MANITOULIN—Exploring Manitoulin Island’s many trails has just gotten a lot easier thanks to the work of author Julieanne Steedman whose new guidebook ‘Manitoulin Hiking Trails’ details everything a hiker needs to know about hiking the Island.
Ms. Steedman is a familiar face to be found regularly at the Kagawong market in the summer months and at Christmas bazaars and fairs in the cooler months. As a visual artist of some renown, her works can be found at many Island galleries and her Great Lakes sculpture graces the community garden in Providence Bay.
Ms. Steedman came upon the idea of creating the guidebook thanks, in part, to the popularity of the Island’s famous Cup and Saucer Trail. “This is a lovely trail, but there is a reason it’s nick-named the 401—because in the summer, it’s jam-packed with visitors,” she explained in a release. Ms. Steedman noted that it always seemed strange to her that people come to Manitoulin for its beauty and solitude and then go hiking on an incredibly busy trail. This was especially puzzling, given that Manitoulin has several trails that offer amazing experiences in nature that don’t involve jostling shoulders with crowds of other hikers.
Being fond of nature and the outdoors, and having lived on Manitoulin for many years, Ms. Steedman was already familiar with some of the other Island trails. With the idea of sharing more about what Manitoulin has to offer, she set about gathering more detailed information for a definitive guide.
Over the course of four months, the intrepid hiker set out to catalogue local hiking trails, and with 120 kilometres of wear on her boots, she felt ready to pass what she had discovered onto to others.
“My sister and I joked when I set out exploring that I would be happy to find 15 trails to share … I was blown away to end up with a whopping 40 trails in the book,” the author said. “This project turned out to be about so much more than hiking: it’s about the truly wonderful people on Manitoulin, the beauty that can be found on the trails, and about how getting outside is just good for our souls.”
The result is ‘Manitoulin Island Hiking Trails: Walk, Hike or Bike: a game-changing guide to exploring the outdoors on Manitoulin Island,’ a tome that provides its readers all the information needed to find the trail most suitable to their abilities and taste for adventure. The trails are catalogued by type, walking, hiking, or mountain biking and include important information on how challenging the trail is, with maps, locations and parking information also provided.
Not just a compendium of trail information, the guidebook also offers suggestions on other things to explore on Manitoulin Island such as museums, restaurants and playgrounds to entertain the kids.
For visitors to Manitoulin Island, there is now a chance to explore the trails less travelled—although the Cup and Saucer will likely remain one of the top hiking destinations in the region.
Manitoulin Hiking Trails can be purchased at the bookshop located in The Expositor Office in Little Current. In fact, the bookshop offers a wide range of books, both non-fiction and fiction—perfect gifts for the reader to place under the tree.
