Trail #11 and its Names

Skiers who have been around Gatineau Park for some decades will know that trail # 11 was once known as the Merry-Go-Round trail. This is an unusually good name because the trail does indeed go roughly in a circle and contains a number of ups and downs; some of the quite dramatic.

(click for bigger image of trail profile)

What is perhaps lesser known is that many of these hills, particularly “the downs” also had names.

In 1920 the Ottawa Ski Club first bought property in the Gatineau Hills. They’d already begun a trail network. As their membership grew from twenty members past two thousand over the first decade they aggressively built lodges and more trails. In 1928/29 they were exploring and cutting trails westward toward where the Champlain Lookout is today. Merry-Go-Round is first mentioned during that season and already its thrilling hills had names.

The first of these was Big Dipper, a descent we no longer use because it was closed when the Racing Trails were installed near Camp Fortune in the 1970s (there was once another hill before this even, called Horse Race—also now extinct). Next came Little Dipper followed by Kicking Horse Pass. The final descent into what was the Keogan clearing was called Hellgate; anyone who’s shot down this luge-chute that ends in a stream crossing will agree with the name.

(Big Dipper depicted at left circa 1945, same hill in 2011 below)

At the time farmers had fairly recently abandoned the valley along which the Fortune Parkway now runs and a coniferous forest must have been reclaiming the western reaches of the farm fields based on the 1928 map calling the area Fairlyland.

This was also a time when the Great Depression was putting the screws to everyone. City folk balked at coal prices and country folk could raise a little much needed cash by cutting firewood from their unfarmable land. One of these areas must have been the rocky-swampy land north of the current Shilly-Shally and the Khyber Pass because it had been dubbed Desolation Valley.

Today trail 11 returns toward Camp Fortune by crossing the Fortune Parkway a second time and sticking to the north side of the Champlain Parkway, but originally, before these parkways were built, Merry-Go-Round headed to the edge of the southern face of the escarpment and down a slope they called the Curve of Destiny; so challenging that it was marked with a warning and a skull and crossbones.

This original trail returned across Lac Bourgeois (then called Mud Lake) which was labelled Ogopogo by way of blaming a monster for the water that tended to clog up people’s skis. By the following winter the trail had been rerouted north of the lake and the name Ogopogo was reapplied to the bumps there, thought to resemble a sea-monster’s coils.

From Ottawa Ski Club News December 31, 1928:

Throughout that vast stretch of hilly and broken country extending in a North West direction from the gates of the Capital, there are a great many ski-ing oasis as yet little known, some of which, within easy distance from Camp Fortune, are the Creely’s slopes, McClosky’s hill and the Blanchette’s slopes. Beyond are also the “Grands Brulis” (Burnt lands), about which little is known. To connect some of these nearer points with Camp Fortune by more interesting trails than the old flat and sleigh-travelled bush road which goes along the top of the ridge has been for some time the aim of the Trails Committee. Some day, not far distant it is hoped, the Club will have a permanent Western lodge in the direction of McClosky’s, about three miles from Camp Fortune, which will be used as a stop-over for skiers coming from Cascades and also by those more energetic beings, who find that the ascent from Old Chelsea to the Canyon is hardly sufficient to develop an appetite for lunch time, and who will push on right through to the Western lodge.

The first of these points is Creely’s slopes. A trail is now being cut through the bush from Camp Fortune to Creely’s. It will include four very good hills in addition to Creely’s thrilling slopes, and a lot of rolling country in between. These four hills are “The. Big Dipper,” “The Little Dipper,” “The Kicking Horse Pass” and the “Curve of Destiny.” From half way down Creely’s, the skiers may come back to Camp Fortune by Mud Lake and Travellers’ Hill, or keep straight on to Kingsmere by our old Black Lake slopes (now part of the Cliffside’s Sunset Trail). The whole trip, starting from Camp Fortune and back to Camp should not exceed three miles,-about an hour’s easy journey. This Trail will be called the “Merry-Go-Round.” Your Editor had suggested the name of “The trail of the Wet feet” because the snow happened to be soft every time he worked on it and he got his feet wet, but the Committee felt that such name might act as a deterrent and that “Merry-Go-Round” would be more attractive. It is hoped that the Merry-Go-Round trail may be inaugurated early in January.

From Ottawa Ski Club News January 23, 1929:

The Trail of the Merry-Go-Round-Progress report—Captain Morin and his squad have reached as far as Desolation Valley in this Westward extension of the trails of the Ottawa Ski Club, clearing as they went the following hills “Big Dipper, Little Dipper, Kicking Horse Pass and Curve of Destiny.” The cleaned surface on these hills is as wide as the widest gorges of the Canyon, allowing for ample track room, and there are, in addition, miles of clean bush on both sides for those who would rather take the virgin snow. The Curve of Destiny will connect with the “Grande Descente” (alias Creely’s hill) and the trail returns to Camp Fortune by way of Mud Lake. The inauguration ceremonies will take place on Feb. 3rd. Ye Ed. has been instructed to buy a bottle of Champagne. He will see that it is not spilt uselessly.

From Ottawa Ski Club News January 30, 1929 (which also contained the  map  shown above):

The Trail of the Merry-Go-Round—Just climb to the top of traveller’s hill, to the west of Camp Fortune, and you are started on your thrilling ride. A few gentle slopes steady your nerves, and then—Whoopee! —the “Big Dipper” is ahead of you. But have no fear-the trail is wide and the snow is soft. A hundred yards farther—Wheeh, —another one—the “Little Dipper,” a little brother of the one you have already been introduced to. You now must climb a little, and then have a long gentle slide. As you climb another rise you can see a clearing far below you—Keogan’s Clearing—The “Kicking Horse Pass” will take you down to the lower levels, and if your eyes can work fast enough you will notice a,forest, a clearing, a log-cabin, a wild cherry hedge, and a bridge all rushing past you. Be sure to keep your eye on the bridge, or you will land in the creek, look to your left and you will see Keogan’s Lodge, the stronghold of the Cliffside—Pass by an old board shack and you come to wonderful country filled with pine trees, a veritable “FAIRYLAND.” After two gentle slopes, you find yourself in a desolate valley, devastated by the woodsman’s axe, through which you must pass to start on the homeward journey. CAUTION! DANGER! GO SLOW! else ye come to grief. More gentle slopes both up and down, and you will reach Mud Lake- beware the OGOPOGO. The trail of the Merry-go-round will be officially inaugurated next Sunday. Order of ceremonies: (1 ) Officers, Directors and their wives; (2) Ambulance; (3) Rank and file of members.

From Ottawa Ski Club News February 27, 1929:

One member who sat down on the edge of the Big Dipper acquired a liberal plastering of snow which melted with the subsequent exertion of climbing, George’s explanation was that there was water in the dipper and that -he had sat down in it. From this point on George developed a grouch which became more acute and only subsided after the objective was reached. While congratulating ourselves that the worst was over, Hell Gate suddenly burst upon our vision. The least said about it the better but we wish someone would smooth out the convolutions in the Ogopogo’s back.

From Ottawa Ski Club News December 31, 1929:

A new and wonderful hill “The Horse race” has been added to the Merry-Go-Round.

From Ottawa Ski Club News February 13, 1930:

The Merry-Go-Round —”I would not take $500 for my morning’s work” said Captain T. J. Morin as he returned from a little exploring trip in the vicinity of Mud lake on Sunday noon. “I have found a more wonderful finish than I ever dreamt of for the Merry-Go-Round. We can laugh at the Ogopogo, now”. It will he remembered that the trail bearing that name starts from Camp Fortune and takes in Traveler’s, the Horse Race, the Dipper, the Kicking Horse Pass, Fairy Land, Desolation Valley and the Curve of Destiny. From the latter point it was supposed to come back to the Camp by way of Mud Lake, but since a half dozen skiers were dragged into the depths of the lake by the vicious Ogopogo that inhabits there, somehow the trail ceased to be merry from the Curve of Destiny on, and those who got as far as that point came home by the hard sleigh road. Now Joe has found on the heights of land north of Mud Lake, a wonderful series, of long, gradual, easy, soft descents, through clear bush, going almost as far as Journey’s End, and from which the antics of the Ogopogo and its muddy dwelling can be watched at a safe distance. Journey’s End is just a few ski lengths from the top of Traveler’s hill. The whole of the Merry-Go-Round trail is only about four miles long and can be covered in less than an hour’s easy ski-ing, and it is real merry now, all the way. It will be marked with bunting for next week-end, and those of our members who feel they can afford an hour before lunch at Camp Fortune are strongly advised to try it. All aboard for the Merry-Go-Round! – But your Editor feels like adding: – Look twice before you shoot the Big Dipper and the Kicking Horse Pass. They are practically the only spots where one is apt to get a spill.