.: Ski XCOttawa.ca :: Skiing in Ottawa and Gatineau Park

2014 Gatineau Park Loop
By:  Steffan Lloyd   (2014/04/03)

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Last Sunday, XC Ottawa athletes Riel Allain, Kyla Vanderzwet and myself, along with a number of skiers from the Carleton ski team and the Alberta World Cup Academy, embarked on an extra long loop of the gatineau Park Ski trails.

The proposed route (with kilometer markers). Starting point was P7, after which we followed trail #1 to the firetower. We then cut through a backcountry trail to Lusk cabin, and followed the Lac Phillippe parkways and trail #53 to P17, where we skied down to wakefield for lunch at a local bakery. We then took trail #52 back to trail #50, and follwed that all the way to p16, then #36 to P11, then followed fortune parkway and trail 1 back to P7. Total distance was 68 km.
See full route details here: http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/fullscreen/381955446/

Start of the ski, 7:45 AM.

Snack break at Wolf Trail.

The start of the 10 km backcountry connector trail between the Firetower trail and Lusk cabin.

Morale is high going into backcountry ski. Patrick's ski is not broken either.

Through the backcountry trail, and skiing across Lusk lake to Lusk cabin. Patrick's ski experienced a slight break, but was still usable for the rest of the ski.

Snack break at Lusk cabin.

Powder has begun to melt. What was once fast nice conditions became extremely slow, and we lost all grip. Morale was low. We were forced to forgo an optional addition to the loop (around taylor lake) due to lack of grip.

Obligatory stop at a local Wakefield bakery for lunch. Rewaxing with klister also enabled us to have grip for the return trip.

Near P16, ~ 20 km left in ski.

At P11 (O'brien beach) Patrick had to call it a day as he ski finally went from kind of broken to very broken.

The finishers, back at P7. Time: 6:45 PM.

Previous Big Loops: 2008 and 2005.

 
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