We found the best, ok, second best (still love Harmony Park Oshawa) place for off leash hiking in York Region – Bendor and Graves Tract in York Region. Also across the way from this trail is the Davis Drive Tract (Blog Link Here)
Warning: there is a gun range very close to the tract so if you dog is skittish, then do NOT go to this tract on the weekend. There are continual gunshots.
This area is at 18053 McCowan Rd, Cedar Valley, ON L0G 1E0. There is a free parking lot right beside a very large fenced in area. We were there on a Saturday and it was hopping! It was nice to see all the people and their fur babies greeting each other.
Maze is not a huge fan of busy fenced in dog parks so we went straight for the off-leash tract. The trail starts right beside the fenced in area and follows up the side of the area. At the side of the fenced in area there an interesting point of interest.
The first picture is the official tract map but the second picture is the actual trail map and the different options you can take.
We hiked the entire outside of the area (plus some zig zags) and we hiked for about an hour and 40 minutes and covered just under 7 kms according to our trackers. We stopped and spoke to some great people and met some amazing dogs.
Here is a fun story for you – I will try to do it justice – Mike and I were walking down a stretch of path with our two dogs out front frolicking. We didn’t hear a thing at all except the normal sounds of the forest and its visitors. All of a sudden a beautiful golden retriever ran up behind us and slid on its belly right between us. He must have slid about three feet to get between us! Our dogs came back to say hello and the pup just stayed between us on his belly, head down, waiting for them. Once everyone said hello it was just all fun for all three dogs. The dog made my day, he knew exactly how to make a grand entrance!
Here are some pictures of the day.
We really enjoyed our time there and had a ton of fun. It is mostly forest but there is a section that looked like it was a field but is now part of a tree planting project which is amazing. Also, if you take a look at the right picture above you will see what looks like small bamboo which was fascinating. It was a perfect day, with perfectly tired dogs on the way home.
We revisited Bendor and Graves Tract on an amazing snowy winter day a couple months later. Here are some pictures from our re-visit!
