Exploring No Maintenance Roads In Grey-Bruce // GB Productions Vlog

Hello and welcome to another GB Productions “Special”!

Back in June, Greg and I decided to take a break from all the projects we have ongoing and take Greg’s 1996 Dodge Ram 2500 off-roading on some unmaintained roads in and around our local counties. Since in Southern Ontario we don’t have crown land and the associated logging roads to use for off-roading trails, these unmaintained roads are pretty much only “legal” option to try and do some off-roading, or mudding. When we filmed this in mid-June 2021, we were on the tail end of a relatively big drought, so there wasn’t really much mud to go through. This was good and bad for two separate reasons. It was good because it’s Greg’s daily truck and he wasn’t really looking forward to getting it covered in a huge amount of mud (like we had a few years prior on a separate off-roading trip). It was bad because it essentially ruined our filming plans for the day, as we had wanted to shoot a cool scene with the truck going through some mud among some others but we never really found any spots we deemed worthy for that, so I basically just had the GoPro mounted on the back window and shot all the trails (except for perhaps the best one that we went through to test the truck but didn’t film). On top of that, I didn’t set up the time-lapse setting properly, so the first two and best trails of the day were filmed much too quickly. I definitely learned some lessons filming wise for next time!

The first couple trails we did are actually ATV/snowmobile trails. They’re quite well maintained for that purpose with a fairly wide trail. They aren’t hugely technical but you likely wouldn’t be able to get a car down them. The only sketchy part was an abandoned stretch of the townline trail (trail #2) that clearly hadn’t been maintained in some time. The road was overgrown with grass and there was a few big tree branches down on the trail that we had to get over. It was no problem for the truck mechanically, it was just a rough ride because of the extremely still work truck suspension on it.

After we did the first couple trails around Meaford and Markdale, Ontario, we decided to head to Owen Sound for lunch (A&W as seen in the video), and then continue up to the Bruce Peninsula to check out a couple other roads, both not too far from Lion’s Head, Ontario. The first road could have two different names, either Cathedral Drive, which is the road name on the south end (where we started), or Richardson Road, the name of the gravel road at the north end of the trail. This no maintenance road is likely just an access road for the power lines that run along it (versus the previous two being ATV trails), and is also marked as a Bruce Trail Side Trail. This trail was barely wide enough to fit the truck, having essentially been abandoned for many years meant it was slowly being swallowed up by the forest, but it otherwise wasn’t as technical as the previous trail. We then drove from there, through Lion’s Head, and further north until reaching the final trail of the day, Vickers Road. This trail turned out to not be a trail at all, instead it was a 1 lane wide graded gravel road (at least until it ended at a fork). Since at the fork there was a fire number (basically a civic address) on the straight ahead route, we picked the right fork of the road and ended up at an illegal landfill site. This bothered me quite a bit as an Environmental Science student, as chemicals released from decomposing garbage are extremely bad for the environment, particularly the groundwater in the area. Considering the bedrock of the region is mainly Karst terrain, all the wells for the nearby farms and houses could end up having contaminated water thanks to the nimrod who decided to put a dump here not to mention it being a stone throw away from a provincial nature reserve (one at which I like to spend quite a bit of time at)!

Anyway, we decided to film our outro for the video at the dump as a sort of implied statement after Greg told me to not speak my mind about the dump. Since one of the goals of the trip was to test out the 4×4 Posi-Lock system we previously installed (website articles not yet available, head over to the YouTube channel to watch the videos), Greg gave his comments on the system. We also decided we’re getting proper off-roading 4x4s for the next trip, as Greg’s truck was not an overly comfortable truck to use off road (very still suspension). I’m quite interested in getting either a XJ Jeep Cherokee with the legendary 4.0 L straight six, or a current generation Chevrolet Colorado/GMC Canyon with the Duramax. Greg is more interested in a Jeep Wrangler, or XJ Cherokee, both from the 90s.

Anyways, enjoy the video!