Ottawa police used the location app What3Words to find a father and his teenage son who became lost on a hiking trail near Leitrim Road earlier this month, the Ottawa Police Service said in a news release.
The pair set out for a hike on Oct. 3, 2026, but ran into trouble as the terrain grew difficult and the light began to fade. After roughly 90 minutes of waiting in the woods, they were found by officers and walked safely back to their vehicle.
"I took my 16-year-old son with me to go for a hike, as we often do," the father wrote in an email to police recounting the incident.
"We started encountering tallgrass, brush, and many trees that had fallen over the last few years," he explained. The fallen trees and thick brush caught around their legs as they tried to move along the trail.
A call to 911
As the sun went down, the man realized the two would not make it back to the main trail on their own.
"As the sun started to come down, I realized that making it back to the main trail within the next few hours wasn't realistic. I decided to call 911 for assistance," he wrote.
Officers located the man's vehicle in the area of Leitrim Road and worked with a 911 police communicator, who asked the caller for his What3Words location. The app divides the world into three-metre squares, each identified by a unique combination of three words, allowing people to share precise coordinates.
"I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they use the What3Words application, and I gave her our position information as soon as she asked for it," the father said. "Since we weren't injured or in any other type of emergency situation, my son and I committed to staying where we were, and the police were dispatched to help us find our way out of where we were located."
The two stayed side by side, watching and listening for signals. After about 90 minutes, they began to hear voices and see lights moving through the woods.
"A little while later, we saw the police officers who came to our rescue. We could tell that they'd gone through a lot of mud and rough vegetation to reach us," he wrote.
Walked out safely
Officers positioned themselves in front of and behind the pair as the group made its way to Leitrim Road. The father said police then made sure the two followed them safely along the road, back to where three cruisers had parked behind the family's car.
"My son and I thanked the police officers for their emergency assistance. In fact, it appears that the police showed up where we parked just a few minutes after I called 911," he wrote, adding praise for the officers' professionalism and the courteous communicator who handled the call. "My family and I are very grateful to them."
The police service is encouraging residents to download What3Words before heading out on hikes — and, with winter approaching, before snowshoeing, snowmobiling or exploring Ottawa's nature trails.
"You never know when it could lead you back to your group, or in a case like this one, lead police officers to your rescue," the release said.
