Albion Hills Conservation Area, Toronto, Ontario

Our campground in northern Toronto warrants its own blog entry as it is unique amongst many beautiful campgrounds in Ontario, Canada. The most notable feature at Albion is the 27 km of mountain bike trails in summer that are also used as cross country ski trails in winter. All this and it is only 45 minutes from the heart of Toronto. The chalet at the center of the campground rents skis during snow and hosts meetings and wedding receptions in summer. There is a swimming pool and splash pad as well as a small lake that rents canoes or ice skates depending on the weather. The trails are maintained by both the Conservation Area and the local Racing Organization, Chico Racing. The Ruppel brothers of Chico Racing host two 24 hour rides here a summer as well as the Tuesday night races with 100+ riders.
What we have discovered from staying here for a month is that probably 100 people a day come to ride the trails, thus creating great revenue for the campground that charges a day use fee. Chico’s crew work on drainage and course design in partnership with the employees here to keep the trails in great shape. It is obviously a working symbiotic relationship to maintaining a profitable mountain biking facility in the great outdoors.
When the riding isn’t happening and it is during the week when no one comes to camp, this place has felt like our own place in the woods. Being that we have been here
almost five weeks, we have spent hours watching the forest come alive for summer with wildflowers blooming, bugs arriving and animals searching for food. I have walked the trails that Steve rides everyday and have seen my fair share of orioles, wild turkeys, deer, northern jays and cardinals.

The trails are well marked with three main loops equaling 3.5, 5 or 9 miles with single track side loops to chose from and make your ride as big as you chose. People tend to have their favorites and Steve has been lucky enough to hook up with guys that have showed him around. Along the trails you’ll find ponds and conifer forests and even a sugar shack for making maple syrup (still used in early spring for demonstrations). We leave in a few days but will mark this down as a highlight of our trip that has now reached its six month mark.