Snowmobile Trail Through Snow Road May Open This Winter After All

Jeff Green | Nov 09, 2022

Details are still being worked out, but two of the property owners who had put up gates to block a section of the K&P trail in the Robertsville area, (south of Snow Road) say they have come to a tentative agreement to open up the gates and allow snowmobile and ATV traffic to flow through.

Bob Riddell, who owns one of the pieces of property, with his mother Harriett, said that he met with representatives from the Snow Road Snowmobile Club and the Ottawa Valley ATV club on Saturday (November 5) and they came to a verbal agreement. He said the clubs have agreed to put up fencing along sections of the trail that are adjacent to gravel pits on the property, as well as a couple of gates along the trail. He said they plan to get the work done quickly.

“Once they do that, and they seemed very happy to do it, I said I would sign off on an agreement to let their members use the trail this winter,” said Bob Riddell, in a telephone interview this week.

Riddell said that as far as he knew, the club will need at least one more landowner to agree to let the snowmobiles through, in order to be able to open up the E Trunk line, and be a full partner in the provincial snowmobile trail network in the 2022-2023 season.

Riddell also said that his pending agreement with the snowmobile club does not change his response to Frontenac County’s expropriation process regarding his land.

He said that all he knows is that he received notice in late June that the expropriation process was underway, and then, was also informed that Frontenac County has initiated a “hearing of necessity” with the Ontario Land Tribunal. Riddell said he will participate in the hearing but will not be hiring a lawyer, although other affected property owners might.

“I read about the comments made by [Frontenac County Chief Administrative Officer] Kelly Pender at the Frontenac County meeting, and I prepared a three-page response, but I’ll hold off on it for now. Let’s just say I don’t agree with the way he described what is going on.”

(The News has attempted to reach the Snow Road Snowmobile Association, for comment on the status of the trails they maintain for the 2022-2023 season, but we have not heard back yet.)