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The City recently added two stretches of pathway in the east end of Ottawa in Beacon Hill, inside the Greenbelt, with a total length of 4.5 km. We biked from Nepean to check it out.
For several years I have been following the bike infrastructure around the LRT projects now. But, despite being able to look at Google Earth from the comfort of home, I don’t have the area east of the Rideau River very well in my head. I don’t always know what road connects where, where the cycling shortcuts are and where Montreal Road exactly ends.
After several east end councillors posted some maps on social media and after some back and forth about details with avid cyclist Doug van den Ham, I finally decided to hop on the bike and check out the new stretch of bike infrastructure along highway 174. It would be a bit of trip for our standards, but we realised we could always take LRT from Blair back to Mooney’s Bay station if it turned out to be too much.
It was pleasant weather on October 19, so we decided to cycle the pathway from Hog’s Back Falls along the Rideau River all the way to Sussex Drive, turn east on Sussex, past Rideau Hall and the NCC’s boat house, past the Aviation Museum and on to the stone dust pathway along the Ottawa River.
I know very few people in the east end, but as we are cycling on the path near the Upper and Lower Duck islands, a family of three is walking towards us and it turns out I know them. A lovely side effect of cycling, you can stop anytime when you meet someone you know. Try that in your car on Baseline or Innes. We had a 10 minute chat, agreed to meet soon for coffee (we did two weeks later) and then we continued along the river.
The colours of the trees along the pathway were still very beautiful and it was fairly busy on the pathway with people cycling and walking.
Just before Green’s Creek, we steered our bikes away from the river towards the parkway again in order to cross the road and access the pathway behind parking lot #27. The Green’s Creek Pathway would have been a nicer choice, but I wanted to check out the pathway from parking lot #27 which I never cycled before.
Canotek Road
I had half assumed the pathway, which is part of an urban ski trail in winter, connects directly to the new pathway we were going to visit, but no such luck; one has to go through a gap in the fence on to Canotek Road in Beacon Hill, cycle through a light industrial park and eventually turn left into Rainbow Street, a dead end street with a modal filter, allowing you to finally connect with the new pathway at Montreal Road.
The area where Montreal Road and highway 174, with LRT running in the median of the 174, meet is a massive area of concrete and asphalt. In order to continue on the pathway southwest bound, one has to do a bit of a dog leg. But first we went further east to bike towards the Parkway where the new pathway starts, so that we could bike the entire new route.
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Green’s Creek pedestrian and cycling bridge
We crossed the wide bridge across Green’s Creek in Beacon Hill next to the 174 and turned around at the Parkway and biked back to Montreal Rd. Station. Next we crossed Montreal Road with its protected separate cycling infrastructure. It is a major improvement, but I do have serious concerns with the on ramps. There was still work being done (October 2025), but I foresee issues there. Six years ago, safety advocates suggested a 90 degree angle in the road there or even build a pedestrian tunnel, and Councillor Tierney was very enthusiastic about it, but ultimately it didn’t happen.
Someone mentioned we might already want to put a ghost bike there and he was only half kidding. My concern is that drivers begin to accelerate at the start of the on ramp and miss the pedestrian who just stepped onto the crosswalk. I understand this has to do with Ontario standards for on ramps design. You see a similar situation when you leave the 417 westbound at the Island Park exit.
We continued along the 417 southbound towards Blair Station. I have my doubts about cycling infrastructure next to highways and parallel to light rail, rather than perpendicular to rail, feeding into train stations, but it is not uncommon.
I was glad to see the sound barrier has some gaps for residents to enter the pathway to connect safely to an LRT station by foot or bike.
The pathway continues for another 3.2 km going south west. There are several gaps in the sound barrier for residents to connect to the pathway. At Costco in Beacon Hill, you can turn northbound and follow the multi use pathway, built in 2020, to get to the multi use pathway on Ogilvie.
Puzzled at Blair in Beacon Hill
Arriving at Blair station in Beacon Hill, we were a bit puzzled where to go next. But work is still ongoing, so I suspect there will be more way-finding signage coming. We decided to cross the bus loop and made our way to City Park drive and the Aviation Parkway via City Centre Park. From there it was an uneventful ride home via Tremblay, the Rideau River pathways on the west side, via Old Ottawa South, where we bumped into two other friends who were out for a walk, Carleton U and the Experimental Farm. Total distance 53 km and we didn’t take the LRT home, saving 8 dollars.
Where we cycled this time
Here is the route we cycled starting near Fisher Ave, in Nepean. We could have just gone in and out but it being one of the last warmer and pleasant days of 2025, we decided to go wild and cycle a bigger loop.
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