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From OpenFile Ottawa:
by: Sarah Davidson
Just like rock climbers earlier this year, off-trail hikers are now facing serious restrictions in Gatineau Park. Continue reading
Today as reported to the Board of Directors under the heading Ecosystem Conservation Plan – Restoring Ecosystems, the NCC wrote:
A plan for identifying the steps for restoring climbing sites and unofficial hiking paths on the Eardley Escarpment is being drawn up along with the community of climbers and hikers.
Certainly it is the plan of the NCC to include users in this discussion, but as far as I know the earlier canceled meeting on the topic has not yet been rescheduled.
In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Ottawa Ski Club and as a fundraiser for the Canadian Ski Museum, I organized a reproduction of a 1967 Gatineau Park cross country ski trail map. Continue reading
There’s more than I cover in the video if you scroll down.
There exists in Gatineau Park a lovely picnic site called Penguin. This is an unusual name for a geographic feature, lying as it does about eleven thousand kilometers from the nearest penguin habitat; therein lies a tale. Continue reading
Trail #17 winds its way between Keogan Lodge and the top of the hill above P7 at Kingsmere.
Skiers who learned the trails before the numbering system came into force refer to this trail as Frank’s Trail. Continue reading
For an outsider listening to people talking about skiing in Gatineau Park the most frequently mentioned places to ski are perhaps the parkways, followed by Ridge Road, followed by Burma Road.
Grab your official NCC trail map; I defy you to locate Burma Road anywhere on there. Continue reading
Click to see more because I’ve not only posted a transcript and piece of old map, I’ve got some extracts from documents about this trail dating from the 1930s and 1940s. Continue reading
If you park at P7 at Kingsmere and ski up to trail #1, the Ridge Road, you have to climb trail #30 or possibly #31 up what is still sometimes called “Booth Hill.”
It’s called Booth Hill because to your left as you leave the P7 parking lot there once stood the country estate of J. R. Booth, Ottawa’s lumber baron.
If this hill holds any intimidation for you you’ll be happy to hear that it was referred to as “the graveyard of skiers” by the people who originated skiing in Gatineau Park.
The Ottawa Ski Club developed many of the trails of Gatineau Park more than 100 years ago - long before there was a park at all. You can explore their historic newsletters here.