Ten Years Deep in the Boreal: The Manitouwadge ATV Jamboree Turns 10

There are rides you do on roads, and then there's the Manitouwadge ATV Jamboree. For ten years now, this little town tucked into Ontario's Superior Country has been throwing open the gates to more than 100 kilometres of trail cut straight through the boreal forest — and on Saturday, July 18, 2026, it celebrates a full decade of doing it right.

Let me be clear about what you're signing up for. This is not a Sunday cruise down gravel concessions. Down south, a jamboree usually means machines lined up nose-to-tail on travelling roads. Up here, the trails are carved through deep bush — creeks, swamps, boreal muskeg, and the kind of terrain that occasionally has the trail crew winching a side-by-side out of a hole while everybody else grabs a breather and a laugh. It's a different animal altogether. As organizer Karen Robinson put it to me, you're not going down a road — you're going through the forest. That's the whole point.

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A loop built for the backcountry

This year the crew is working to run everyone on a single shared loop, which means the whole pack rides together through the best of it. The headline stop is Manitou Falls, one of the bigger waterfalls in the region, where the trail opens onto a beach and the boreal shows off. Beyond that, expect lakes, rivers, and streams threaded between the trees, and a real chance of crossing paths with the wildlife that calls this forest home. The trail guys are still scouting which loops are running — that's the nature of riding country this wild — but Manitou Falls is locked in.

A town that shows up

Here's the thing that separates Manitouwadge from the pack: the community. This is a small northern town that takes hospitality personally. Riders coming in from out of town stay with family, in booked-solid Airbnbs, at the local hotel, or camp out at Kevin Turner's Northwoods Adventures lodge. The committee's philosophy is simple — if you need something, they'll find it for you. The funds raised by the jamboree flow right back into the local economy through the area's economic development corporation, so every kilometre you ride is putting something back into the community that's hosting you. That's the spirit of small-town Northern Ontario, and you feel it the moment you roll in.

Coming from everywhere

Registration only opened a week before I spoke with Karen, and the machines are already rolling in from all directions. Early sign-ups are coming from Kapuskasing, Michigan, Matheson, and the Timmins area — and the local district hasn't even fully jumped in yet. With the highway network feeding into town, this event is genuinely within reach for riders across Ontario and the upper Midwest. It's also no longer a boys' club; more and more women are bringing their own machines and riding their own lines. The jamboree fills fast every year and tickets sell out, so if you want in, don't sit on it.

What $140 gets you

A single registration runs $140 per person, and it's stacked. You get a proper lunch on the trail, a big banquet dinner in the evening, and a poker run that puts three valuable prizes up for grabs. The banquet is where the town's businesses go all out — last year every single rider walked away with a prize. For the 10th anniversary, the crew has gone bigger: everybody takes home commemorative swag, including soft coolers and buffs branded for the milestone year.

A few ground rules before you twist the throttle. Maximum two riders per machine, no one under 12 (insurance conditions), and your machine needs to be insured with a valid driver's licence on hand. There's a full rules-and-regulations sheet that comes with registration — read it. And remember: this is not a race. It's a ride. The other essential? Bug dope, and plenty of it. The boreal grows world-class blackflies and mosquitoes, and they are not shy. Pack accordingly.

What A Ride will be there

I'm bringing the What A Ride cameras north for this one. On Saturday, July 18, we'll be on the loop capturing photo and video of the tenth-anniversary jamboree — the trails, the falls, the mud, the banquet, and the people who make it all happen. If you've ever wanted your run through the boreal documented, this is the year.

So here's my pitch, rider to rider: gear up, grab your registration through the Manitouwadge ATV Jamboree Facebook page before it sells out, and come point your machine at the deep bush with us. Ten years in, this event has earned its reputation the hard way — one cut trail, one winched machine, and one welcoming small town at a time. I'll see you at the falls.

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