Thursday 5 February 2009 – Our Last Day in Gatineau Park

Until now we have been skiing in the central and northern sections of the Park. That is because they have convenient cabins at which to enjoy a break and some tea or lunch. The southern section of the Park, whilst only a ten minute drive from home, is bereft of cabins. However, it does hold some excellent trails, so today we felt we couldn’t leave without visiting some of them.
From the southern edge of the Park, P3 at Gamelin, we took Gatineau Parkway for 10 minutes before turning onto the excellent trail 5. It was sunny again, but very cold – similar to yesterday.

As was the scenery….

Trail 5 heads off to the north near Pink Lake, so we took trail 15 to P6 at MacKenzie King (across the road from another of our start points, Kingsmere). Trail 7 from here was an excellent ski, leading eventually back to Gatineau Parkway for a gentle potter back to P3, to conclude this year’s visit to Gatineau Park.

On the way we passed the Lookout above Pink Lake. The lake is named after the family who settled here in the 1830s. It turned green in the 1960s and has been found to have no oxygen below a depth of 13 metres. It was thought to be polluted, possibly due to a mica mine from the early 1900s, but it has recently been established that erosion is the problem. Remedial measures are being taken.

Pink Lake is white in winter.

Here's one of two huge grooming machines that were lunching on the Parkway.

As we approached Gamelin, we gained a clear impression of how close this ski area is to the centre of Canada’s capital city.

Having carried a flask of tea all around this 22km route (10.00 to 13.20 including 15 minutes of breaks), we finally got to enjoy it from the warmth of the car before travelling the 10 minutes home for bagels with cream cheese and smoked salmon.