The above picture is a rare sight in these parts at this time of year. Simon and Doug are lunching in comfort on the bench beside Trail#1 at Huron Cabin. It’s warmer than –5C on a calm, sunny day. It’s usually much colder than this, and until the current warm spell has apparently been diabolically cold in these parts.
We awoke to around 10cm of fresh snow and decided to head into Gatineau Park before it got too crowded on what would turn out to be the best skiing day of the year here, according to numerous comments made by passing friends and strangers alike.
After purchasing my season’s ski pass at the Visitor Centre, and parking at P9, we were soon on Fortune Parkway together with a plethora of skiers ranging from super athletic types like ironman (woman) Cory – in training with a large rucksack for next weekend’s 160 km Canadian Ski Marathon – to families, with small children being pulled in centrally heated sleds.
After 3 km or so, Sue, Ken and I headed up #3, Burma Road, for a scenic journey to Huron Cabin, whilst Helen stuck to the Parkway and #1. The soft fresh snow made life very easy, though the others seemed to need to re-wax a couple of times whilst my skis performed well on yesterday’s blue wax. Here are Ken and Sue, enjoying the undulations of the narrower Burma Road trail before bumping into Tasmin and her husband.
Lunch was taken in the busy cabin at Huron, with sandwiches toasted on the hot cast iron surface of the wood burning stove.
After lunch, we headed down #1 to the Khyber Pass – an easy descent on the fresh snow – before returning to P9 via the wide, well groomed tacks of Fortune Parkway. There were lots of very slow skiers to dodge on this warm, sunny Sunday afternoon, but it was hard to keep up with the ‘buggy sledges’.
My Garmin showed 15.5 km for the trip, compared with 8 km in Mooney’s Bay yesterday.
A visit to Fresh Air Experience on the way home signalled the collection of my new Salomon skis and the sad demotion of the battered old Fischers to ‘rock skis’ for use in conditions where the snow may be inadequate.
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