According to BNS Bicycles Are Now Permitted in Nova Scotia’s Wilderness Areas, this is great news…but they won’t say where the “100km of off road trail” is or where the “14 new and varied landscapes for off road cyclist.” are located.
Maybe someday we’ll find out? I don’t understand why there would be a press release with absolutely zero details… at least a list of specific areas.
He’s a map of protected areas to guess from:
https://novascotia.ca/parksandprotectedareas/plan/interactive-map/
Pretty cool development, I think.
Won’t say or didn’t say in that release?
Definitely a promising development.
Yeah it’s cool to hear, just bad delivery with no real information. Managed to pry somewhere around Chester, Eigg Mountain in Antigonish, and near Wentworth. Maybe there’s more? No way to know.
If this includes the protected area near the Toll pass, that could be awesome. Small swinging bridge and lots of uphill downhill in there from what I remember
I expect they are including the previously announced old roads / ATV routes in Five Bridge Lakes Wilderness Area in the “over 100 km of off-road trail”. Some additional information I found is below. Bike use isn’t mentioned for Wentworth Valley Wilderness Area, but it’s easy to imagine that they have allowed bike access since they are willing to allow OHV access.
Eigg Mountain - James River Wilderness Area
"Several sections of off-highway vehicle (OHV) routes within the wilderness area are managed by the Snowmobilers Association of Nova Scotia (SANS) and All-terrain Vehicle Association of Nova Scotia (ATVANS) under agreements with Nova Scotia Environment. This includes a section of route 715A and several routes in the northeastern portion of the wilderness area.
Bicycle use is permitted on the routes managed by ATVANS. These routes, together with adjacent forest access roads, provide good opportunities for experiencing the wilderness area by bicycle."
“A 7 km section of off-highway vehicle trail passes through the wilderness area, along old forest access roads between Canaan and Timber Lake. This section of trail is managed by the All-terrain Vehicle Association of Nova Scotia (ATVANS) under an agreement with Nova Scotia Environment. Bicycle use is also permitted on this trail.”
Wentworth Valley Wilderness Area
“Nova Scotia Environment intends to authorize OHV use on certain connecting routes within the wilderness area by adding these to trail management agreements with provincial OHV associations. This includes trail #310 / 310A, north of Hart Lake; and another trail along the east side of Hart Lake.”
The map in the link below from ATVANS shows “trails under agreement in Wilderness Protected areas and on private property requiring ATVANS Trail Permit”.
https://geomapix.ca/geomapix/maps/85817/atvans-public#
My guess is that all of the red segments on that map are in wilderness protected areas and are also open to bikes.
A+ for some good internet sleuthing there @Ghost.
I do like the hypothesis that the word “bicycle” has just been added into everywhere that ATV’s are currently permitted, seems like a no brainer but I guess if the regulations don’t specifically state bicycle then it’s not permitted. Just like Five Bridges where bikes got tagged on as an afterthought to the ATV club built trails there.
Too bad they wouldn’t just list the specific areas off. Unknown unknowns is right @Drgonzo.
So this is for very specific areas(trails) and not general? I don’t really know why we want to ride in designated Protected Wilderness Areas, but if the ATVers get their grandfathered trails or corridors then whatever I guess. A few of the Wilderness Areas were only designated with agreements from rural MLA’s who were pressured by ATVers who would not support these areas without ATV allowances.
There is no way to know anything specific about where, what or why until BNS gives up the real details.