The Happy Camper: Southeastern Ontario’s Marlborough Forest Is a Hidden Gem
I moved to southeastern Ontario’s Frontenac area just over a year ago, and I’ve got to say I’m having a blast exploring new areas to day hike. Some have been common trails that I quickly became familiar with, like Lemoine Point Conservation Area on the outskirts of Kingston or Dunes Beach at Sandbanks Provincial Park. They’re usually packed on weekends with dabbling birders and nature enthusiasts, but they are nice walks just the same.
However, there’s a few other gems I discovered that don’t seem to get the hype they deserve.
Marlborough Forest was one of those lesser known day hiking spots. It’s maintained and protected by the city of Ottawa for multi recreational use but only the locals seem to know about it; and since I’m now a local, I know it all too well.
This is one massive 200 kilometres square chunk (9,300 hectares) of wild space, mostly made up of coniferous trees with a few patches of old oak and maple, scrub birch and alder and a few abandoned settler’s cabins and old farm fields now carpeted with stunted juniper bushes. It’s basically one vast section of swamp land sitting vacant between the hamlet of Smith Falls and the city of Ottawa.
I first discovered Marlborough Forest Reserve when my car’s GPS suggested I take a short cut to the Ottawa airport while driving from my house near Kingston, Ontario. There was a winter storm at the time, and I questioned its route pattern. But once I saw all the frozen lowland diversity, I knew I wanted to return in the early spring to explore it.
There’s only one country road that crosses it, straight down the middle from west to east—Roger Stevens Drive. Another side road called Dwyer Hill Road hugs the west side, and a few other rough backroads poke around the edges. It’s an area that certainly needs a few scouting missions prior to your main event.
Thankfully, a good friend Ron Breault, an amazing nature photographer from Swifty Paddler fame on Instagram helped focus me on one of the highlights: a half day route called Roger’s Pond and beyond. Some also call the area the Cedar Grove Loop.
A loop hike around the pond is a nice gentle outing. You circle the swamp water and walk through a mix of alder, balsam and spruce. There’s a well weathered boardwalk that has several planks missing, so watch your step. There’s also a lean-to to stop for tea about three-quarters the way around if you go counter-clockwise.
But Swifty Paddler showed be a bonus section of this route. It’s a linear trail off to the west that follows an ATV trail, or snowmobile trail in the winter, and it leads to an old homestead. It’s well worth the extra hour of walking to check it out. The open landscape is perfect habitat for northern shrike and common nighthawk.
Hikers should take note, however, that this is a multi-use area. In the winter, it can be an incredible cross-country ski haven, and snowmobilers love it as well. In the summer, ATVs ride some of the soggy trails, and in the fall, hunting is common place here. But there seems to be lots of room for all to share.
There was an “agreement” program established in the 1920s due to over a hundred years of deforestation in the region; and up until 1998, it was a managed forest area to heal the wounds created by poor logging practices.
It took us just under four hours to do both the pond loop and the linear trail to the homestead, about 16 kilometres in total. A bonus is that it links up with a section of the notable Rideau Trail System, a hiking trail that runs from Ottawa to Kingston which has been on my bucket list since I moved here.
