Brewer Park, The Rideau River Nature Trail, Innes Road, and the Ottawa River Pathway

A long ride yesterday, first to Brewer Park Arena where my son had a morning game. The route I followed to get there goes around Dow’s Lake, through the Arboretum, over the canal at the locks across from Carleton University, and through the campus, without having to travel along absolutely awful Bronson.

At Dow’s Lake stands this giant fellow with two hats raised in greeting. This is the Netherlands Canada Liberation Monument. His twin is standing in Apeldoom, Holland, hats raised as well. They do so in commemoration of the sacrifices made by Canadian soldiers in the liberation of the Netherlands in WWII.

After the game (win!) I headed off to the Home Depot on Cyrville Road in search of the perfect plywood, as described in my previous post. I biked over to the Rideau River and rolled along the path that hugs its north shore.

The path morphs into the wonderful Rideau River Nature Trail just beyond Smyth Road. Most of the trail is dirt path, with interpretive panels interspersed along the way.

The trail goes as far as the Transitway bridge which includes a bike path across the river.

To get to the other side of the 417 I would recommend the route I’ve hi-lited in red, versus the one I continued along in blue, and here’s why.

This is the shared pathway along Innes starting at St Laurent Boulevard.

At Windmill Lane, just before crossing over the 417, the bike path turns into this….

Just beyond the 417 East off-ramp, the bridge over the highway looks like this….

In desperation pedestrians and bicyclists alike must have forged the precarious dirt path hugging the guard rail to avoid being hit by speeding traffic flying along Innes. This madness continues until just beyond the 417 West off-ramp, where the bike lane picks up again.

The route I recommend, hi-lited in red, takes you to the Cyrville Road bridge over the 417. No bike lane, but the traffic is slightly calmer and there are no off-ramps to contend with. That said, getting across the 417 by bike in this area is dangerous no matter how you slice it.

After finding what I was after at Home Depot I continued east along the Innes bike lane, and happened upon the Detention Centre that has recently been in the news. Guards and staff have been accused of not properly attending to a woman in custody while she was giving birth, as described in this article.

I eventually headed north along the Greenbelt Pathway, re-visiting fields that just a short while ago were abloom with wild flowers. “Come back… come back again next year….”, whispered the wind as it blew through the tall dry grass. No wait. Sorry, it just went, “swoosh… swoosh… swoosh….”. Very beautiful none-the-less.

The Greenbelt Pathway ends at the Ottawa River Pathway which I followed all the way to Rockcliffe.

There’s been construction along the Rockliffe Parkway for quite some time but now they’ve introduced temporary bike lanes through the construction zone which I took advantage of. UPDATE– April 2015: The new bike lane along the Parkway has been finished for awhile and it is very nice,

Hello November.