View topic - Sherborne Lake Road

Three years ago, I used Sherborne Lake Road to access some of the canoe trails in Haliburton Highlands, in the old Leslie Frost Conservation Area. When I used the road, it was perfectly fine to take an ordinary automobile. Now, when I go to the Haliburton Highlands Water Trails reservation site, I get a warning: "Sherborne Lake, Cinder Lake and Dan Lake Forest Access Roads are all use at your own risk roads that receive minimal maintenance. Vehicles with high ground clearance and AWD or 4WD are required." This means that either the road's condition has deteriorated substantially in three years, or the HHWT site is just being super cautious and risk-averse.

Does anyone have recent experience with Sherborne Lake Road road?

I’m sorry not much help. But I was there 2 years ago and it was fine...few rocks to watch out for with a car but otherwise ok. There are other roads to access frost centre that are in much better shape. Like Big Hawk, Wren, and I believe Raven.

Sam

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"It's healthy to be dirty" - Lars Monsen

I've been there 3 weeks ago - road is in decent condition. I noticed some minor deterioration comparing with last year - probably as a result of heavy rains, but nothing really bad. There is probably few spots when regular car driver should pay attention and drive really slow, but I'd say it perfectly passable on passenger car. Unless of course nothing changed in past 3 weeks.

Thanks for the helpful replies!

Back ten years ago, I used to regularly use Dan Lake Road: now that was scary, especially since I did it in little rental cars.

Glad I could help. Forgot to mention that I drive Toyota 4Runner, so I don't mind to drive scary roads, Sherborne Lake road was not scary at all. Few potholes here and there, few small sticking rocks, a couple small washouts at the edge of the road, I would easily take a regular car there. It probably could be challenging in heavy rain, but still passable in my opinion. I'm going there this long weekend, can post dashcam video somewhere if you didn't already drive there by this time : )

If you posted a dashcam video, I'd be really grateful! I'm already grateful for the description. I'll probably be going later this summer. Have fun this weekend!

Hi,

Just put video on youtube, had to split it though to make more manageable. Road takes about 30 min, a little rough in few places for low clearance passenger cars, but doable if you know how to drive on uneven dirt roads

https://youtu.be/jjLMWtnWusQ
https://youtu.be/ublIcn6Y6XY
https://youtu.be/Ngs1FkBvTZ0

Youtube quality is not great, so I uploaded original video here (had to zip it in parts since it 5 Gb in HD) so you can download 5 Gb and unzip it :

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AQiuac ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XBx5uk ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/14tGSYt ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NV2Bvl ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sAYQW2 ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ErGd86 ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jBD77y ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/14cgvyO ... sp=sharing

I had the impression parking at the end was private for the couple cottages there.

Nope. I think it's shown as an access pt on th HHWT map

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Old canoeists never die---they just smell that way.

Not private at all. Crown land, crown road, shown as an access on the Haliburton Water Trails map. Technically the area us under management of the Municipality (campsite permits etc.).
There are a couple campsites at the very end of the road, but the parking lot is big enough for several cars, a turn around etc.

Sorry for the late reply. Thanks for this! I will check the videos out. I think, from a few minutes of watching, that it basically looks fine.

No worries. YouTube reduces quality a lot, to the point it's not clearly visible why I was slowing down, and it was not just for sharp turns ; ) Original files is true HD but still light is not the best for an old dashcam. There's few places which requires high clearance or very careful driving, might be tricky when it's wet. But I've seen a couple of sedans on the parking, so it's possible. But if you're going not on weekend it might be long walk back to 35 if you manage to stuck or damage your car.

It's not a bad road at all. Had a race through there 3 weeks back and we traversed a decent chunk of it on the mountain bikes. My dad took a Dodge Caravan down without any issues. Race staff took sedans etc. Just watch out for a few loose rocks. unless you're driving a sports car or lowered your ride, you should be fine.

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