Oro-Medonte Rail Trail (Barrie to Orillia)

Well we finally made it to the Oro-Medonte Rail trail (commonly known as the 'Barrie Rail trail')   We've been wanting to come up to Barrie to check it out for a couple of years now.  The weather was perfect, not too hot like the weekend before and not too chilly as September sometimes shocks the system!

The Barrie Rail trail runs from Shanty Bay (more or less) to Orillia covering the easiest bike path and most beautiful I might add that you'll ever travel on.  It takes 6 hours out and back, but as I mentioned you're biking on mostly flat crushed gravel with very little elevation.

In 1869 The Toronto, Simcoe and Muskoka Junction railway bought a right-of-way through Oro to link Barrie and Orillia.  To accommodate the railway, Concession line 1 was re-aligned along the north side of the newly built track. 

The bridge constructed to take the Ridge Road over the track was called, Thunder Bridge.  Whenever a car drove over the heavy timbers forming the road-bed on the bridge, they moved a bit in the steel braces, causing a loud rumbling noise.

In 1871: the railway from Toronto to Orillia was completed and a new era dawned in Oro-Medonte.  

For decades the railway station was a community focal point.  Long before the automobile became common, passenger trains took villagers for day-visits to Orillia and Barrie for shopping, doctor appointments, music lessons and high school.  During the summer, extra passenger cars were added to the north-bound trains bringing cottagers and visitors to this area's summer resorts.

Today, any remnants of the train tracks and old lodges where the Section men and yardmen lived at Watt's Crossing are all gone.  What remains is and will always be the history of what once was.

You'll see the occasional cyclists or families on foot walking the trail after lunch.  The area is so quiet and peaceful.  

 I love that they've preserved this land so others can enjoy it for decades to come.