Ontario’s new Greenbelt Route to launch Sunday in time for the Great Waterfront Trail Adventure

This weekend, Global News reported, a new phase in rural Ontario cycling will be unveiled — and just in time for local cyclists to have a bit of fun with it.

On Sunday, August 16, the new Greenbelt Route will officially launch. Developed by the Waterfront Regeneration Trust, the brand new, 475-km route will combine with the existing Waterfront Trail to form a 1,000 km cycling loop that both hugs Ontario’s waterfront and winds through its picturesque Greenbelt region. Home to protected farmland, wetland and forests — in total, about 1.8 million acres in all — the Greenbelt is the largest protected space of its kind, sheltering environmentally sensitive regions in the province from development and urban sprawl.

The same day that it opens is the day of the Great Waterfront Trail Adventure, meaning that participating cyclists — representing some 50 cities across North America — will be some of the first riders to get a taste f the new trai network. The ride will start about 140 km northeast of Toronto, in Roseneath, Northumberland County. From there, it proceeds to Queenston, Niagara, where the ride ends six days later.

Officials involved, Global News has reported, are calling the new, expansive route through some of Canada’s most gorgeously verdant countrsyside a “boon,” especially for Ontario’s cycling tourism industry.

“For the last seven years,” said Marlaine Koehler, the Waterfront Regeneration Trust’s executive director, “the [Great Waterfront Trail Adventure] has helped build the Waterfront Trail’s reputation as a premier cycle tourism destination. It is fitting that this year, we host a special ride that showcases this new stunning addition to Ontario’s network of long distance cycling trails.”

Registration for the Great Waterfront Trail Adventure is closed, Global News added, but anyone intrepid enough to attempt the route — even part of it — can now access maps of the route for themselves, prepared by the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation.