Forest Riding in Deer Hunting Season

What is the latest protocol regarding sharing forests with shotgun deer hunters? This is the controlled five day season right now, but the weather sure is nice for dirt riding. Hunters in the Barrie area tend to hunt around sunup and sundown, from what I recall.

not sure about other areas but from calabogie to bancroft and south this is the first week of deer hunting . rifle season finishes sunday the 14 th. i chose to stay off the trails and run only backroads for rifle season, most of the trails we ride are and have been kept open by hunters and sometimes for generations.

Our local hunt is shotgun/muzzle loader/bow only from Nov 2-6, and I believe there is another 5 days open around the first of December, with all November and December open to bows. I made the decision to stay out of Simcoe County Forest this week and maybe ride there Monday.

One option for riding during deer season is the Peterborough Crown Game preserve. No hunting (or fishing). Access is south of Apsley or north off the east tip of Stony Lake. Not a huge area but it does have a nice variety of trails.

For the most part there won't be any difference weather you ride or not, deer live there all year long and follow patterns based on people using the forest trails regularly. Most guys will hunt early or late as you said. A hiker waking a dog would bump deer just as easily as a motorcycle.

Thanks dean. That makes sense and aligns with the experiences that I have encountered over the years.

Yeah, that is a beauty area. It is a nice way to link a route from Norwood>Nephton>Jack Lake>Apsley>Pencil Lake Rd., which can be all done mainly on trails.