Pine Ridge Hiking Club
Newsletters
Let this page be your source for information about both the Ganaraska Hiking Trail Association and Pine Ridge Hiking Club.
“Adventure is worthwhile in itself"
Amelia Earhart
Cynthia Warn, President. 2025
Pine Ridge has just wrapped up the year with its 125th hike. Our last hike on Sunday traversed Cornish Hollow in a gentle, magical snowstorm. Despite, or because of, the weather we had 17 hardy souls out - a lovely finish to a stellar year. Our winter 2026 schedule, 52 hikes from January 1 through April 30, is now up on our website: pineridgehikingclub.ca
Our autumn was fairly busy; outside of our usual Wednesday-Saturday-Sunday hike schedule there was a women’s hiking adventure trip to the Eastern Townships, October 14 to 19. I was lucky enough to find a former auberge that was listed on VRBO: ten bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms, a commercial kitchen and multiple lounge areas for our various after hiking activities (Blue Jays playoff games, quiet reading, low-key conversation, or raucous card games). We stayed just outside of Sutton and had 3 days of hiking culminating with all 21 of us summiting Mount Sutton. If there is interest, I believe we will repeat this trip in autumn 2026.
Immediately preceding the Eastern Townships trip was the annual trip to Frontenac Provincial Park where some of our members attempted the Frontenac Challenge: 11 trails in 5 days. This year’s trip was fun and challenging, and I know members will already be marking their calendars for next year.
Autumn is also the time for our “Through the Hiker’s Lens” photo exhibit at the Port Hope Library. The show runs for three weeks and attracts many community members. Lee Wakelin and David Didur are ending their stewardship of this event on a high note: more photos were entered this year than in any previous year. Many thanks go to both of you for managing this eagerly anticipated show. The club appreciates this boost to our community profile. Elke Williams and Ihor Molodecky have volunteered to coordinate the exhibit going forward.
Our AGM and legendary pot-luck was held on December 6th. We reviewed the reports of 9 of our volunteers who are responsible for the following areas: Communications, Landowner Relations, Website and Social Media, Inquiries, Online and Interactive Hike Catalogue, Annual Photo Exhibits, Treasurer, Hike Coordinator, and Trail Maintenance. Two reports that I will reference here were produced by our Hike Coordinator, Connie Flewitt, and our Trail Maintenance Coordinator, Stan Muldoon.
Our Hike Coordinator has kept electronic records of all our activities and provided some interesting statistics. Our longest hike was 16 km, our least attended hike had 3 participants (sometimes the weather is just not appealing), and our most attended hike had 26 participants. One member completed 95 of our scheduled hikes for a total distance of 905 kms! It’s hard to imagine anyone beating that record.
The Trail Maintenance Report was noteworthy because it was Stan’s last report. Trail Maintenance duties have been handed over to Jay Sherwin, our former president. I know that Jay will do a great job (though Stan has set the bar quite high).
Stan is one of the most patient and thoughtful people I have ever had the pleasure of working with. I speak for all of the club when I say that working with Stan, whether building a bridge over the Ganaraska River, or cleaning up the trail on our annual Earth Week endeavour, is always made enjoyable by Stan’s bonhomie and gracious nature. He takes everything in stride and makes everyone feel appreciated for their efforts. The world could use more of you, Stan Muldoon. Thank you.
Below is a note from the last newsletter, but as the situation is ongoing I include the information here for anyone planning on hiking our end of the Ganaraska Trail.
“Due to Hwy. 401 construction at Port Hope, there is a detour where Choate Rd. crosses under the 401 (km 2.7 of the Ganaraska Hiking Trail).
Hikers travelling north must now proceed straight at the Jocelyn St. /Cavan Rd. intersection (km 2.3) to Victoria St. N. (approximately 1.0 km). Turn right (north) at Victoria St. for 1.5 km to the intersection with Choate Rd. Turn right on Choate Rd. for 0.5 km to the intersection with the unmaintained section of Hawkins Rd.(km 4.3) where you will rejoin the GHT.
Hikers travelling south must turn right (west) at the Hawkins Rd./Choate Rd. intersection (km 4.3) to the Choate Rd. / Cranberry Rd. intersection (0.5 km). Turn left on Cranberry Rd. and travel south to the intersection with Jocelyn Rd. (approximately 1.5 km). Take a left on Jocelyn St. to the intersection where the GHT meets Molson St. (approximately 1.0 km). Turn right (south).”
Pine Ridge Hiking Club Annual Report
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Cynthia Warn, President 2024
‘A walk in nature walks the soul back home.’
Mary Davis
Our members, 144 as of our AGM, would tell you that getting outside was the driving force in joining, or rejoining, the Pine Ridge Hiking Club. No matter how much entertainment we can access within our homes, being in nature is essential for our well-being. Hikers will give other reasons for hiking; wanting to explore our area more fully, conversation and company, and gleaning knowledge from locals. Yet, it all comes back to being outside, in nature, while engaging in these pursuits.
We’ve had a very successful winter despite having a winter! We expanded our hike schedule to include Wednesdays during January, February and March. No matter how cold the day, attendance for these hikes, and our Saturday and Sunday hikes was in-line with our year-round average numbers. We Canadians are a tough lot!
We heard from older members, former members, and really busy members that short hikes were welcome. So, as another change this winter, we’ve arranged to have a 5km hike embedded in our regular Sunday hikes. All hikers start at the same trailhead, and one group does the full hike, while the ‘short hikers’ will do a loop or an out-and-back, always aiming to keep to 5 km. This only requires hike leaders who are leading on a Sunday to mention the short hike in their pre-hike email to the club (via our amazing Communications & Membership Director, Rita Zeran) and to make a note of where the turnaround point is located. We do however, really need a better name than ‘short hikers’.
Our hike catalogue was further upgraded by Hike Catalogue Coordinator, Jason Kay, to include a link to the What Three Words navigation tool for each hike. The schedule on our website ( https://www.pineridgehikingclub.ca ) contains the links as well. Now, with one click members can pinpoint (within 3 square meters) the trailhead on a map.
We gathered for our annual Hike Talks on March 25th. We had three members speak about their recent hiking trips abroad; Connie Flewitt spoke on Madeira; Anita Lautenbach on Peru, Bolivia, and Chile; and Heather Briant presented her trip to Exmoor. Jason Kay created a movie, using the iMovie app, which had its world premiere at this event. Jason was inspired by our annual photo exhibit at the Port Hope Library, ‘Through the Hiker’s Lens’. He canvassed the members for hiking photos from near and far, and created a delightful film, with themed chapters, titles, introductory clips, perfectly matched music, and extensive credits. All this and Susan Casson created our second annual photo identification contest, “Where is this, Northumberland?”. The prize went to Lee Wakelin, who correctly identified 11 of the 12 locations.
I would like to introduce our new Website & Social Media Coordinator, Jodi de Jong, and our new Hike coordinator, Connie Flewitt. On behalf of the entire club, I would like to extend our thanks to Hilda Van Netten and Darryl Russell, respectively, who fulfilled these roles beautifully for many years.
Coming up in the spring/summer session, we’re looking forward to our annual Hike Leaders pot luck, marching in the Port Hope Canada Day parade, and organizing an end-to-end hike through the Kawartha section of the Ganaraska Trail.
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