Park-to-Park manager Adam Ryeland attaches signs to a trailer that will man the trails this summer, reminding users to buy a pass that supports the association and its efforts to maintain more than 230 kilometres of trail.

Adam Ryeland wants you to buy a trail pass locally if you plan to ride ATVs or bicycles on the local trail network this year.

The Park to Park Trail Association’s new manager, who has been on the job for about eight weeks, said a new initiative is underway to remind people money earned from the sale of passes goes right back into the maintenance of the system, especially when they’re purchased at local stores.

“We try and encourage people to go into the stores to buy them,” said Ryeland. “Then they kind of get an idea of how many people are really involved in this project. And at the same time it brings business into these stores and gives them some notoriety as well.”

Ryeland may be new as manager, but he has spent the last two years as a board member for the trail association.

The camping enthusiast, who has worked for Bear Claw Tours, and Wheelz, in Parry Sound, said he wasn’t coming in out of the cold when he took the manager’s job.

“When this job came up I thought it was a perfect fit for me,” he said. “I did have a little bit of background information coming in.”

And Ryeland said he wants to pass some of that information on to riders.

There are two passes which grant you access to the local trail network.

The Park-to-Park trail pass, which can be purchased at 19 stores around town, gives the buyer access to Park-to-Park’s network, and all proceeds from sales go toward maintaining the local trail.

Ryeland said for those more inclined to travel, the PowerPass, an ATVOntario pass, might make more sense, since it gets you onto trails in Cochrane, Elliott Lake, Mattawa and Haliburton, as well as Parry Sound.

“If you’re someone that likes to travel, and go to the different parts of the province to ride, the PowerPass might be your best bet,” he said. “But if you’re a local person and you don’t ever go riding outside of this area, it’s probably better to buy a Park-to-Park pass because then you know 100 per cent of that money is going into the local trail.”

He said a percentage of money earned from PowerPass sales does work its way back to the local trail, but nowhere near 100 per cent.

Park-to-Park president Steve Alcock said part of the campaign to get folks buying trail passes includes a recently acquired 20-foot trailer, which will sit at the start of the trail, near the Georgian Bay Country visitors centre, as an extra reminder for riders.

“We’ve established a trail head trailer to sort of be an ambassador out there to remind people that it’s the riders that pay the freight to keep these trails working,” he said.

“We’re hoping there’s going to be quite a bit of activity on the trail as we upgrade culverts and surfacing.”

Alcock said the association applied for an infrastructure grant to carry out those upgrades, and they’ll know the verdict by the end of the month. It’s exciting times for the trail group, he said, since recently Seguin Township received more than $100,000 in federal and provincial grant money to resurface the Rose Point Trail, which runs close to Parry Sound and connects to the town’s fitness trail to the Park-to-Park trail.

“When you talk about the materials that are there now, some of them have been there for a 100 years or more,” said Alcock.

He said the Rose Point Trail has long been a focal point for the Park-to-Park group, because once it’s upgraded, Parry Sounders will gain better access to the entire trail network.

“It’ll give us this great loop system,” said Alcock, who lives in the Huntsville area.

“If I was a Parry Sound resident, I’d be quite excited about it.”

Ryeland said while they don’t want to bully people into buying trail passes, the Ministry of Natural Resources has told the group they have the authority to insist. He said riders on the trail who don’t have passes could face trespassing charges.