After reading about and enjoying some of the fantastic work the CBN Trailway group has been doing in revitalizing the old railway in Conception Bay North, I was very happy to read about a similar effort underway on the Southern Shore with the old Trepassey branch line! For those of you unfamiliar the CBN Trailway group has organized volunteers to complete brush cutting along the old CBN branch line and revitalize the right-of-way into a true multiuse trail for motorized and non motorized traffic. Its a tremendous effort with a lot of hard labour, working with & gaining cooperation of municipalities along the route, and the creation & installation of signage and garbage cans.

The Southern Shore Trailway group (both groups can be found with a quick search on Facebook) has started work on re-vitalizing and in some cases building a brand new multiuse trail down the southern shore. Where possible it follows the old Newfoundland Railway branch line (which was abandoned in 1931), uses power line corridors, and in some places cutting new trail where the old routes have been overtaken by development.

We spend quite a bit of time in this area berry picking, trouting and camping and were excited to hear of this great addition to ATV trail riding! This year the group fundraised and successfully roughed in a brand new section of trail that now connects Merrymeeting Road (at the top of Merrymeeting Pond) to the old railway line in Calvert. This opens up approximately 50 kilometres of trail from North Hawkes Nest Pond all the way to Horse Chops Road.

Summer of 2022 should see final grading and installation of culverts along this new stretch of trail and the start of developing another major section of new trail. This new section will connect Horse Chops Road to Cape Pond Road which will get riders all the way to Mobile via Beachy Cove Road! Long term plans (provided they get enough support) is to complete a new section of trail from Mobile all the way to Witless Bay line. This is truly a huge undertaking that will bring a lot of valuable ATV tourism to the area.

Today I had some service work on the Southern Shore so I packed my boots and on my way home hit the new trail leaving from Merrymeeting road following the fresh but well frozen trail on foot. It was a great walk, the trail although not yet finished is absolutely fantastic! I cant wait to come back next year and travel to Calvert and beyond by ATV.

As expected the new trail is very friendly to ride compared to eth old bike path it replaced!

All in all I'm very impressed with all the work that has gone into this project, not only the physical labour but all the planning, fundraising, organizing and more. It's a great job and very well executed. Don't forget to search Southern Shore Trailway on Facebook and help support the new trail by taking part in their fundraisers. I think it's a great cause that will benefit many many people here in the province.

Cheers, MIKE

Copyright © 2011 Michael Smith