Walk Ottawa with FOG
Ottawa is a small walkable core surrounded by a very large amount of nothing much. FOG makes the difference obvious.
Three waterways and a bluff
Ottawa is arranged around water. The Ottawa River runs along the north edge, the Rideau River comes up from the south, and the Rideau Canal threads between them through the middle of downtown before dropping to the river through a flight of locks below Parliament Hill. Parliament itself sits on a bluff over the water, which is the only real elevation downtown will give you.
Everything else in the core is flat and gridded. Wellington and Sparks run east to west, Elgin and Bank run north to south, and the numbered simplicity ends fast once you get past Centretown. It is an easy city to walk without a map, which is a slightly odd thing to say about an app that draws one.
The canal is the route
If you have one afternoon, walk the canal. Start at the locks by the Chateau Laurier, take the path south along the water past the Rideau Centre and Confederation Park, and keep going. Within twenty minutes you are alongside the Glebe, then Lansdowne, then Dow's Lake with its tulip beds in May. Cross at Dow's Lake and come back up the other bank and you have a loop of about ten kilometres with almost no road crossings.
In FOG that draws a long closed ribbon down the middle of the city, and it is one of the most legible shapes you will get anywhere. In February the same water freezes into the Skateway, and the equivalent trip is done on blades rather than boots.
Neighbourhoods, and the sprawl beyond
The walkable list is short and good. The ByWard Market for the tight old blocks and the market building. Sandy Hill east of the canal, quiet brick streets and embassies. Centretown, the Glebe and Old Ottawa South down the canal's flanks. Hintonburg and Westboro strung west along Wellington Street West and Richmond Road. Sussex Drive north past the National Gallery.
Then it stops. Kanata, Barrhaven and Orleans are suburbs built for cars, spread over an enormous municipal area, and no amount of enthusiastic walking will fill them in. Ottawa's city percent stays low for that reason, and the honest way to read it is as a measure of the part of the city that is actually a city.
Crossing the river, and the weather
Walk north over the Alexandra Bridge and you are in Gatineau, in a different province, with the Museum of History facing Parliament across the water. It is a genuinely short walk for a border crossing of any kind, and the Portage Bridge gives you the loop back. Beyond Gatineau, Gatineau Park is trails rather than streets, and those reveal too.
Winter is not a small factor here. January and February regularly sit around minus twenty with wind, and long walks become a decision rather than a default. The NCC pathways along the rivers are the good weather answer, and they run for a long way in both directions. Background exploring keeps recording with the phone in a coat pocket, which is where it will be from December to March.
Questions people actually ask
Does skating the canal reveal the map?
FOG reveals ground you cover with the app running, walking, running or riding. Anything that moves you along the canal with the phone on will clear it.
Does crossing into Gatineau count separately?
FOG collects countries, regions and named places you physically stand in, so crossing the river adds Quebec to what you have collected.
Can I add walks I did years ago?
Yes, with the one-time 5.99 USD unlock, which includes history import from Google Timeline exports and GPX files.
Do I need signal for it to work?
No account, no cloud and no sign-up. The map lives on your phone, so there is nothing to sync and nothing leaves the device.
Start with a dark map.
FOG is free to explore. No account, no subscription, and your map never leaves your phone.
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