Field Notes From The Trans Canada Trail

Modified photo by author

I am blessed to live in an Ottawa subdivision perched on the outer perimeter of a greenbelt enveloping the city’s inner core. While I’m no fan of cookie-cutter housing from an aesthetic point of view, I’m enthralled with my neighborhood’s close proximity to nature, as well as the Trans Canada Trail (TCT), which is no more than a five-minute walk from my front door.

(I’m old enough now that I no longer sneer at suburbia for not being bohemian enough. The important thing is that my children have a safe and livable community to call home, and that almost anything we need or want is a relatively short walk or drive away. My days of giving a toss what the cool kids think about where I live are now decades behind me.)

As for the TCT, it is the longest network of multi-use recreational trails in the world, stretching as it does from Cape Spear, Newfoundland, to Victoria, British Columbia, and on to Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories. From my usual entry at the edge of Shetland Park, the immediate portion of the TCT extends northeast for 2.7 km (1.6777 mi) to the decommissioned rail bridge at Bells Corners, and…