Huron County has been asked for a letter of support and a small amount of funding to help connect the Great Lakes Waterfront Trail.
Trail Executive Director Marlaine Koehler says their goal is a biking trail around the shoreline of all of the Great Lakes.
She points out while cyclists enjoy a good ride their target audience also enjoys great scenery and the opportunity to stop when they want and enjoy the small communities that line the Great Lakes shoreline.
The county intends to connect those communities with safe biking paths and secondary roads while staying as close to the shorelines as possible.
Koehler says the first stretch of the trail was established in 1995 and connected Hamilton and Trenton and the trail now extends from the Quebec border to Grand Bend for a total of 1,600 km.
Example of the On-Road portion of the Great Lakes Waterfront Trail through Lambton County (Photo by Simon Wilson © 2016 and the Waterfront Regeneration Trust)
Next year they plan to add 370 km connecting Sudbury to Sault Ste. Marie and cyclists would be able to take Hwy. 6 down to Manitoulin Island and take the ferry to Torbermory, and that leaves the gap from Grand Bend to Tobermory which would connect the northern trail to the southern trail.
Koehler says they're asking for a letter of support as well as two thousand dollars to help cover the cost of maintenance and signage.
Koehler points out they're not creating new roads or trails but connecting existing paths and roads and putting up directional signage to guide cyclists.
They're following the shorelines as closely as possible but at the same time they have to use secondary roads in most cases for safety reasons.