Foret Larose

The weather has been pretty erratic lately, which has been causing havoc with the winter sports Glosette Girl, Margot and I like to do. It's been too cold, too warm or too snow storm-y. Even the local ice rink was closed the last two times we visited! Argh.

But this past Sunday we caught a break. The temperature was a respectable minus 4 degrees Celsius or so (minus 11 with wind chill) which is pretty much as good as it gets around these parts. So I packed the fam' into the car and headed east to Foret Larose for some ski du fond.

This is actually the second time this season we've cross-country skied. The first time was at Shirley's Bay, in the west, which was nice but a bit crowded with walkers. Technically it was supposed to be a ski-only trail but I can't get too mad as my family has occasionally bent that rules ourselves (and by bent I mean completely ignore).

But with Margot gaining more and more confidence every time we go out I wanted to try a "real" ski trail for this experience.

I wasn't disappointed. The trails were really well groomed and dead flat, which is great for a beginner like my lil' girl.

Better yet, even though there were a few cars in the parking lot we barely ran into anyone meaning Margot didn't feel any pressure to go faster. This is actually a major reason why I avoid Gatineau Park in the winter even though it's the local cross country ski mecca - there are just too many people.

Foret Larose is about a 45 minute drive straight east from Hintonburg in the middle of farm land. It was definitely a pleasant surprise for my gang so I would check it out if you want some easily accessible nature. Word of warning: you will hear the occasional snowmobile zooming about, but once you are the heart of the woods it'll just be you and the trees creaking under the weight of snow.