ROUTE: Parkway Loop - From P10 up the Fortune Lake Parkway to the T with Champlain and then down the Champlain Parkway to the Gatineau Parkway to P8, and finally up the Doldrums and the connector (32?) back to P10.

SKATE: Interesting conditions. In most places the skate lane was somewhat icy with a kind of straw snow. When I left there were many grooves that were pretty solid meaning that you could easily catch an edge. As the morning warmed up the grooves got softer. The back side of the mountain from the Champlain T down to P8 seemed not to have been groomed even yesterday which made for loose snow on the sides of the track next to the Classic lanes. It was easily passable but you had to be careful not to get caught in a soft track. I was not not careful enough on the way down from the top of King Mountain. Overall the conditions were fine but you had to be careful in spots.
With a good dose of cold temperatures and grooming, conditions should really improve later in the week and on the weekend.
NOTE: Whatever Demsis is doing at the bottom of the Connector (32) is working - the snow was loose and allowed for much better control than is normal at the trickiest part of that trail, just before the road.

TRAFFIC: Lots of people out both skating and classic.