I just thought I would post this warning in case others are thinking of joining the ODSC/OFTR, especially if the primary benefit for you is Simcoe County Forests access.
When you join the OFTR, you are presented a list of clubs that you can support. I chose the ODSC as I ride all over the place.
One of the benefits listed at OFTR is that having a membership grants you access to Simcoe County Forest trails -- which is technically true. However, not all tracts are open to bikes, and even those tracts that are open to bikes have only certain trails open to bikes.
Here is where the issue lies: Only SCORRA members have access to map data about the legal trails to ride.
That's right... if you are not a SCORRA member, you can legally ride in the Simcoe County Forests with only an OFTR membership, but you won't be given any data about which trails are legal or not, and most of trails are not marked.
See quote from SCORRA member:
http://ift.tt/1IBGmNk
The county does not want us to put up many signs, so it's a bit problematic to sign all the trails. We're not sure we want to sign everything, anyway....since then the non-members (OFTR or otherwise) will have less reason to join.
Regarding the SCORRA Trail Maps, membership has it's privileges! The decision was made by the SCORRA board to restrict the Trail Maps to SCORRA members only. The trail maps were implemented by a SCORRA volunteer (moi), specifically for SCORRA. It was not an OFTR project. The OFTR has a mapping committee, and I have offered to implement a similar Trail Map system at the OFTR level (customized for the OFTR of course), but have had very little feedback on that suggestion.
I joined the ODSC for two reasons:
1) I was hoping for a lot of gps resources pointing out riding areas -- turns out there is almost nothing there.
2) I was looking forward to Simcoe County riding... which I can do, provided I am psychic and can guess which trails are legal.
For riding dirt... join the OFTR if you find some benefit there, skip the ODSC, it's not worth the $10 in addition to the OFTR fee.
P.S. The reason I didn't add SCORRA to begin with is because I figured I'd only get up there once, maybe twice -- so not worth joining another club just for that. Boy was I wrong.
When you join the OFTR, you are presented a list of clubs that you can support. I chose the ODSC as I ride all over the place.
One of the benefits listed at OFTR is that having a membership grants you access to Simcoe County Forest trails -- which is technically true. However, not all tracts are open to bikes, and even those tracts that are open to bikes have only certain trails open to bikes.
Here is where the issue lies: Only SCORRA members have access to map data about the legal trails to ride.
That's right... if you are not a SCORRA member, you can legally ride in the Simcoe County Forests with only an OFTR membership, but you won't be given any data about which trails are legal or not, and most of trails are not marked.
See quote from SCORRA member:
http://ift.tt/1IBGmNk
Quote:
The county does not want us to put up many signs, so it's a bit problematic to sign all the trails. We're not sure we want to sign everything, anyway....since then the non-members (OFTR or otherwise) will have less reason to join.
Regarding the SCORRA Trail Maps, membership has it's privileges! The decision was made by the SCORRA board to restrict the Trail Maps to SCORRA members only. The trail maps were implemented by a SCORRA volunteer (moi), specifically for SCORRA. It was not an OFTR project. The OFTR has a mapping committee, and I have offered to implement a similar Trail Map system at the OFTR level (customized for the OFTR of course), but have had very little feedback on that suggestion.
1) I was hoping for a lot of gps resources pointing out riding areas -- turns out there is almost nothing there.
2) I was looking forward to Simcoe County riding... which I can do, provided I am psychic and can guess which trails are legal.
For riding dirt... join the OFTR if you find some benefit there, skip the ODSC, it's not worth the $10 in addition to the OFTR fee.
P.S. The reason I didn't add SCORRA to begin with is because I figured I'd only get up there once, maybe twice -- so not worth joining another club just for that. Boy was I wrong.
Ontario Dual Sport Club / OFTR - beware of what is offered as member benefits.
