The Lime Kiln Technical Trail Will Never Be The Same

Today we finally had the opportunity to hike the Lime Kiln Technical Trail for the first time since the Lime Kiln area fire in the Stony Swamp Conservation Area.

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Things are looking pretty good for the first part of the trail, although you start to see larger and larger signs of fire as you look alongside the trail and then you are in the middle of the Fire Zone. At that point on the map you can see the hike diverging somewhat from the trail as we tried to follow the trail on the GPS and keep watch for the silver Rideau Trail triangles (silver because in most cases the blue paint was removed due to the heat of the fire). Most of the trail within the Fire Zone was unrecognizable although there were a few recognizable trail features along the route we followed.

The fire zone ended shortly before one of the fire roads crossed the trail. At that point the trail continues on the other side of the fire road but due to all the debris pushed up alongside the road we were unable to follow the trail. Knowing it reconnected further along the Fire Road we continued following the road, intending to follow it back from the other end, but when we reached that location we again had the problem of the piled up debris hiding the entrance into the trail, so we ended up missing about 200 metres of trail. After that the Fire Road wiped out most of the trail except for a short portion that ran just alongside it just before the Lime Kiln Bridge.

My guess would be, taking into account the first section of trail, and the section we by-passed, plus the short section of trail at the end, that close to 50% of the trail might be intact in it's original condition. The other 50% will probably need extensive rehabilitation and some of the technical features might never be recovered.

My inclination, however, would be that it would be best to let the natural environment and vegetation recover on it's own before attempting to rebuild the trail. We did notice that there already appeared to be some new growth within the fire zone and on the fire roads. At the appropriate time I would hope that the National Capital Commission (NCC) would consult with all trail users, including mountain bikers, in developing a trail rehabilitation plan.


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Open Letter to the National Capital Commission re Lime Kiln Trail Fire

The fire near the Lime Kiln Trail has been described as a tragedy. Perhaps not. If houses or roads had been built on the land it certainly would be a tragedy that the forest would never recover from, though some would call it development or progress. But the forest will recover from the fire and, though we all wish it could have been avoided, the fire presents an opportunity.

So what should the National Capital Commission (NCC) do about the site of the fire, I would suggest nothing, or as little as possible, only what is necessary to make the site safe. Please no attempts to make it presentable, or tidy it up, or artificially beautify it. What we have is an opportunity for the public to see a forest naturally regenerate itself, and perhaps a chance for scientists (an endangered species themselves within the current federal government) to study the regeneration.

I would call upon the NCC to allow the public, particularly regular users of the trails, back into the trail system as soon as possible to see the effects of the fire and to start observing the changes as the forest regenerates itself. Please avoid any further damage to the forest from heavy equipment beyond what was obviously required to fight the fire. The only tools likely needed might be rakes to clear burnt wood and debris from the trails. Trail users, who probably know the trails better than the NCC does, will rebuild the trail system by using it.

Simply closing it down would be to ignore a great opportunity and trying to artificially create an unnatural ecosystem or tree plantation would be worse. Let us seize this opportunity to build something meaningful from the ashes of this unfortunate event.

The Joy of Undocumented Trails

On the weekend we were hiking near the Lime Kiln and came across a trail that I was unaware of. We had skied or snowshoed along this route but thought it was just a winter route. Both ends of it are fairly well hidden so it was a fluke that we found it without tracks in the snow.

That, and the fact that I was exploring some other undocumented trails behind Stittsville last week, got me thinking about undocumented trails.

So what are undocumented trails. Well the simplest definition is trails without maps, or at least without official maps.

An internet search could not find any maps of, or references to, the Stittsville trails that I explored so I feel confident in considering them to be undocumented.

The trail near the Lime Kiln fits that description as it is not on the NCC official trail map. Neither is the one kilometre technical trail that is known to mountain bikers as the Lime Kiln Trail, although it was on an earlier version of the NCC map as an unnamed trail. The NCC designates the wide trail from parking lot P10 to Richmond Road as the “Lime Kiln Trail”.

Personally, one of the biggest joys of undocumented trails, besides riding an unknown trail for the first time and not knowing what I will find, is documenting them. I have always had a thing about maps and the ability to actually become a map maker is really rewarding. So I have spent the last few biking seasons starting to map all the western greenbelt trails. It is currently a work in progress. I plan to move my maps to a new home and add trail descriptions and eventually photographs. Watch for an announcement in the next few weeks.

Undocumented trails tend to be unofficial trails that were not planned, or built by, any official entity but created by trail users.

An architect once proposed that when designing open spaces pathways should not be planned in advance. Rather the space should be left open for users to walk across and the users of the space will create paths where they are best suited. The designers would then build the pathways were the users have walked.

In many ways that principle can be applied to trails. Often the users know best. Certainly the greenbelt is full of unofficial user created trails and these are some of the best trails in the system. Surprisingly the National Capital Commission (NCC), known for being overly bureaucratic, does not appear to have made any effort to close such trails, even placing signposts on some in the Old Quarry area.

However, the City of Ottawa, during the South March Highlands (SMH) Management Plan process, has proposed that many of the existing “unofficial” trails in the SMH be closed as part of the process of legitimizing the trail system. As far as I know, none of the closures are for specific environmental reasons but more a matter of rationalizing the trail system.

If past experience is any indicator I think it will be difficult to convince users to stop using trails they have used for years. I suspect the city hopes that user groups that have been involved in the SMH management plan process will try to convince their members not to use the closed trails. It remains to be seen how they will respond. So far it appears that everyone, including the city, consultants and user groups have been acting in good faith during this process and I believe the city hopes users groups will feel they have enough “ownership” of the result to support it. The fact is that most trail users, whether they are hikers, mountain bikers, or cross country skiers do not belong to organized groups, and those that do are not necessarily going to do their groups bidding.

Perhaps the best policy for the city to pursue would be to leave the trail system the way it has naturally evolved except for measures to address specific environmental concerns or improve the sustainability of the trail system.