Ottawa\'s biking paradise

Mark Anderson: Ottawa's biking paradise

Mark Anderson, The Ottawa Citizen

Published: Tuesday, August 21, 2007

It's 5 p.m., prime time for clogged arterials and road rage. I can't stand driving when it's thick like this. So I bike instead.

And just like that, the city transforms itself from concrete and glass to trees and grass; from gridlock to free, unfettered flow; from grey to green. If you haven't done so already, try it. Ottawa in the summer is a biking, hiking, rollerblading Mecca, recognized as having one of the best urban trail networks in North America. You can't beat the exercise, but what's really astounding is how quickly -- in heart of the city, at the height of rush hour -- the urban landscape can be made to vanish, the natural world to assert itself.

There are many trails. My current favourite, the Rideau River pathway, begins at the corner of Sussex Drive and Stanley Avenue -- a very busy corner indeed during rush hour. But the bike path peels away immediately into New Edinburgh Park, the roar of traffic fades to a whisper, and for the next hour, as you follow the river southwest toward Hog's Back, you will travel a virtually uninterrupted natural corridor of contiguous parkland, where you are guaranteed to see more bikes than cars, more ducks than bikes, more pines than ducks, and to the right, always, the sparkling river.

Ottawa has one of the best urban bikeways in North America and, columnist Mark Anderson says that it sure beats being stalled in traffic.

Past the former Ottawa city hall, on the other side of the whimsical, lacy Minto Bridges, you'll find New Edinburgh Park. If you were here after nightfall, Aug. 11, you would have seen the park transformed into a magical realm of candle lanterns and costumed performers, as the Crichton Cultural Community Centre held its fourth annual Lumire Festival. Now, in the slanting light of late afternoon, it belongs to Frisbee players, dog walkers, tennis players and soccer kids.

Eighteen lanes of traffic converge at the corner of St. Patrick Street and Vanier Parkway. It's congested day and night, and it's noisy. For you, this intersection doesn't exist: you don't hear the engines, smell the exhaust or wait for the light to change. Instead, you glide silent and safe below the St. Patrick Street bridge, hard by the Rideau River, and when you emerge on the other side you cruise through yet more parkland.

Likewise, the vehicular mayhem that is the Montreal Road-Vanier Parkway intersection is bypassed by crossing under the beautiful, five-arch Cummings Bridge. And so it goes, mile after mile, bridge after bridge, park after park. At Rideau River Park (past Strathcona Park and Hurdman Park), you can see Ottawa's famous royal swans cruising the shoreline.

Under the G. Dunbar (Bronson) Bridge, you can often see a solitary angler casting huge plugs amid the pilings: there are musky here, some of them 30 pounds or better.

At Vincent Massey Park, across from Carleton University, the pathway begins to climb -- one of the few places where you may have to gear down -- and the character of the river changes from lazy curves and algae blooms to youthful, laughing rapids. By the time you cycle into Hog's Back Park, the river is a raging chute, and then, just like that, it's calm again, and you find yourself coasting into Mooney's Bay beach.

This is pretty much the end of the line for this particular path: you can go back the way you came, but I prefer to cross the Rideau River at Hog's Back, then follow the Rideau Canal past Carleton University, past Lansdowne Park, past Dows Lake (with it's ever-present paddle boats), under the Queensway at Pretoria Bridge, past the University of Ottawa, and back onto Sussex. It's not as wild, and you do see a bit more traffic, but it makes for a nice, hour-long loop.

Of course, it's not the only ride in town. Instead of the Rideau River pathway southeast, you can take the Ottawa River pathway northwest, past the Parliament Buildings all the way to Andrew Haydon Park in old Nepean. Or you can cross the river to Gatineau and take the Aylmer Trail all the way to the Aylmer marina and beach.

Each of these routes highlights the fact that there are really two national capitals: one that's been built over the last 200 years and continues to be built day by day; another that's always been here, but that we no longer see. Not unless we put away the car keys and strap on the bike helmet every once in a while. Just to remind ourselves: it's a rare and beautiful thing, this place called Ottawa.

Mark Anderson is an Ottawa writer.

© The Ottawa Citizen 2007

[虔谦]

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