The popular Cup and Saucer hiking trail on Manitoulin Island is open again, The Manitoulin Expositor is reporting.
A new entrance and parking lot opened on June 8.
Less than a month ago, the private landowner who controls access to the trail decided to close it off. Casson Eadie of Don Eadie Construction, which owns the land on which the original entrance was located, closed access to the Cup and Saucer on May 19 due to a number of concerns.
However, through a partnership between the Northeast Town and Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy (EBC), the municipality worked quickly to establish a new entrance and parking lot to keep the attraction open.
EBC owns 300 acres at the trails, while private citizens Randy Noble and Meredith Chandler own land that abuts the EBC property. A partnership was established between the municipality, EBC and Noble and Chandler.
Northeast Town Mayor Al MacNevin explained the parking lot and entrance from Highway 540 is temporary, as the town and EBC must await comments from the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) concerning the parking lot and entrance. The town also needs to complete a traffic study that will be submitted to the MTO.
Look for new signage about the entrance on Highway 540 just past Bidwell Road.
Northeast Town has used town labour and paid for the new culvert, gravel and other developments of the entrance and parking lot, while the EBC has been upgrading the trails on their property to make them more family friendly. Donations can be made though the EBC campaign ‘Save the Cup and Saucer Trail’ on Canadahelps.org.
Donations will help offset the costs of creating the new entrance, signage and trail work.
-with file from Robin Burridge, Manitoulin Expositor
