Ravenshoe – MTB Trail

Length – 15 km

50% MTB single track
30% hiking trail
20% double track access roads

Elevation – a flat square forest tract with lots of small and medium climbs

Terrain – loam, sandy spots, some gravel, can be muddy, a few wide hiking paths with excellent twisty MTB trail, many log jumps and ramps

Skill – Easy to advanced

Traffic – Popular spot on weekend with MTB riders, and a few hikers and dog walkers.

Trail Pass – free

Facilities – limited parking, two lots

Highlights –  So much twisty track in such a small area. Flowy trail and new boardwalks!

Maps – Map board at trailhead with well marked signposts on loops.

Phone – none

Website – York Region

Similar Trails – Dagmar, Albion Hills, Puslinch,

Local Clubs – Durham Mountain Bike Association

Trailhead – most riders enter where the map is on McCowan Rd. side and ride the loops clockwise, another entry point is on the northwest side

Directions – Hwy 404 north, exit Green Lane, east to Woodbine Ave, north 5 km to Ravenshoe Road, east 9 km to McCowan Rd., south 600 m, parking on the right.

Ravenshoe, as MTB riders affectionately call it—it’s officially called the Brown Hill Tract—offers a lot of thrills packed into just a 1-sq-km woodlot.

It’s truly an exercise in how much twisty, gnarly trail can be squeezed into such a small space. Amazingly, most of the nine loops are somehow one to three kilometres in length.

The trail builders certainly made an effort to pick some of the craziest, twistiest insanity they could conjure up, and it works!

This is totally a technical ride. Beyond the twisty track are log hops, some large and boardwalks to maneuver. Some boardwalks are nice and skinny, the way we like them. Most of the wooden structures have been replaced, after many years of precarious use, by a dedicated lot in the DMBA club.

Most of the trails are a slow ride, more for the technical types, not for speed demons, though there are moments when a quick blast down a slope or heading along the access roads will get you moving.

You’ll find the elevation is flat, barely changing ’til it goes up on the west side. It is though still lumpy terrain were trails follow up over around these mounds while negotiating the trees and root clusters. Many quick 90 pivots, 180 turns and wriggles through narrow tree openings will keep you focused.

The level areas are super-muddy when it has rained, and greasy to the point you could fly off your pony. Here, where it does not drain well, the mosquitoes are going to feast on you if it is a wet summer. Up by the pines, the soil changes to a sandy base that can slow you down.

The hardest (= best, most fun) runs are Big Meany (2.6 km) and…

Read more of this review in my MTB guidebook with better topo maps and riding tips, plus 54 others. Available as an eBook or paperback.