Gatineau Park

Trails Skied: #50, #51, #52, #53, Glide Wax: Swix LF6, Grip Wax: Start racing green then Swix blue V30 then Vauhti Carrot

Finally got around to doing the Wakefield Triangle:
P17 => #53 => #51 => P19 => #50 => #52 => #53 => P17 (i.e., counterclockwise)

A very pleasant day. Initially I was able to do fast flatland commuting on this AM's grooming. When I got to the beginning of #52 my timing was impeccable - the new snow started to give me grip on the uphills and control on the downhills. A great way to start off February.

The only downer was meeting the "Brown Lake express" on #52. To explain: Demsis needs to deliver water and skiers luggage to Brown Cabin; they do this via snowmobile on #51, #53, and #52 hence the Brown Lake express - perhaps you've already experienced it. These trails are too narrow to accommodate a snowmobile pulling a maintenance sleigh - if the snowmobile has to veer on a turn or to avoid a skier it's bye-bye tracks. I don't know what they do if both tracks are occupied by skiers. It's not necessary - you can get within 1/2 km of the cabin via truck via Brown Lake Road and access the cabin with a short snowmobile trip - LaFleur accessed the cabin via Brown Lake Road. It's unfortunate that the flawless grooming by the tracksetting crew gets trashed by poor planning.













Gatineau park map


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.

Gatineau park map

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).

Gatineau park map