Gatineau Park
Trails Skied: Fortune Pkwy, Champlain Pkwy, #1, #1 (green) (#2 - #24), #1 (blue), Glide Wax: Start Green over graphite , Grip Wax: A base of green klister mixed with tar and Start "super" green
Needing a break from skating I headed out looking for hard fast classic tracks and found them on the following route:
P10 => FP => CP => Champlain lookout => #1 => Blanchette => #1 => Huron
=> CP => FP => P10
As Karl and Rick noted the snow is certainly hard but there’s no blue ice showing and I found the surface to be micro-depth sugar giving enough control that things were were and enjoyable quite doable (with a tad of caution).
My odd combination of kick-wax gave me good grip everywhere. It was almost indestructible - I returned with as much wax as I left with. When the great dump arrives I’ll probably have to remove it with a heat-gun before getting back to a real-snow wax combination.
The skating track was quite flat and with the hardness had very few ruts. Most skaters that I saw were having a good day.
Trails #18 and #9 had quite a few tracks on them. They looked doable but not inviting.
Gatineau Park is ski paradise! The network of ski trails offer machine groomed skate skiing and classic skiing as well as little groomed backcountry trails. Multiple access points allow skiers to access a variety of terrain and scenery.
The NCC offers season or daily pay rates.
For suggestions on where to ski, excellent trail descriptions, photos and maps checkout Michael McGoldrick`s website about recreational xc-skiing in Canada`s National Capital Region (with an emphasis on the Gatineau Park).
