By AMANDA GIBB
Longtime Beach resident Dan Roitner has published his second book Best Mountain Bike Trails in Ontario: 55 MTB Locations, detailing off-road trails fit for an adventure.
Roitner has been a biking enthusiast for many years and got into mountain biking with the Toronto Bicycle Network.
“A group of us [from Toronto Bicycle Network] formed the mountain bike group, and I ran that for about a dozen years…I was then at a point when I thought I have the information and knowledge about all these trails I’ve gone to and I thought well, why don’t I put a site up and share it with other people?” said Roitner.
Roitner started adding his own information to his website about mountain trails, and other places that were easier for everyday cyclists to enjoy more leisurely rides. He ended up enjoying park rides across Ontario, creating enough content to release his first book, Best Bicycle Park & Rail Trails in Ontario.
“The mountain bike book is more of a passionate piece that I did because that’s what I really love to do,” said Roitner.
He said that the book was a labour of love that he self-published, and experienced quite a few delays when he originally released it last year, especially with learning how to create maps himself.
Roitner’s background experience in photography also helped make Best Mountain Bike Trails in Ontario an authentic and comprehensive guidebook complete with stunning visuals for the mountain biker craving adventure in Ontario’s scenic off-road trails.
“The book is very authentic. All the photos of the reviews are pictures taken at the places. It’s not substituted with stock photos of cyclists somewhere else; I would say 99 per cent of the photos are taken in Ontario as well.”
Roitner said that many riders look online for information about mountain bike trails, but that the information can be a bit inconsistent because it is “crowdsourced” from many people with different opinions on things like trail difficulty levels.
“One of the reasons I wrote this book and have my website is I wanted to give people a one-person perspective on what it was like to ride these trails in Ontario,” he said.
For those looking for a mountain bike trail a little closer to home, Roitner’s book provides details about the Don Valley MTB Trail, sprawling over 20 kilometres in the heart of Toronto.
“There’s nothing like the sense of freedom and independence on a bike. You can take it anywhere and it costs nothing.”
For more information about Roitner’s books, bike trails, and news, visit https://ontariobiketrails.com/
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