Our Cabin

Our prized possession is our cabin in the woods, located just southwest of Collingwood, ON. The Cabin is owned and operated by our club, and was built by club members in 1968. It is located directly on the Bruce Trail, at the base of Metcalfe Rock, a gem on the escarpment (a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve) boasting the province's best rock-climbing routes, explorable fissures and caves, and unbeatable views over Grey County. The Cabin is used to host a variety of club events, trips, and excursion weekends. Popular activities at the cabin include cross-country skiing on the over 45km of trails leading right away from the cabin's doorstep, mountain biking, hiking, caving, rock climbing, swimming, and canoeing.

The cabin has no electricity, instead being lit by propane and solar lamps, and heated by a wood-burning oven for that extra cozy feel. It also has no running water - instead we get our water from a stream we have deeded access to, that we have tapped into directly from the depths of Metcalfe Rock. 

Every user of the cabin is charged rent to cover basics costs. . Rates for club trips (sent out via the mailing list) are listed here. It costs us about $8000 a year to just to keep the cabin open (not including any repairs or upgrades), for our property insurance, property tax, propane, firewood, and snow clearing. Just by paying your share you’re helping us keep the cabin open and to be enjoyed not only for you but for years to come.

We also rent out our cabin privately both to members and occasionally members of the general public.

More details about our cabin, including photos, can be found in the Stay at our Cabin page.

Land Acknowledgement

The University of Toronto Outing Club (UTOC) was founded in 1957 by U of T students. Since our incorporation, our mandate has been to make outdoor recreation as accessible as possible, especially to enthusiasts from the Greater Toronto Area and Grey-Bruce County communities, in addition to U of T students, staff, and alumni. 

We wish to acknowledge the land on which the University of Toronto operates. For thousands of years, it has been the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and the Mississaugas of the Credit. We would also like to acknowledge the land near Metcalfe Rock on which our cabin resides. For thousands of years, it has been the traditional land of the Haudenosaunee, Iroquois, Ojibway, Chippewa, and Anishinabek. Today, these lands are still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island. As an organization of largely settlers, we are grateful for the opportunity to operate on these lands and thank the people who have been the stewards of these lands for generations.

We acknowledge the central role that land plays in Indigenous peoples’ ways of being, creating, knowing, and living. Settler colonialism continues to disrupt and devalue these diverse knowledge systems and ways of life. Land acknowledgements like this one often serve only to allow settler culture to continue existing as it has for generations, without encouraging us to take the material actions required to support Indigenous peoples.

If anyone has any questions or suggestions for how UTOC’s might take more action to honour this acknowledgement, please reach out to us at equity@utoc.ca.