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travel / adventure zone
| The Adventure Zone |
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| Photo: Harold Sellers |
The Moraine for Life Adventure Relay
The sweet science of habitat protection
By Tracy C. Read
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| Photo: Harold Sellers |
Sometimes fighting for a place you love is the greatest adventure of all. When the Oak Ridges
Trail Association (ORTA) hosts its second annual Moraine for Life Adventure Relay on June
14-15, there’s no doubt the gloves will be off. But in this fight, everyone’s
in the same corner: participants in the 14-stage fundraising adventure race run the gamut
from optimistic beginners to seasoned racers, but they’re all here to support an environmental
treasure and the trail system that gives them access to it.
Widely recognized as one of southern Ontario’s most significant landforms, the Oak
Ridges Moraine stretches from the Trent River in the east to the Niagara Escarpment in the
west. Home to the headwaters of 65 river systems, the moraine supports a diverse network
of streams, woodlands, wetlands, kettle lakes and bogs as well as forest birds and rare and
endangered species of flora and fauna. It’s also long been target of developers, who
love its prime location. After a long and impassioned campaign, parts of it were officially
protected through the province’s Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Act in 2001.
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| Photo: P. Attfield |
Thanks to the longstanding, non-profit, volunteer-run ORTA, the moraine now boasts 250 kilometres
of trail, all managed and maintained by 700 plus members in 10 regional chapters. Funds raised
by the Moraine for Life Adventure Relay will help support the hard work being done to restore
and preserve an area that has historically been compromised by agriculture and development.
The 14-stage 24-hour Moraine for Life Adventure Relay starts at 8 a.m., Saturday, June
14, at Gores Landing and unfolds along a 160-kilometre westward course to King City.
The area’s usual quiet environment will be temporarily shattered by the sounds of hard-working
teams striving to beat their best times in a race that features paddling and then running,
hiking and mountain biking on a range of terrains. Times are recorded at each stage for each
category (corporate, elite, recreational mixed and recreational masters), and may the lowest
cumulative time win!
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| Photo: P. Attfield |
Last year’s relay drew some big-name participants, including Olympic gold-medal winner
Marnie McBean. But when the bell rings on what organizers are billing as a human-powered
adventure like no other, the biggest winners will be the people lucky enough to have ready
access to any part of this beautiful landscape.
For more information, visit www.oakridgestrail.org/ormrelay
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