McGeachie sits on the north shore of Steenburg Lake in Hastings County, about three hours northeast of Toronto. Eight kilometres of interconnected loops through oak, maple and basswood that have been putting on rings for more than a century, an 1860s homestead still standing, and a guide who knows which loop to take.
Pick your date below. The bus leaves from 34 Asquith Avenue, just north of Yonge and Bloor.
Dates not open yet
We put seats on sale one season at a time, and this one is not up yet. Nothing is hidden and there is no list to pay to join. Leave your email and you hear the day the dates open.
Cancel 14 or more days before you go and you get 90% back.
A Parkbus guide is with the group for the whole day. You are not expected to know the trail, the route or the plan, and nobody gets left behind.
A few hours of walking on real trail, with uneven ground and some climbing. Roots, rocks and hills, so proper shoes matter. Not a stroll.
The land was given to the Crowe Valley Conservation Authority in 1994 by Jack and Ethel McGeachie, whose family had looked after it for generations. The original 1860s homestead is still standing.
After the white pine was logged out in the 1870s, the property was largely left to itself. Walk it now and you are moving past oaks, maples and basswoods that have been growing for well over a century, which is rare this far south in Ontario.
The trail system is six interconnected loops, coloured blue, orange, black, green, red and purple, totalling about eight kilometres. Nothing punishing: rolling forest walking with some exposed rock, a few rooty stretches and beaver pond lookouts.
Five hundred acres, and almost nobody knows.
A guided hike in the morning and early afternoon, then a second conservation area for the rest of it.
We pick you up
Just north of Yonge and Bloor subway station. Come up the Asquith exit and look for the coach.
Your guide leads from the start of the trail and picks the loop combination that suits the group. They stop to point out what most walkers go straight past: the 1860s homestead, the glacial boulders sitting in the middle of the forest, the beaver pond lookouts and usually the lodge in the water, and why the same property looks like two different forests depending which side of the ridge you are on.
Good to know:
Facilities: A portable toilet at the car park at the start of the trail. That is all there is on the property.
The bus moves on to Crowe Bridge Conservation Area for the second half of the afternoon, on the Crowe River.
Good to know:
Note: The trip schedule lists this second stop but carries no description of it, and the Webflow page has a 'Cooling Off' heading with nothing written under it. Rather than invent an afternoon, this page says only what the schedule says. See the note in this record's _meta.
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.
Good footwear matters more than fitness on this one.
This is the Canadian Shield in early summer. Black flies and mosquitoes are part of the deal. Good repellent and light long sleeves go a long way, and the forest cover helps.
There is a portable toilet at the car park at the start of the trail and nothing else on the property. Cell service is patchy at best, so treat it as a day off your phone.
No dogs on this trip.
Bring a rain shell. The trails are marked, your guide knows the route, and the canopy takes the edge off most weather. We only cancel for genuinely unsafe conditions, and you would hear from us in advance.
This one runs in the warm months. Dates appear here when they open in the booking system.
Placeholder dates · the real ones come from our booking system
We're Canada's outdoor bus service. Since 2010 we've taken more than 300,000 people to parks and trails without a car. You bring lunch and decent shoes. We handle everything with wheels.
Six loops, no maps on site beyond the sign at the start of the trail. A guide who knows the property is the difference between a nice walk and an actual day.
Largely untouched since the white pine logging of the 1870s. Most of central Ontario was cut hard and then cut again. This was not.
This is not a park with a queue. It is 500 acres in Hastings County that almost nobody has heard of.
Three hours back after a day walking. Read, sleep, or talk to whoever you met on the trail.
★★★★★ 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.
Three hours out, a guided hike, a swim stop, and three hours back that you sleep through.
Not quite the right fit? These all leave from the same spot downtown.
