-bed it proved
to be a wise starting point. If we had at-
tempted to tackle someof themorechalleng-
ing routesweprobablywouldhavegivenup
longago.
The initial idea for a trail betweenMeaford
andOwen Sound came from a trail master
plan that was drawn up by the BruceGrey
Trail Network (now known as the Bruce
County Trail Network). In 2001 the BGTN
heldameeting inOwenSoundandasked in-
terestedpeople toattend. RuthAnn English
andRandyWright were the first members of
our team. They then solicited friends andac-
quaintances anda core groupwas formed:
AnnWest, BillAbbotts, Terryand JackieMy-
land,Gerry Thiel andmyself.Weheldmeet-
ingsanddevelopedaplan.
We hireda consultant toanalyzewhere the
trail might go, and how to fundandbuild it.
We laiddownsomebasiccriteria for the trail;
firstofall that itbeanon-motorized, familyori-
ented trail with three basic users: hikers, cy-
clistsandequestrians.
At first we called it the Owen Sound to
Meaford Recreational Trail—a long, bland,
awkward and obvious name. So a “Name
the Trail” contest was born. Not onlywould
we find somethingmore suitable, but it could
garner someattention toour trail.Oneofour
trailgroupmembers,RuthSturley,got in touch
with JimMerriam at the Sun Times. Jim pro-
moted thecontest inhis“FunnyFarm”column.
Thecontestwasahugehit.We receivedhun-
dredsof submissionsand the trailgroupspent
hoursgoingovereachone.As thenightwore
on the names seemed to be getting more
bizarre.
