South March Highlands Kanata Lakes Trails

These are the trails that I first tried serious mountain biking on. Indeed the first time I tried them on my old CCM I turned around and rode the gravel paths on the parking lot side of the road. But that did inspire me to invest in a proper entry level full suspension mountain bike and venture to join an MTB Kanata group ride. But after being left in the dust I turned around and rode the easy trails again, only to find out later that the other riders had been waiting for me further up the trail. After a few MTB Kanata group rides in the Greenbelt I ventured out with the group again on the KL trails and have been riding them and the trails in the SMH Conservation Forest ever since.

Please click on the maps posted below to enlarge the images

The trails referred to as the Kanata Lakes Trails are the trails in the South March Highlands that are southeast of the Conservation Forest Trails that the Ottawa Mountain Bike Association group rides are held on (between Goulbourn Forced Road and the new Terry Fox Drive Extension). These are primarily on the KNL Urbandale lands (Phase 7) that are slated for destruction. The trails mapped also include some trails in what was called the "dark side" where the landowners had posted No Trespassing signs and fenced off the land. These trails now seem to all be accessible again, at least some of the land having been purchased by the City, the rest owned by developers and slated for destruction.

I started mapping these trails in May this year and wrote about it on my blog The Fifth Column.

Most of these trails were originally nature trails and cross-country ski trails as the old City of Kanata Map below (date unknown) indicates.


GPS gpx Files

The gpx file for this trail system (and other trail systems) can be downloaded by clicking the link below:

GPX files - Google Docs

If you do download the gpx file please email me at richardw.woodley@gmail.com and let me know so that I have an idea of how many people are downloading and using the files.

Posted 2011-08-16
Updated 2011-10-04

South March Highlands Beaver Pond, Trillium Woods & Shadow's Ridge Trails

Updated in September 2016 to include the Shadows Ridge Trail and a new offshoot from Trillium Woods Trail and in October 2016 to include a newly discovered trail that crosses over Shadow's Ridge Trail and some other new trail sections.

The clearcut and destruction of the Beaver Pond Forest by KNL/Urbandale means that the dirt mountain biking trails such as the Lost and Found trails, behind the Goulbourn Forced Road (GFR) parking lot in the South March Highlands (SMH), will be destroyed forever. The land is already posted with No Trespassing signs and most of the access is fenced off awaiting blasting for the construction of roads and ticky tacky subdivision houses.

Fortunately the lands north of the rail line are in the protected city-owned Trillium Woods. The Trillium Woods Trail is comprised of natural dirt trails west of GFR, including a trail up to Terry Fox Drive providing access to the SMH Conservation Forest trails, also on protected city-owned land. The Trillium Woods Trail is a beginner level mountain biking trail.

The Trillium Woods Trail continues on the east side of GFR where it is primarily a gravel path that previously connected to the path from the Beaver Pond parking lot to the GFR parking lot as well as to a path along the rail line.

The section of Trillium Woods Trail from near the bridge on the gravel path southwest to GFR is also a dirt trail but is usually very muddy in sections in the spring and after heavy rainfalls, although not during the summer of 2016

Within Trillium Woods, on both sides of Goulbourn Forced Road, is a new purpose-built intermediate level mountain biking trail, Shadow's Ridge, built by the Ottawa Mountain Bike Association (OMBA) in co-operation with the City of Ottawa. This trail was just completed in September 2016.

The gravel path from the Beaver Pond parking lot to the GFR parking lot follows a narrow corridor. Although this is a just a gravel path it does have it's challenges due to several hills, including some very steep sections (see altitude profile below).

The connections between the Trillium Woods Trail and the Beaver Pond Trail were originally fenced off by the developer with no trespassing signs. However vigilante residents had opened up the connections, including cutting through the wire gate at one point.

Since then development of the area has come to a standstill as the developer deals with a flawed storm water management plan (that depended on two provincially significant wetlands) as well as other conditions of the subdivision agreement that they failed to meet.

The fencing has since been removed and all the trails on these maps are now continuous and open, at least for the foreseeable future. However the Lost and Found Trails are mostly destroyed and what is left is behind fences and No Trespassing signs.

 GPS Files

The gpx file for this trail system (and other trail systems) can be downloaded by clicking the link below:

GPX files - Google Docs

 If you do download the gpx file please email me at richardw.woodley@gmail.com and let me know so that I have an idea of how many people are downloading and using the files.  

Photos

I hope to add photos or slide shows to each of the specific trail sections above in the future.

 Posted 2011-05-22 
Updated 2016-10-21