A private reserve in Muskoka with eighteen named trails on it, open to anybody, free to walk, and almost impossible to reach without a car. A coach takes you there for Thanksgiving Monday and an ActiveDays guide goes with you. Six hours on the ground, and the shortest loop is a kilometre and a half.
Pick your date below. The bus leaves from 34 Asquith Avenue, just north of Yonge and Bloor.
Sold out
There are no seats left on any date we have up for Limberlost Forest. Leave your email and we will tell you the day new dates go up, while there is still a choice of them.
Leaving Toronto in the meantime
Cancel 14 or more days before you go and you get 90% back.
A Parkbus guide leads the group all day, so you do not need to know the trail.
A few hours on real trail with roots, rocks and some climbing, so wear proper shoes.
A full-size coach: reclining seats, air conditioning, large windows, a washroom on board and room for daypacks and gear.
So, here's the thing about Limberlost. It is private land, it is free to walk, and it is open to the public from nine until five.
That combination is rare enough to be worth saying twice. Somebody owns this forest north of Huntsville and has laid out and maintained eighteen named trails across it, and anybody can turn up and walk them for nothing. What they have not got is a bus, a train, or anything else that reaches the gate.
The trails are all loops out of one parking area, which changes how the day works. Clear Lake is 1.5 kilometres and easy. Solitaire is 6.3. Buck Lake is 4.3. The Buck Lake Lookout spur is 700 metres, and it is the one rated moderate to difficult, because the view costs you a climb. You are not choosing once in the morning. You can do a short one, come back to the bus for your sandwich, and go out again.
In the second week of October this is Muskoka hardwood at or near its best, which is why the trip runs on the Monday of Thanksgiving weekend rather than in August.
Six hours, eighteen trails, and no wrong answer.
Every one of these starts from the car park the bus drops you at. The lengths and the ratings are Limberlost's own.
We pick you up
Just north of the Yonge and Bloor subway stop. Come up the Asquith exit and look for the bus.
This route runs a full-size coach, with a washroom on board.
The shortest trail on the property and the only short one they rate moderate to difficult, which tells you it goes up. It is the panoramic one, out over the lakes and the hardwood, and in the second week of October it is the reason most people are here. Pair it with the Buck Lake Trail, 4.3 kilometres and rated easy to moderate, if you want a morning out of it.
Good to know:
The longest single trail on the map and still rated easy to moderate, so it is distance rather than difficulty. Lakeside for a good deal of it. At an unhurried pace with stops for photographs it fills most of an afternoon, which fits neatly inside the six hours the bus gives you.
Good to know:
Clear Lake is 1.5 kilometres and easy, and it is the answer if walking all day is not the point of your Thanksgiving. High Lake is 1.8 and Helve Lake is another 1.5, both easy to moderate, so three short loops and a long sit by the water is a perfectly good way to spend the six hours.
Good to know:
We drop you back
The bus returns to the same place it left from, so you go home the way you came.
This is our estimated return time, not a guarantee. Traffic can change it and some trips do run late, so please leave yourself some room afterwards rather than booking something tight against it.
A day of walking in Muskoka in October, with nothing to buy when you get there.
It is a reserve, not a park with a visitor centre. Bring the food and the water you want for the day, because there is nowhere on site to buy either, and the bus does not stop on the way.
Limberlost is open nine to five and our coach leaves at five on the dot. There is no later bus, so give yourself more time than you think a trail needs, especially if you have gone out on the Solitaire.
Pick a date and a fare below. Both come straight from the booking system.
This season has sold out
We're Canada's outdoor bus service. Since 2010 we've taken more than 300,000 people to parks and trails without a car.
Limberlost costs nothing to enter and has no bus that goes anywhere near it. The getting there is the entire reason people do not go.
Every route starts and finishes at the same place, so you are never committed. Walk a kilometre and a half or walk all day.
An ActiveDays leader is on the bus and on the trails. Walk with the group or set off on your own and meet them back at the coach.
It is north of Huntsville, which is a long way up Highway 11 and a longer way back in the dark after a day of walking.
★★★★★ 4.6/5.0 on Google
“I just recently went on my first guided tour with a friend of mine from work. And man, was it amazing! Speaking from someone who doesn’t drive. This is a must!!”Linda Ann · Facebook · Jun 2024
I have always had excellent experiences with Parkbus. I have been to many of their destinations, and I have thoroughly enjoyed myself. The ambassadors have been knowledgeable and friendly. The drivers drive safely, and with the passengers’ comfort in mind.Sharlene Haye · Google
Came with my friend in April, our guide Mike did a great job! Nice tour, small group, everything was great! Will go again!Natalia N. · Tripadvisor · Jul 2025
Cancel more than 14 days before departure and you get a 90% refund, with 10% withheld for payment processing. Inside 14 days refunds are not available, except for a medical emergency in the 48 hours before departure, which needs a signed doctor’s note within 14 days of the missed trip and returns 50%. Tickets are transferable: you can change the passenger name up to 48 hours before departure.
If Parkbus cancels a trip, you get a full refund. We decide no later than 48 hours before departure and only on confirmed conditions: the park closed or the park authority asking us to stand down, an evacuation order or alert, an area restriction order, the highway closed, or the trip judged unsafe to run. A forecast is not one of those things, and trips run rain or shine.
We handle the logistics. You handle the adventure.
Not quite the right fit? These all leave from the same spot downtown.
