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Almost a year after a forest fire scorched the Mantario Trail, provincial parks officials remain unsure whether Manitoba’s most popular distance-hiking trail will reopen in 2026.
Roughly half of the 63-kilometre trail was burned by the fire known as EA063, which began near Ingolf, Ont., in May 2025 before spreading into Manitoba’s Whiteshell Provincial Park.
The trail has now been closed for 11 months. Manitoba Parks has conducted what it calls “an initial assessment” of the fire damage.
“That work found that roughly half of the trail was affected to varying degrees, with some sections experiencing more significant impacts that have made the trail difficult to follow in places,” the province said in a statement it did not attribute to any official.
The damage “presents safety concerns” because of fire‑damaged and burned trees, the statement continued.
Dead trees are far more prone to falling than live trees and they render campsites unsafe.
The province did not say which campsites were damaged by fire and what sections of the trail suffered the most damage.
Initial work to make the trail safe for trail runners and hikers is expected to begin this summer, with tree removal and the placement of wayfinding signs, the province stated.
“Decisions on whether the trail will be open in part or in full for the 2026 season have not yet been made and will depend on safety considerations and the progress of this work,” the statement concluded.
The province has built a new $580,000 footbridge over the Whiteshell River along the trail, several kilometres from the southern trailhead near Caddy Lake.
The new bridge appears to have been built as part of infrastructure improvements planned before the wildfire season.
While the Mantario Trail remains closed, the wilderness zone within Whiteshell Provincial Park has not been entirely off-limits.
Peter Panufnik, a member of the Manitoba section of the Alpine Club of Canada, led a ski trip into the wilderness zone in February to visit Mantario Cabin, which is operated by Nature Manitoba on an island in Mantario Lake.
Panufnik, whose group entered from the north end of the trail at Big Whiteshell Lake, said the cabin remains in good condition. Last summer’s wildfires did not destroy the entire wilderness section, he said.
“It’s not complete devastation. There’s pockets of greenery,” Panufnik said Monday in an interview.
As the summer hiking season quickly approaches, Panufnik said, information about the Mantario Trail “is very sparse” and he would like to know more about its condition.
“I would like to understand sort of the timelines and what the province and the parks need as far as resources and help,” he said.
“I think there are a lot of volunteers that would be willing to lend a hand. There’s a lot of interest of people wanting to hike it.
“The sooner we can get some communication from … the province as to what their plans are, I think the better.”
