The past successes and challenges and future hopes and plans for the Prescott and Russell Recreational Trail are the focus of a series of presentations to every municipal council in the United Counties of Prescott and Russell. (Photo Facebook)
The weather for the past few years has not been kind sometimes for hikers and cyclists using the Prescott and Russell Trail but the regional recreational trail is still proving a very strong attraction for tourists all year round.
“The trail is very well used,” said Eric Collard, executive director for the Sentier recreatif Prescott and Russell Recreational Trail group (SRPRRT), during a presentation June 15 to East Hawkesbury Township council.
Collard is occupied now with visiting all of the municipal councils in the region, reporting on the past year’s activities for the non-profit group, highlighting the successes of the recreational trail as part of Prescott-Russell’s tourism sector, and outlining some of the goals that the group has for future improvements to the trail and also increasing its public profile as a potential destination spot for cyclists, recreational hikers, and snowmobilers.
The 72-kilometre trail connects with the Ottawa-Orleans hiking trail network to the west and to Quebec’s hiking and cycling trail network to the east through Rigaud and other communities. Collard noted that the Prescott-Russell Trail is now featured in the Destination Canada Corridor Study Report project and that could help further enhance the reputation and growing popularity of both the Prescott and Russell Trail and all of the other recreational trail networks between Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec.
“We want to make the Ottawa-to-Montreal Corridor a world-class destination,” said Collard.
The Prescott and Russell Trail passes through or close by almost every municipality in the region, including East Hawkesbury. Collard noted in his report to township council that last year, the 20th anniversary of the creation of the trail, the number of cyclists, hikers, snowmobilers, birdwatchers, and others using the trail totalled more than 120,000, a new record for the Prescott and Russell Trail. The user numbers are very accurate, Collard noted, thanks to use of a monitoring system that registers when mobile phones are in use and records the location of “pings” when someone on the trail has used their mobile phone to either post a photo of where they are on the trail or made a phone call for any reason while hiking, cycling or snowmobiling along the trail.
“It’s been a fairly big year for us in 2025,” said Collard, adding that the popularity of the trail continues to grow in spite of some of the “climate troubles” that have plagued Prescott and Russell and other neighbouring regions on both sides of the Ottawa River during the past four years.
“You know them pretty well yourselves,” said Collard, listing the severe windstorm, or derecho, in 2022 that blew across Eastern Ontario, downing trees, damaging buildings and power lines; the short-term ice storm in 2023; the tornado that touched down in 2024 near Grenville-sur-la-Rouge along the Ottawa River in Quebec; the drought in 2025 that drove many people indoors to avoid heat-related health problems.
“Knock on wood, we’re hoping for a normal season this year,” said Collard.
During those past four years also the trail group has invested more than $1 million dollars in various trail improvement projects, including some remediation work related to damage caused by last year’s drought. The group also organized a series of special events to celebrate last year’s 20th anniversary of the trail and developed a number of community partnership arrangements to help promote the trail.
Collard noted that the Prescott and Russell Trail’s presence on social media is also growing with more than 2800 registered followers of its Facebook page and more than 600 followers on Instagram. The Prescott-Russell Trail website also logged more than 18,000 visitors during its anniversary last year.
Looking ahead, Collard told council, the Prescott and Russell Trail group is a partner in the Bourget Train Station Redevelopment project and looks forward to the grand opening of the heritage rail building in Clarence-Rockland’s Village of Bourget later this year. The non-profit group is also looking developing more special events and partnerships to help increase visitor use of the trail. One major capital works project for the trail in future is repairing the deck of the heritage Plantagenet Railway Bridge that was in use when the Prescott and Russell Trail was once part of a working railway route.
