This is not a "blog" in the sense of a daily journal but a place for me to post GPS trail maps of mountain biking and hiking trails, particularly but not exclusively, in the western Greenbelt in Ottawa, Ontario.

Hybrid & E-Bikeable Routes and National Capital Region Cycling Routes and Resources are also included on this site,

Date codes do not reflect actual posting dates but are manipulated to allow me to order the posts in a thematic order.

Showing posts with label trail maps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label trail maps. Show all posts

20001005

Stittsville “Jackson Trails” Trail System

I first noticed these trails when I was riding the urban paths in the area and saw a “lane” indicated on the Backroad Mapbooks map on my GPS. I looked closer and decided to check it out on my mountain bike and discovered a whole unmapped trail system back there.

Map note: The urban paths, indicated in blue on the map, are not included with GPX file except for the link connecting the red trails together.

The first thing I noticed was that these trails appear to be well maintained, about the width of a vehicle and apparently kept cleared by some kind of mowing equipment. Most of them are hard packed grass trails, with some gravel/dirt/rock sections, but because they are hard packed they are easier to ride on than most grass trails.

There are essentially two types of vegetation in this system which you can see on the Google Earth view in the background of the map. Where the Main Trails are are smaller trees, brush and bushes and tall grasses, while the area to the northeast where the Forest Trail is is denser bush. This trail is different also, not being packed grass but more like a very primitive cottage or fire road that appears to be abandoned, although it ends next to a cornfield.

The Forest Trail is the most interesting and natural trail as you can see from the photos. That area of dense forest is unfortunately zoned Development Reserve.

Map note: You will notice that the trail running northwest from the pond turns ninety degrees southwest, however it also continues straight but becomes very overgrown. It is what would be called a “cart track” on old topo maps, but appears more like a rarely used ATV trail. It ends at the marker just before Highway 417. That part is not on the GPX file.

The area where the Main Trails are is zoned Rural Countryside.

Map note: You will notice the “Homestead” marker on the map, which is where the remnants of an old homestead can be seen (see photos). There is another remnant of an old homestead next to the “Main Trails” label on the map at the intersection.

Map note: You will notice a “Bridge” marker along the back trail running southwest. At that point there is a creek with a very nice new wooden bridge set up to go across it but not put in place yet. The other side of the bridge appears to be a very overgrown trail which likely leads to the trail passing by the homestead where the well maintained well defined trail also appears to become a very overgrown trail that I did not follow and so is not on the GPX file.

Map note: The southwestern end of the trail that goes by the bridge ends at a farm but it is possible, but not recommended except in an emergency, to follow another overgrown trail to the inside of the farmer's gate where there is a cement barricade that it is possible to lift your bike over, but you would be clearly trespassing if you did that.

Map note: You will also notice a section of trail marked “Field”. I only included this because of it's proximity to the other trails. It is similar in being a maintained trail clearly indicated by having it's path mowed through a grassy field.

I really have no idea what these trails are for although they are well maintained but appear to be unofficial. My best guess is that they are ATV/snowmobile trails, although the few times I have been there I have only seen dog walkers on them. They do make a great unofficial off leash dog area. The old homesteads are kind of neat to see and the Forest Trail is really nice.

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.

Photos of Main Trails

Photos of Old Homestead

Photos of Forest Trail

Posted 2013-10-08

20000930

South March Highlands Trails

This website was originally intended to just include maps of the Greenbelt trails within Ottawa but as I rode other trails I decided to include them as well, including the South March Highlands (SMH) trails.

Since before the creation of the City of Kanata in 1978 there have been concerns raised about the proposed development of Ottawa’s most bio-diverse natural area, the South March Highlands. We will look at these concerns at the end of this post.

(click on all maps to enlarge images)

 The South March Highlands is home to the most natural and technical mountain biking trails within the City of Ottawa that are considered to be amongst the ten best mountain biking trails in Canada. The extensive trail network includes trails on city-owned land as well as trails on private land slated for development. The Ottawa Mountain Bike Association (OMBA) maintains a sustainable trail network within the City-owned South March Highlands Conservation Forest, for which the City is now developing a management plan.

My comments, concerns and submissions about the South March Highlands Conservation Forest Management Plan can be read on my blog,The Fifth Column.

Historical Maps of the South March Highlands/Kanata Lakes Trails





 Latest OMBA Map 2013


More detailed maps of the different parts of the SMH trail system follow this post.

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.

South March Highlands (SMH) Development Proposals


The Map below puts these trails within the context of the rest of the South March Highlands and the destruction planned for it.


The key things to know about the South March Highlands are:

• it is a popular all year recreation destination for people from all over Ottawa and an international mountain biking destination

• while, within the City of Ottawa, it feels like wilderness when you are in it

• it is a candidate Area of Natural and Scientific Interest (ANSI)

• it is the most biodiverse area within Ottawa

• it is the home to a huge number of species of flora and fauna, including many endangered and threatened species

• it contains old growth forests and provincially significant wetlands

• it includes Canadian Shield geology and other significant geological features

• it is the site of numerous pre-contact (pre-European) archaeological sites and may be eligible for UN World Heritage Site status

• it has been declared sacred by Algonquin First Nations chiefs and elders

• the area considered the most environmentally significant, Trillium Woods, is under great ecological threat because KNL's development plans will cut it off from the rest of the city-owned Conservation Forest

• while the privately owned land north of the city-owned Conservation Forest is zoned Environmental Protection, that has been proven not to be enough to protect the land from the threat of development
But the most important thing that you need to know about the South March Highlands is that it is one ecosystem and harm to one part of it harms all of it and if you want to protect part of it you must protect all of it.

You can read my concerns about the development of the South March Highlands on my blog, The Fifth Column.

Posted 2011-09-02
Updated 2017-10-30

20000925

South March Highlands Conservation Forest Intermediate Mountain Biking Trails

The South March Highlands is home to the most natural and technical mountain biking trails within the City of Ottawa, that are considered to be amongst the ten best mountain biking trails in Canada. The extensive trail network includes trails on city-owned land as well as trails on private land slated for development. The Ottawa Mountain Bike Association (OMBA) maintains a sustainable trail network within the City-owned South March Highlands Conservation Forest for which the City is now developing a management plan.

(click on all maps to enlarge images)

Although this trail network is a favourite amongst advanced and elite mountain bikers it does include trails that less experienced riders can enjoy. The map above shows the trails that are rode by the Group D beginner group during OMBA group rides. However, in the broader context of mountain biking trails in the Ottawa area, including the Greenbelt trails, these are better described as intermediate level trails.

This map includes some new trail names, as some trails have been renamed as OMBA prepares to publish a new map in co-operation with the City, along with providing signage within the trail system.

The "FB" trail, with it's rather infamous history that I will not go into here, is being renamed. A request was made that the trail be named to honour the woman, Sharon, who built the trail for her sled dogs and it was decided to rename the trail Dog Sled Trail.

The Rockhopper Extension has been renamed Porcupine Trail to eliminate confusion with the main Rockhopper Trail.

The trail sometimes referred to as Bear Tree and sometimes Bearclaw will be known as Bear Tree Trail.

As the Rockhopper Junior Trail is slated to be closed By the City, I have not included it's name on the map, although the trail is still indicated, as it is still open.

The most recent OMBA map is shown below.

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 2011-09-02
Updated 2011-10-04

20000920

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

20000915

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
 

20000910

Marlborough Forest Roads

My first experience with the Marlborough Forest was in trying to follow the Rideau Trail through the forest and map it with my GPS. I started following it with the Rideau Trail map along the forest roads till it went off onto single track and almost immediately became a messy mud hole with signs of some kind of tractor or ATV traffic. It was clearly not rideable and an unsustainable route. I then decided to just start by mapping the forest roads.


The closest access point to Kanata is along Kettles Road south of Richmond, near the rail line not far from the South end of Munster Road. There is also a small parking area at the end of O'Neil Road and a large parking lot along Roger Stevens Drive.

Over several days I followed all the interconnecting roads starting from Kettles Road. There may be other roads in the forest that do not connect to these roads. The roads are closed to motorized traffic during the summer period due to fire hazard but are open during the spring and fall and open to snowmobiles in the winter. These are rough forest roads and I would be cautious driving them, although trucks and SUVs with high clearance should have no problems.

Biking through the forest you do feel like you are in the wilderness. The only drawback is that the width of the roads partly detracts from the experience. If it was single track it would be wonderful. The real advantage is that you cannot do any harm riding them when they are wet and muddy, during those times when the MTB trails are too wet and muddy to ride. They really are fun to tool around on and there is lots of distance to cover. I learned that when I had to walk my bike back to the parking area with a broken chain.


There are a lot of side trails and cart tracks off the roads. I don't think much of it could really be described as single track but there is still a lot more in the system for me to explore and map with my GPS. So hopefully these maps will be updated in the future.

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 2009-09-10
Updated 2011-04-10

19900105

Beyond Richard's GPS Trail Maps – Open Street Map and GPS Visualizer

When I fist started mountain biking one of the first things I noticed was the number of unofficial trails in the Greenbelt not on the NCC maps, or other maps that I was aware of. So I decided to make it a project to map all of the NCC trails in the Greenbelt, including those not on the NCC maps. I never did get beyond the western Greenbelt because there were enough places there to ride without heading to the far east of the city. However I did end up adding some trail systems not part of NCC lands. One commercial map source even requested to use my maps in their products, to which I agreed in exchange for a copy of the map my trail maps were included in.

Now that I have retired from mountain biking I will not be updating these maps anymore (although I intend to expand on the E-Bikeable routes section of this site). I hope people will still find value in the trail descriptions and slide shows that are not available elsewhere.

Fortunately there are now many free options for trail maps of the Greenbelt and other areas. One of the best is the “community driven” Open Street Map project. Despite it’s name it has excellent trail coverage. Their coverage of the Old Quarry Trail System, which I am most familiar with, is excellent.

There are a number of sites where one can download maps based on Open Street Map data. The one I find the most convenient and easiest to use to download maps to load on my Garmin GPS and to install on my computer for use with BaseCamp or MapSource is Open Map Chest. You can download the Open Map Chest Canada map here.

I also discovered another map site, 4Umaps, that looks like it may be interesting, but more complicated. It may be worth examining further.

For those that like to create maps of the tracks of their rides or hikes to share, using the gpx or gdb files, there is an excellent web site, GPS Visualizer, that allows you to do this. It uses a number of different background maps, some based on Open Street Map, and includes topographical and relief maps and satellite imagery. I usually go directly here to create my GPS visualizer maps and then take a screenshot of the results.

 Open Map Chest Canada Sample Map Showing Track of a Ride

 

GPS Visualizer Sample Maps (not all options are shown) Showing Track of a Ride

ArcGIS Hybrid

 

ArcGIS Street Map


Canada Toporama

Open Street Map

 

OSM 4UMaps

OSM Topo

 

Posted:2023-10-08

 

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Richard W. Woodley was born in Sudbury, Ontario in 1950. He earned an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Laurentian University where he was the News Editor of the student newspaper Lambda and active in student politics. He was active in the New Democratic Party and Waffle in Sudbury and Kanata, as well as Kanata municipal politics. He was a member of the Bridlewood Residents Hydro Line Committee (BRHLC) and creator of the now archived Bridlewood Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs) Information Service. He worked on Parliament Hill for 33 years indexing the Debates of the House of Commons (Hansard) and it's committees. Richard has been an outdoorsperson and environmentalist for most of his life and a life long cyclist who also mountain bikes.