Please see TRAIL CONDITIONS for the current list of MTA trail closures. Stay safe, and keep at least 2m distance.

A note from Jacqui….   Hi Everyone!   I am the Chair of the AGM, and lets just say, its been a learning experience so far!   In order to maintain our status as aContinue reading

Hi All Until further notice, all MTA hikes and events are cancelled. Here is the latest information from the Province.  Our trails will be maintained at a minimum level to maintain safety. There may beContinue reading

This tree was unusual as it joined itself together again to make a D The Friday hike had 18 out despite the cold (-15o C) weather. We hiked the Maitland Trail from Auburn.   At oneContinue reading

On our Friday hike on Feb 7th at Exeter we were rewarded by having a fairly close view of a pair of bald eagles, one flying and one perched on a nearby tree until itContinue reading

Good Afternoon Everyone  Apparently there has been some misinformation floating around and we’d like to correct it: The Town of Goderich *IS* contributing to the Maitland Woods Bridge and Boardwalk Repair Project – 2 steelContinue reading

On Sunday February 2nd the Maitland trail hike at Hullett had a much smaller turnout than the previous week’s outing, with only two snowshoers and one skier.  Perhaps it was the Super Bowl or theContinue reading

On Sunday Jan 26th the Maitland trail hike at Sheppardton tract had the largest turn out I can remember (other than the Camino and candlelit events). Due to the mild weather the trail was unusuallyContinue reading

This was an interesting week with Sunday Jan 19th  being the time to dust off the snowshoes and join the snowmobilers. The 13 LIFE hikers ventured out on Friday Jan 17th to hike the SugarContinue reading

Sunday Jan 26, 1:30pm The entrance to Sheppardton Tract is located at 911 #82782 on the right hand side of  Hwy 21 If you are heading north from Goderich, it’s past Point Farms between MarketContinue reading

Red is a favourite colour in the Christmas season, which made me think about when I have seen that bright red along the trails. My first thoughts were high bush cranberry berries and rose hipsContinue reading

The forecast for the coming winter is for a mild one which may mean that we will have a lot of lake effect snow, which will make hiking easier with skis or snowshoes. I tookContinue reading

Our Friday hike (Nov 29th) at Varna and Bannockburn was blessed with ice free trails. Chewy when on the bridge at Bannockburn got too close to the edge and before I could pull him backContinue reading

Have you been enjoying the winter reprieve?  On the Thursday (Nov 21st) hike at Lobbs there was only a little snow and we caught sight of a fox ,which I don’t remember seeing at LobbsContinue reading

Winter has arrived a bit early this year so it is a good time to think about icers. Do you remember how slippery trails and pavements were last year? The demand for the Lee ValleyContinue reading

The past week we had quite a wind, this resulted in nearly all the rest of the apples falling off the trees and many of the autumn leaves are now carpeting the trails.  I noticedContinue reading

On the Friday hike we saw an interesting mushroom at Naftel’s which I think is a panther.  Later that day on the Front road trail I saw a rabbit which was the first time IContinue reading

Save the date…

On the Thursday hike we saw an American toad which was rather lethargic in the cool morning.  I noticed a shrub at the top of the hill in the Falls Reserve that had a lotContinue reading

On Friday when the LIFE hikers hiked the Bannockburn and Taylor and Mavis trail the windfall had been cleared .  We also met the hard working Bayfield River Trail Association work crew. On Saturday OctContinue reading

On Friday October 4th Chewy celebrated his 13th birthday on what I believe is his favourite trail – Lobbs.  The advantages of this trail for him are –          Many places to stop and have aContinue reading

As we grow older we suffer a decline in mental and physical fitness, which can be made worse by conditions like Alzheimer’s disease. A new study, published in the open-access journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, showsContinue reading

The featured photo is of hikers at the Cherrydale bridge on Sept 14th Last week just having written about not seeing any puff balls I saw one which was about 7 inch across, on checkingContinue reading

This is one of the best times of the year for hiking. If any bighting insects are around they are few and far between and we are unlikely to have any more unbearably hot daysContinue reading

This week was hard on Chewy. My hike on the Woodlands Nature trail resulted in him picking up over 150 small burrs, which fortunately were easy , though time consuming to remove.  On our FridayContinue reading

For some reason trail talk 81 was not published in the Signal Star. To see it go to the Maitland Trail Website www.maitlandtrail.ca On the Tuesday Tromp on the Hullett dyke, as well as myContinue reading

Sometimes errors occur between my submission and printing.  In Trail talk 79 the error was mine, the lengths of the mulberries, of course, should be in inches not feet! Hard to imagine a mulberry overContinue reading

The Featured trail this week is the Goderich to Auburn Rail Trail (G.A.R.T.) (13A in the Huron County Hiking Guide.) The GART is there for the benefit of the whole community to enjoy hiking, runningContinue reading

The featured trail this week is the Maple Keys Sugar Bush Trail (#4 in the Huron County Hiking Guide editions of 2006,2010, 2013). This trail is not in the 2016 edition of the Guide. TheContinue reading

The featured trail this week is the Wingham Community trail (#1 in the Huron County Hiking Guide).  The trail starts at a parking lot on Josephine Street across from the old railway station, and nextContinue reading

The featured trail this week is the Goderich Waterfront Boardwalk  trail (#6 in the Huron County Hiking Guide).  The trail starts at the bottom of West Street and goes for about 1.5 km to RotaryContinue reading

The featured trail this week is the Goderich Millennium trail (#11 in the Huron County Hiking Guide).  The trail starts at Highway 21 just south of the bridge over the Maitland River, and ends atContinue reading

The featured trail this week is the MacNaughton-Morrison Trail, Exeter (#26 in the Huron County Hiking Guide).  The trail starts at the parking area in MacNaughton park at the end of Hill Street. The trailContinue reading

The featured trail this week is the Morrison Dam Conservation Area trail (#27 in the Huron County Hiking Guide).  The trail starts at the parking lot on Morrison Line ( East of Exeter) and justContinue reading

The featured trail this week is the part of the Maitland Trail (#13 in the Huron County Hiking Guide) at the end near Auburn.-Map #7 in the Maitland Trail Guide.  The trail ends at theContinue reading

The high winds on Sunday February 25th were one of the few occasions where I did not venture out with Chewy after lunch.  There are a lot of small branches on the trails. At Naftel’sContinue reading

The featured trail this week is the Lobb Trail.(#15 in the Huron County Hiking Guide) This is one of my favourite trails. There is an upper and lower trail with five cut offs between theContinue reading

The featured trail this week is the Maitland Cemetery Trail ( #7 in the Huron County Hiking Guide).  This trail at the North end of the cemetery was severely damaged by the 2011 tornado, andContinue reading

The trail featured this week is the Falls Reserve (#4 in the 2016 Huron Hiking Guide, #5 in the 2013 guide.  The Falls Reserve Conservation area has a number of trails, including about 2.4 kmContinue reading

The featured trail this week is the Front Road Trail. The trail is on the West side of Front Road between the Bayield river and the Railroad tracks. (Front Road is the 1st South offContinue reading

The featured trail this week is Point Farms Provincial Park (#6 in the Hiking Guide). The hike on Sunday afternoon on November 4th was well attended by 19 hikers and three dogs who enjoyed aContinue reading

The featured trail this week is Naftel’s Creek Conservation Area maintained by Maitland Valley Conservation Authority (#12 in the Huron County Hiking Guide). This is one of the trail gems of Huron County. It hasContinue reading

On my evening walk on the Woodlands Arboretum trail, where the trail skirts one of the greens there were about 100 Shaggy Mane mushrooms at the edge of the green. The monarch butterflies have allContinue reading

On Saturday I hiked down the Black Hole road hill to River Bend. The pond is usually empty of birds but that day there were over 100 Canada geese on the pond. Along the roadContinue reading

I went back into Morris Tract on Friday afternoon and was grateful to find my lost pruners lying on the trail. As I hiked on the trail a black squirrel ran across the trail andContinue reading

The Maitland El Camino was again a success with 277 participants who enjoyed great weather and near perfect trail conditions on Saturday. On Sunday the day started with quite heavy rain, but later on thereContinue reading