Old Halifax Rd aka Old St Margaret's Bay Rd ?rideable

All,

I am a long time lurker, generally using Pedal Trout to “find” potential riding sites. Strava heat maps have largely made the covert trail sites pretty obvious.

I’m interested if anyone has recently ridden the Old Halifax Rd aka Old St Margaret’s Bay Rd (fivebridgestrust.ca/publications … gGuide.pdf) aka Old Coach Rd from the Goodwood side. I’ve hiked it a couple of times, and tried biking it once. I remember a ?beaver dam walk-around and a lot of muddy water with sizeable rocks below the water surface. Strava says no-one has been trying to set any speed records here!

I have approached it a year or two ago from the other way (Jimmy’s Roundtop T junction turn left), but ultimately encountered an apparently unpassable bog/marsh beyond Big Five Bridge Lake, although multiple ATVs had valiantly attempted the crossing! I was back this weekend, and the ATVers have been very busy with drainage upgrades, signage and making the surface almost boring. I met some motorcyclists who told me that of the two stretches of bog/marsh, the first has been “upgraded” and there is a “pallet bridge” over the second. They apparently took their bikes over this the previous week getting to the Nine Mile River bridge. From the signage, it looks like the local ATV club is “downgrading” (from a mountain bike perspective) the surface of everything in the area.

This is a long winded buildup to the question - has anyone had any recent experience with riding Old Halifax Rd aka Old St Margaret’s Bay Rd aka Old Coach Rd from the Goodwood side (Big and Little Indian Lake) over the Nine Mile River bridge to Big Five Bridge Lake? and if so, what sort of condition is it in?

thanks,
Kegor

I’ve ridden parts of it this summer. Here’s an older thread with a bit of info: Jimmys Round Top

Two weeks ago I rode through from the direction of Jimmy’s Round top again. (See here on Strava: app.strava.com/activities/187979415 ) The ATV trail improvements (yeah, I agree that it’s less interesting for riding) were within about 1 km of the Nine Mile River bridge. Equipment was still on the trail so they have probably made it to the bridge by now. On the plus side I managed to keep my feet dry!