It’s a Friday afternoon in mid January and groomer Dave Adams is out fine-tuning his equipment on the Kichi Sibi Winter Trail. His presence on the 16-kilometre stretch of the Ottawa River pathway between Westboro Beach and the Canadian War Museum is noticeable. It’s where he spends most of his days when the snow falls and weather gets cold.
But like last year, there hasn’t been much snow to groom. December 2024 saw a total of 61.8 centimetres, but most of it melted during early winter thaws. Another 25.5 centimetres came by January 27.
“I always thought having winter was a given in Ottawa, Canada. I’m afraid that’s not the case anymore,” said Adams. “We are going through these vicious cycles of freezing and then thawing. We are having to groom a lot of ice after a big time of warm temperatures.”
This year, however, was welcomed by an early start.
“We had our white Christmas which made everybody’s dream. We had two snowfalls in December that really got us going, and already we were ahead of the game as compared to last year,” said Adams.
The Kichi Sibi Winter Trail has been going strong since it was started as a pilot project in partnership with the National Capital Commission and Dovercourt Recreation Centre in 2015. Last year the organization became its own charity due to its success.
The neighbour next door
Nearby in Bay Ward, the Britannia Winter trail was started as a pilot project by eight individuals in 2020. That was the year of the COVID-19 pandemic — a crisis which was actually a benefit to the creation of the trail network.
“When COVID hit, we extended our two-week pilot by a few weeks and we’ve been going strong ever since,” said Judy Dudley, president of the Britannia Winter Trail Association. “Why are we important? I feel like we have connected our community. You can’t walk down the trail without saying hi to people or going somewhere down in the community.”
The Britannia Winter Trail provides almost 17 kilometres of groomed trail. It extends east along the multi-use recreational pathway known as the Trans-Canada Trail to the Deschenes Rapids parking lot and west through Andrew Haydon Park.
A team of about 30 volunteers are part of the Britannia Trail group, and they do everything from plowing the snow to shovelling. It’s a time-consuming job that needs to take Ottawa’s unpredictable weather patterns into account, said lead trail groomer Vince Rimes.
“We have four pieces of equipment, a skidoo and an ATV that has tracks, and each of those pulls a grooming machine. The groomer is a large carpet we drag behind the vehicle. It has little teeth in front of it to churn up the snow to turn it back into ‘fluffy stuff.’ The carpet can squeeze it down and it’s going to leave a nice trail,” explained Rimes.
Snow grooming is not like snow plowing. It is the process of manipulating the snow so it can be used for recreational use. When the machine drives over a snowfield, it pushes snow ahead of it and, at the same time, smooths out any surface unevenness. The whole process can take anywhere from five to six hours.
More reasons to love Winter
The Britannia Winter Trail is more than just a place to go for leisurely activity. It’s also a place where you can learn how to participate in winter sports. Its ’Learn to Ski’ program had to shut down its website after three hours in mid-January because the demand was so high.
“We still had over 140 emails to go through. We lend the skis to community members because we have a very socially and economically diverse area, so we want to make sure everyone has access to these sports,” said Dudley. “It’s been great for new Canadians.”
Students from the nearby Dr. F. J. MacDonald and Regina elementary schools also partner with the trail for winter programming. Because of their close proximity to the river, the trail is groomed right to their classroom’s door.
On the Kichi Sibi Winter Trail, a similar program exists called ‘Ski for Schools.’ Its mission is to create opportunities for children to be actively engaged outside through the enjoyment of cross-country skiing. In 2023, 1,019 people participated, including over 285 students.
Today, six winter urban trails exist in the Capital, providing a way for skiers, snowshoers, fat bikers, and pedestrians an opportunity to get out and enjoy the colder temperatures. A new winter trail could open soon across the river in Gatineau.
Groomer Adams said he sees that as an opportunity to connect his trail with another province via the Chief William Commanda Bridge. But those plans were put on ice again this year when the city closed the former rail bridge for winter use, stating “safety concerns.”
In November, the city said it would use this winter to explore the possibility of keeping the pedestrian inter-provincial crossing open year-round. Testing was inconclusive last year because of the warm winter. The city says it has concerns about road salt ruining the bridge’s wooden surface or falling in the river below, except that shouldn’t be a concern with winter grooming.
“Hopefully public pressure will win in the end. Our equipment is not intrusive to the bridge, and we feel we can do a good job keeping it open for the public and making it an all-season active transportation route. That’s really the dream,” said Adams.
