My heart grew with every kilometre I wheeled along the wonderful strips of pavement. Sights were seen, nature was cherished.
Published Nov 20, 2023 • Last updated 3 hours ago • 4 minute read
The paths and trails around Ottawa are ideal for getting in touch with nature and finding peace. Photo by Ashley Fraser /POSTMEDIA
There is a love in my life like no other. Not the same as, nor equivalent to, the love for another being, which I feel for many in my life. This love is different, more subtle, and more personal. It fuels my passions, enhances my relationships, and connects me with my city.
If you know me, you may think I’m talking about cycling, and you wouldn’t be wrong, but this love is more specific. You see, I’ve fallen in love with a specific part of cycling: with the pathways of Ottawa.
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When the snow melted away during my first Spring in Ottawa, my heart grew with every kilometre I wheeled along the wonderful strips of pavement. Sights were seen, nature was cherished. First alone, and then in good company. Friends were shown the regality of Parliament on two wheels. With my dad, we adventured — to Aylmer, to Gatineau Park. To my sister, I showed what was possible by bike, and she discovered a new side of her community.
Warm summer evening rolls to Mooney’s Bay with my partner- turned-fiancée-turned wife, letting the woes of the day slide away, sometimes excitedly chatting, other times just smiling and hand-holding. On the return trip, relishing the romance of sunsets, sand tickling my spokes and my clothes.
When the pandemic gripped life and the city, its heaviness left the pathways unscathed — my mental health’s saving grace. Before the snow even melted, dozens of kilometres were travelled each day. Each day a new route, a new direction, a new discovery.
When the time came to purchase a home, it was the pathways that lured me once again. A whimsical ride down Sawmill Creek to discover Greenboro, a neighbourhood built as a shining monument to the pathway. Its wide, meandering, green corridors and its many parks created the habitat for which I yearned, the habitat which became my own.
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Matt Pinder has shared his love of Ottawa’s pathways with family, his fiancée and the next generation. Photo by VANISHA MISTRY
When life changed yet again — with the arrival of new life — I knew that I must share this joy with my new love. An e-bike with the sweetest little front seat became the window through which I showed my daughter the world. Pathways connected us to places, but what’s more, they connected us. Routes that had become so routine that I could ride them with my eyes closed suddenly were sprinkled with serendipity as we pointed at ducks, trees, lights, trains, cars, gardens, roundabouts, tunnels, bridges. That little grass mound I used to ride around became the hill we giddily rumbled down. Month by month, I watched her grow in that seat, as she gained the same bond with the city that I was so keen to instil.
Another life change, another development in my love for pathways: a new job and a new commute, suburb to suburb, an uninterested 18-kilometre drive mired by traffic. Sitting in a car only to sit in an office was utterly monotonous, and I turned once again to the pathways. At first intimidated by the distance, the directions, the uncomfortable interactions, I quickly became once again the master of my happiness. The commute became the apex of my day, the reason to go into the office.
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It started with the familiar Sawmill Creek but quickly took me new places, across the vastness of the Central Experimental Farm and its panoramic views, where my e-bike turned any hill flat, and any harsh headwind calm. The commute took me into the forest weaving through trees, feeling far away from anything despite being surrounded by city. The ride to work brought excitement, the ride home brought serenity.
As the season changed, so did the commute. Bright, humid mornings turned cold, dark and crisp. The sun, once well above the horizon at my departure, became lower until barely the first hues of daylight were present when I set off on my saddle and I could still see the stars above. Lush forest canopies turned vibrant red, then bare. T-shirt and pants were covered with coat, toque, mittens, scarf; and yet the joy of the ride endured, unchanged.
In these latest moments, I cherish the pathways more than ever, knowing that soon most will be blanketed in snow, only to resurface again in Spring. Each ride is even more vital, as each ride could be the last for a season.
These simple strips of asphalt have become truly entangled in my life. On the pathways I experience hope, happiness, belonging, joy. On the pathways my relationships are nourished, grown, savoured. On the pathways I experience the pensiveness and serenity of solitude and loving the moment and myself.
For Ottawa’s pathways I feel gratitude, respect and yes, perhaps even love.
Matt Pinder is a transportation engineer focused on designing streets for people. He lives in South Keys with his wife and daughter. Twitter: @MattPinder1.
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