The Dogsled Loop at South March Highlands Conservation Forest- A 4.5 km Hike

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Trails and spaces throughout Ottawa are opening up, and I’m excited!  I think it’s still really important that we’re all getting our info from official sources, and that we’re following the rules and restrictions that are still in place. But if it’s open (and not too far), I’m going, and I’m stoked!

We headed out to South March Conservation Forest in Kanata mid-May to check out a new (to us) loop there. We loved it just as much as the last time we had visited and hiked the 3.5 km Rockhopper Loop!

The Forest is City of Ottawa property, so it’s currently open under the same rules as City Parks.

The trails at South March are maintained by the Ottawa Mountain Biking Association (OMBA), and they’re really beautiful. It’s neat to see the different features on the trails like stone bridges that have been built so lovingly.

All the trails in the forest are shared trails. Each time we’ve been there we’ve seen an equal mix of hikers and mountain bikers. Dogs are allowed too! If you bring yours, definitely keep it on leash so they don’t accidentally run into (or get run over by) a biker.

There are no washrooms at the trailheads, so plan ahead! Or, if you have a newly potty-trained kid like us, just bring the potty with you. Eek!

On our last trip, we decided to hike the Dogsled Loop, via the Brady Trailhead.

Getting There

There are three trailheads that can be used to access South March Highlands Conservation Area. To start closest to the Dogsled Loop, we accessed the forest via the Brady trailhead, which is right across from Brady Avenue in Kanata.

You can use these coordinates to get there: 45.343111, -75.942354.

There’s parking right beside the trailhead, but we chose to park a little further away. There was lots of room to park in the neighbourhood beside the forest. Since we take a lot of time getting ready, this seemed like a good idea so that people wouldn’t have to dodge us near the trailhead while trying to stay physically distant.

The Trail

Almost immediately, we could see the good work done by the OMBA. Rocks lined the trail, helping people to stay on it and avoid widening it. We had only walked 100 metres when we reached “Point 3.” At each junction on the trails in South March Highlands Conservation Forest, the OMBA has placed a sign. These signs all have numbers on them that correspond to the map available on the OMBA’s website.

Here, we turned left. Turning right would have brought us to the other two trailheads.

The trail was skinny through this section, and we walked single file. We had arrived early in the morning when we knew the trails would be quieter, so we didn’t run into anyone that we had to avoid through this section. If we had, the forest floor at South March is one that’s covered in dead leaves and dirt in most places, instead of new growth. So we would have been able to step to the side easily without causing too much damage.

As I’ve been saying to my daughter, “Only step where it’s brown, not where it’s green!” There’s no way that’ll backfire, right?

After hiking half a kilometre, the trail split and rejoined briefly. This was just to allow bikers to check out a feature a few metres off the original trail.

The Fast Out Trail

A hundred metres down the trail, we reached “Point 7” where the Mario’s Line trail forked off to our left. We followed the Fast Out Trail straight ahead of us, and arrived at “Point 9” soon after. The Porcupine Trail branched off to our right, but still we stayed straight.

The trail had begun to widen in spots, and in many places it looked nearly as wide as a sidewalk, allowing us to walk side by side.

We had hiked one kilometre by the time we reached “Point 13,” where there was a bunch of birdfeeders hanging from a big tree… but no birds!

Onto the Dogsled Loop

Here, the trail split to form the loop for the Dogsled Trail. We decided to head off to our left for no real reason at all, and complete the trail clockwise.

This had us hiking the South Dogsled portion of the trail first. 100 metres down the trail we reached “Point 11,” where Mario’s Line reconnected to the Dogsled Loop on the left. We carried on straight, and began to hear traffic through the trees as the trail ran parallel to Terry Fox Road for a while.

When we had hiked just 1.2 km, we found ourselves heading down a huge open rock face onto a skinny foot bridge over a little pond. There was a sign at the top of the hill indicating that this was “Confederation Bridge.” We zoomed across it really quickly, not wanting to share it with any bikers who might not see us until the last minute.

The trail continued to change as we hiked along, from open rock face, to dirt, to places where stone had been used to help alter the landscape. There were a few short, steep hills that we encountered as we hiked along, but they felt really easy to hike up. Probably because we were hiking with a toddler, which means you go REALLY slowly. But, if you were hiking here in the winter it might be a good idea to bring hiking poles to make sure you don’t slip.

We had hiked about 1.75 km before finding ourselves crossing over a few short, skinny foot bridges. The trail continued to narrow and widen as we walked along, sometimes allowing us enough space to walk side by side, and sometimes being thin enough that it felt more natural to travel single file.

The IMBA Trail

We reached “Point 33” after travelling 2.2 km. The IMBA Trail went up a little hill to our left. We stayed straight to get onto the North Dogsled portion of the loop. Here, the sign indicated that parking was in that direction.

We crossed a few short stone bridges designed to help keep our feet dry, and at 2.4 km reached “Point 37.” The PWT Trail was on our left hand side, but again, we stuck to the trail right in front of us.

We traversed a few more skinny foot bridges, and reached “Point 21” after hiking 3.2 km. Point 21 was on a ridge above the Rockhopper Loop, which was below us on our left hand side. We hiked down “Deer Drop,” which was a steep, rocky drop off that I, personally, would never attempt on a bike.

The Dogsled Loop joined the Rockhopper Loop briefly, at “Point 19,” but then split again soon after at “Point 17.” Here, we turned to our right, because the Rockhopper Loop branched off to our left.

Heading Back

By the time we reached “Point 15” we had hiked 3.34 km. The Porcupine Trail headed off to our left, but we stuck to the right to finish the Dogsled Loop and return back the way we had come. Just over a hundred metres down the trail, we arrived back at the original Dogsled Trail split. We turned to our left to follow the Fast Out Trail back to the trailhead.

Arriving back at the trailhead, we had hiked a total of 4.5 km. When I was looking at the map, I thought it was going to be much longer than that, so this was a bit of a surprise. We covered that distance in just under two hours. But you can’t really use that information for much, because that’s the pace of hiking with a toddler who wants to walk and pick up every single leaf she sees.

Trail Thoughts

The Dogsled Loop is a trail that has some fun little hills, but overall is quite easy to navigate and not too taxing physically. It could easily be hiked in closer to an hour, but what’s the rush?

South March Highlands Conservation Forest is also extra beautiful in the spring, because where the forest floor isn’t covered in leaves, it’s covered in spring flowers in bloom. So this is a lovely trail to hike at your leisure.

While hikers and bikers (and dogs) share the trails peacefully at South March, you WILL want to be mindful of where you are on the trail at all times. If you’re in a spot where the trail bends or loops around a corner in a way that others might not be able to see you, I suggest you move. It would NOT be fun to be run into by a mountain biker going full speed.

But I wouldn’t let that deter you from taking on this trail with your family- just keep little ones close.

I hope this trip report has enough info to get you there too. Let me know in the comments, or share and tag a friend to start planning your next adventure!

Map and Elevation Gain

Whenever I’m hiking somewhere new, I tend to wonder about who was on, and who took care of that land before me. I’ve enjoyed using this website as a place to start learning more about the indigenous people whose land I’m on: Native-land.ca.

Gear We Brought

• Hiking Boots
• Wool Socks
• Ergobaby Carrier
• Nalgene Wide Mouth Bottle
• Mountain Warehouse Endeavour 30L Backpack