For years, the Mansfield Outdoor Centre wasn’t a mountain biking destination. Sure they hosted an 8-hour relay once a year, but other than that, you couldn’t ride there. Now, it’s becoming a genuine trail centre for Ontario’s riders.
Located about an hour north of Toronto and south of Collingwood, MOC has flow trails, technical singletrack, machine-built sections, climbing trails, fat biking, camping, cabins and a licensed lodge and restaurant. The sandy soil means that if it’s wet everywhere else, it’s probably fine to ride there. With around 400 acres of property, there’s nearly 20 km of trails on the property itself. But the MOC property also borders the Dufferin County Forest; a nearly 2000 acre property with another 45 km of trails. The trails are all connected.
Rebuilding a forgotten trail network
Mountain biking at Mansfield isn’t new. There were trails there back in the late 90s. They even hosted a couple O-cups. But then the owner decided it wasn’t viable and the trails were reclaimed by the forest.
New ownership took over again post-COVID and they decided mountain biking was worth investing in. Johnny Yeaman, who had spent decades building trails on the neighboring Dufferin County forest property with local volunteer group Team Van Go was at the right place, at the right time.
“I’ve been trying to get back on this property for 25 years,” he said. “The previous owner wasn’t interested.”
Yeaman became the trail manager. And has since (along with volunteers) slowly grown the property into a proper trail centre. The property now has roughly 20 km of trail with more constantly being added.
Some of the old trails from the 90s remain, but most of it has been entirely rebuilt. Trails like Happy Hour, a flowing descent built to make riders forget the long climb to the top, are favourites among returning riders.
“Every time I ride that trail, I’m like, this is just fun,” Yeaman said. “People come down the bottom and I’m like, ‘So what about that hill climb you were complaining about?’ They’re like, ‘Actually we’ll go back up and ride that again.’”
A different kind of Ontario riding
The riding at MOC mixes old-school singletrack with newer machine-built flow sections and carefully bench-cut singletrack. There are features, jumps and drops, but there are always cheat lines and easy ride-arounds. Riding behind Yeaman, you’ll likely lose him, but as he describes it, every short punchy up, is…
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