It was a great day for the Gatineau Lakes tour- start at P16 and see how many lakes you can reach on skis. Between P16 and Herridge conditions were hard and fast. The track had clearly NOT been groomed overnight, and the heavy traffic on this section had taken its toll. Past Herridge the surface became a bit more loose, and along the north shore of Lac Philip and on the Taylor Lake Road the corduroy was still quite fresh and conditions were superb- simply because these sections don't get a lot of skate traffic. I climbed the hill to Lusk for the first time this year. Track setting was excellent until the second steep hill on the ascent. Here the road had been washed out, forcing a bumpy detour for about 50m through the woods. Above the detour there was little evidence of any grooming, except perhaps the occasional pass with a snowmobile. Skating was problematic for the rest of the way to the cabin. It was fun to reach the cabin, but I don't think I'll bother again this year, certainly not on skate skis. The snow was sufficiently loose to allow complete control around the obstacles on the descent. For the return trip along Trail 50 temperatures had warmed enough to make for wickedly fast, effortless skating. I snuck down trail 36 to Meech Lake (yes, I know it's not a skate trail, but by double poling and skating on the hills where there are no tracks, it's quite possible to do it and leave no damage). A couple of brave- or crazy- souls had skied across the lake since the last snowfall. The final descent to P16 was entirely hard packed snow and totally controllable. I just wish there weren't so many skiers doing desperate, hard-edging snowplows at 5kmh down this hill.

Demsis seems to have adopted a policy of "lifting" the classic tracks on even very shallow downhills. This is probably good for beginning skiers. From my viewpoint this also makes many classic-only trails accessible to skate skiers- double-pole the flats, and skate the uphills were there is no track!