Escape From Alta Vista

Location: Alta Vista at Hospital Link Road
https://www.strava.com/segments/27278946

This segment takes you from Alta Vista at the new Hospital Link Road and follows the hydro road all the way to Industrial. There are other segments that take in parts of this area, but the last portion that crosses over Russell Road and drops you in behind the fire station on Industrial is not so obvious. 

I highlight this because from Industrial you can get onto a new Multi-Use Pathway heading east that takes you up towards the Queensway so that you can eventually cross over to the Mer Bleue area or connect to the Greens Creek pathway system. 
 
From Alta Vista the hydro road has a well worn path that climbs steadily for about 700m or so. You then drop down on a sometimes muddy single track into an even boggier field. Still it's generally passable after late May until it snows. In mid-summer it's usually totally dry. Once you pass the Peter Morand crescent area the fields give way to more manicured gravel pathways that lead up past the Rideau Perley facility until you head straight across a patch of grass near a large hydro pilon and across Russell Road. 

After looking both ways, you can head directly across the street to where a large fenced off substation is sitting in the middle of a greenspace. There aren't any no trespassing signs that I've seen it seems like it's okay to pass through. I've encountered pedestrians here before as well as dog walkers, but not many. The space surrounding the sub-station is generous to say the least.

I always take to the grass on the northwest side to go around and at 11 o'clock there's a small ditch with a tiny bridge you can ride over. From there keep circling the sub-station until you can hang a left through some trees and head down northeast to the Fire Station. If you go the other way around the sub-station it's a little more direct. I just like the little bridge. They keep the grass short in here and it's been very rideable in my experience.

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