Old is a relative concept in Ottawa, as most of the city was build up after WW2. Nepean is such a post war suburb with many bungalows on large lots.
This is probably more a route for locals, but if you happen to stay at an AirBnB here why not go out for a spin. You ‘ll be cycling mostly through leafy, 60’s and 70’s neighbourhoods on streets and pathways in this 19 km loop. Part of the route runs parallel to Merivale Road, a busy 4 lane shopping mall area, but you won’t be cycling on it. I had to do a bit of creative designing though, including a bit of parking lot cycling at the Loblaws grocery store. But that is part of your North American cycling experience.
There are some bits and pieces of greenspace and local parks. Merivale has nearly hundred food places, From Indian food to McDonalds and everything in between. I maintain a map of all those places. You could access them from the route via perpendicular roads.
There is a vegan bakery just off the tracks. It is not on the map but look for Keepin’ it Vegan on 3 Chartwell Ave in a small mall in the residential Craig Henry neighbourhood. It has breads, delicious to die for vegan desserts, coffee, tea, lemonade, so worth the very short detour. They even make the biscotti for the Tiramisu themselves.
There might be a bit of detouring on this route until 2026 due to construction of new light rail in the Iris area. Also included in this route is part of the Experimental Farm pathway (but it won’t bring you to the Farm on this particular route).
navigating through Manordale might be a bit iffy as it is all residential roads and it is a bit unclear how to get to the pathway. But your GPX should save the day. After ten years, I still bike on the wrong road sometimes.
Download the GPX file: download
Old Nepean GPX file: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1rJdH12Htd891LR4NcSDZcDXXTTWboXrg?usp=drive_link