Dear friends of the Ottawa valley railway trail , over the past weeks and during the recent meetings I have noticed a lot of comments. Some good some bad. A lot of people encouraging non motorized use of the Ottawa valley rail trail section of Mississippi mills commenting on the use of this trail as a green space , for bird watching and naturists, hiking , walking and biking and other non motorized activities . Some of the non motorized users are using statements about noise and smell and traffic obstructions that go in hand with motorized use , since around the 1860s trains were rolling in and out of almonte , some up to as large as a 40 car trains. Do you not think that they had smells odours ,noise and pollution and caused the odd traffic jam. For over 100 years the town of almonte was used to hearing the noises of trains , shaking of houses near train tracks and traffic back ups at intersections. Half of your cars are louder then atvs and snowmobiles and put out more pollution. Do you really think the noise of Atv dirt bike or snowmobile is even comparable to a train or the car you drive ? No , so the statements I have been hearing about noise in town, Pollution and traffic jams are a terrible excuse to have a non motorized trail.
I spoke with Tom Milc over the phone , he is the president of the Ottawa valley ATV club , OVATVC. A provincial wide atv club with member ship fees , 1000s of volunteers, maintenance of the trails they use , 15 million in insurance and liability , which is no comparison to the insurance policy a walking group or biking group has . Tom told me the clubs that this OVRT will give access to will benefit everyone and every town along the way will economically benefit from it. Reaching ATV clubs such as ( Smith Falls , 1000 islands, Kemptville , Winchester , Renfrew county and Pembroke. As of right now other then the K and P trail. Mississippi mills has no trails at all for motorized / ATV uses. So keeping his comments in my mind I took it upon my self to google how many trails for non motorized use Mississippi mills has , the site MVFN.ca has a data base with all walking biking and hiking trails in our area it came up right away with over 14 trails for non motorized users,
1) K+P Calabogie
2) K+P taty hill Rd
3)K+P flower station
4)K+P Lavant station
5)mill of kintail conservation area
6)purdon bog trail (Dalhousie lanark county)
7)Almonte lagoons trail (BIRD WATCHING TOWER)
8)Carleton place arena trail
9)Carleton place centennial park
10)Baird trail
11)California Rd trail
12)Kate’s lake trail (concession 6 tatlock
13)high lonesome nature reserve in pakenham hills
Those are some to list. This site gives you a full data base. Let’s you select an area and gives a description of the NON MOTORIZED TRAILS . Other then the k and p there are no legal
Motorized trails for a multi use trail. The rail trail
Is the answer !
Those of you who want non motorized can you not see you already have many Non motorized trails in the community , can you not just share one with us Motorized users.
By making this rail trail a multi use will you not only gain another 15th listed trail but it will open up a section of over 300 plus kilometres of trails for atv and snowmobile clubs to share. Maintain and look after for one another .
Not sure if I opened anyone’s eyes or even made any sense , but what I’m trying to say it can everyone not get along for one thing in this town for once , open a multi use trail from smith falls to mattawa , and let everyone’s tax dollars get used !
Who knows maybe on one of your long walks or bike rides you may break down , need a hand , I among with many other motorized users would gladly give you a lift on our bikes or sled to the nearest town or road crossing and help you out .
This town needs change. In This town we need each other , this could be a start to many positive things in almonte so please let’s get along and all enjoy the trail A
MULTI USE trail
That is !
Thanks for your time
Kolin Phillips
A local multi use enthusiast
