Gatineau Park
Trails Skied: Champlain Pkwy, MacKenzie-King Rd , Glide Wax: , Grip Wax:
Joint Report by Garry (skate) and Jo-Ann (classic)
Skate: At 2:00 the trails were still icy hard, although the temperature had reached 2 degrees. The skate lane was a hard pack surface with very shallow tilling just barely deep enough to allow edging. Many small ice chunks in the skate lane. Small but irritating.
Classic: No ice sugar today. Tracks were certainly deep and firm, but often bumpy with small nuggets of ice. It was a "cosmetic " grooming at best. (It looked awesome from a distance.) I had intended a longer ski, but an hour was more than enough. Odd that the grooming would be so lack-lustre when there was so much advertising about celebrating Family Day in Gatineau Park.
It was a beautiful day to be out, and it was worth skiing, although conditions were disappointing.
Caption #0
Caption #1
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).
