Parc Naturel Lavigne

February is the best month for winter activities !The days are longer, there's still lots of fluffy snow, and it's warmer than January. So with no big plans this Family Day long weekend we decided to enjoy some winter fun and head east to Parc Naturel Lavigne.

This little park is a real cross-country skiing gem.  It's only 40 minutes from our house in Ottawa but it feels a world away: a woodlot surrounded by farm fields as far as they eye can see. In some places the trails meander here and there around the trees. In other places you get to enjoy some surprisingly big hills.

In terms of variety of experience, I would say its the best overall cross country trail that I've tried near Ottawa, and that includes both the Ontario and Quebec side of the border. A lot of skiers in this area are drawn to Gatineau Park, but you have to pay to use those trails - and they are so crowded! In comparison, we passed only one other group skiing the whole time we were at Parc Naturel Lavigne, which made for a very relaxing experience. It's also great for families as beginners can try the flatter trails while those with more experience can try something more challenging.

Bonus points for Margot: we passed a few horse stables along the way!

This is our fifth, and possibly last, cross-country ski of the season and I'm super happy that we are going out with a bang.

Bill Mason Centre Trail

It takes effort to keep on looking for new hikes around Ottawa. We have no grand mountains or stormy oceans. No vast desserts, midnight sun, or ancient ruins. Not even a notable amusement park! In sum, nothing epic to visit. 

Still, there is a rough and tumble beauty to the area, with the Ontario side being a bit more pastoral and the Quebec side a bit more rugged. And as long as Margot keeps letting me drag her across the country, while we chatter life's worries away, I'm going to keep exploring the area.

I thought I had discovered most hikes within 60 minutes of my house by now (my maximum radius for a day-trip) but it turns out there are still a few hidden gems out there because this past weekend we discovered the Bill Mason Centre Trail, near Dunrobin, west of Ottawa.

The trail is tucked behind a school so it is inaccessible to the public during the week. Maybe that's why I have never heard of it before. But it's completely open on the weekend and so Margot, Glossette Girl and I took full advantage of a glorious September day to stroll it's boardwalks and woods.

I loved how empty it was.

Whenever we hike a beautiful trail a part of me wonders whether it's time to pack city life in and move to the country. I don't need epic mountains to realize how realize how much I love nature. And Margot is an avid horseback rider after all....

Just kidding, until I retire I think I'm going to be a city guy. I like the conveniences of Hintonburg and the proximity to culture and restaurants and life that the neighbourhood brings. But a man can dream...

Muddy stroll on the Wilsondale

Today our gang ventured to the Wilsondale trails, just east of Cumberland Heritage Village, which is  east of Ottawa. Normally, when I blog about the hikes we do I am fortunate enough to be able to comment on all the great trails around here.

Unfortunately not all trails are all stars and sadly I'd put the Wilsondale trails into this category. 

Two minutes in from Margot, the dreaded: "I'm bored." Luckily we pushed through that!

Key features: 

• A confusing muddy start to the trail where you have to walk across a field without clear signage to get to the trailhead.
• Transmission towers criss-cross here and there over and above the trail (not exactly the most natural feature!)
• The low hum of the highway can be heard in the distance (same comment as above).

In the distance, a rare Canadian tree: power-line-us-coniferous

That's not to say I didn't have a great time walking the trail with Glosette Girl and Margot. Au contraire my friend! We actually had a few good laughs as we stumbled and bumbled our way through the muddy trail for an hour or so.

Honestly, when the weather is mild and the sun is shining it's hard not to have a good time on even the most humble trail. And while I can't say this one will rank among the great Canadian or even great local trails, it did the job!

Margot was chattering about Harry Potter the whole time!

New glimpses into old Favourites

Recently, we discovered a cool new bonus perspective on Shirley's Bay. one of our tried and true trails in Ottawa.

We already knew that the trail was great for teaching Margot how to cross country ski; it has just the right amount of hills to make skiing interesting, without too many hills to cause too much trouble. However, the bonus we discovered is that, in the dead of winter, you can ski right onto the Ottawa river. 

The first time we went on the ice we saw some snow kiteboarders in the distance

The first time I tried this was a few weeks ago and I'll admit that I was bit nervous about going onto the ice of such a vast body of water. But the second time I tried I went full steam onto the ice.

What I enjoy most about skiing on the ice is the long horizon you get. The river just keeps going and going. People who live near the sea, beside tall mountains or even in treeless places like the Prairies, perhaps don't appreciate just how fortunate they are to have such vast views. In most parts of Ottawa such views simply don't exist - everything is so flat and normally your horizon is only a couple of hundred metres away.

Two brave explorers

But that's not the case here! On the river, the snow and ice just keeps going and going with nothing to interrupt your sight line except for the occasional kiteboarder or ice fishing hut....

Small but annoying fact: I lost my waterbottle somewhere out here!

The perfect place to feel small. 

Coronavirus in Hintonburg: Week Five - Nature is Sanity

So we're well ensconced into the shutdown now and time trudges forward. Unlike some of the chirpy morning show radio hosts or local journalists who make it seem that crafting or "online field trips" can somehow equate to real world activities, I view the current crisis pretty dimly.  It's boring, it's never ending, and for many people, it's physically or economically life threatening.  In other words, not fun at all.

There is one thing that keeps my lil' family going through all this though: walks! Canada isn't as strict as other countries when it comes to walking. We're not in a lock down like other countries where you are only allowed outside for one specific task: grocery shopping or a visit to the pharmacy. Also, Ottawa isn't as dense as bigger cities like Toronto or Montreal. The parks may be closed for playing but there is still lots of forest space to walk through and enjoy.

In fact, because of the light traffic on the roads these days we can get to a lot more walks very quickly from our house - including walks in the relatively deep woods of the greenbelt.

So far we've hit up:

• Fletcher Garden (near the experimental farm)
• Watt's Creek (near where Margot goes horseback riding)
• Shirley's Bay

Letting the day's cares flow away

• Lime Kiln Trail  
• The Jack Pine Trail

Walks bring out great smiles

• The Mer Bleue area
• Pinhey Forest
• The Chipmunk Trail
• Sheila McKee Memorial Park trail
• P3 Trail loop

And these are just the ones within 20 minutes of our house!

Honestly, these daily walks are helping me keep my sanity. Walking through the forest, kicking up leaves, and just listening to the birds makes me feel normal. Maybe the Government will close these trails down eventually but until they do, we're walking!

Still At It

Two years after Margot first tried cross country skiing we're still at it.

We aim to go roughly four times a season. You'd think that with a winter that's around three months long we'd have no problem hitting that quota but we actually have to do a decent amount of planning to make it.

Why, you ask? Because unless you're into night skiing, weekdays are out.  And sometimes the weather is just too cold for us to go out into (I draw the line at negative twenty degrees Celsius). And fortunately/unfortunately Margot has discovered downhill skiing and if she goes downhill during the week she is not in the mood to explore the wonders of cross country skiing on the weekend.  And finally the shoulder seasons are generally out because there is either too little snow (November/some of December) or too icy (March). Hmmm this is making me sound very picky...but in any case, after all that, we end up with around five to six days from which to choose from between Christmas and Easter.

In the Ottawa region the obvious place to go cross country skiing is just over the bridge in Gatineau Park. However, I'm not really a fan of paying $20 per person to go on crowded trails that are 20 minutes from my house. So we're always on the lookout for free places to ski. This weekend we discovered a nice one just outside the city in the little township of Beckwith.

Into the woods...

The trail is called Goodwood Marsh Nature Trail and although it wasn't as groomed as some of the trails in Ottawa's Greenbelt, it was flat, still, and practically empty.

In other words, perfect for cross country skiing! The few people we came across were very friendly - like we all shared a special secret that other Ottawans had overlooked.

Honestly though, the main reason I like going on these ski trips is that when they work (and they don't always work - think angry Margot crying about cold hands/feet) they are a great chance to spend time with my honeys.

Honey #1:

and Honey #2:

Pinhey Forest

 
Frozen snow on the trees.
Crunching boots and laughing kids.

Making plans and hatching schemes.
Amongst the snowflakes and the new ice.

A happy start to the winter.
In Pinhey Forest.

Exploring the West: Chipmunk Trail

This past weekend "classic" autumn died and "late" autumn began.

Classic autumn is the autumn of postcards (think an explosion of colours in trees, apple picking and Halloween). Late autumn is the autumn no one talks about but is a big part of the year around here (think short days, dark nights and the colour grey).

Even though the forecast looked grim, I took a chance and visited the Chipmunk trail with a few visiting family members. And I'm glad we did!

Haunting beauty

The woods were filled with a sublime but beautiful light. The floor of the forest was carpeted with recently fallen leaves. And because it had just rained, we had the entire trail to ourselves. That's unusual because the trail is usually a family favourite. The reason for its popularity? The incredibly tame chickadees, which eat right out of your hand!

You would think they call this the chickadee trail...

Because it's a bit short for my liking (2.6 km) this isn't a trail I hike very often anymore. But for a quick breath of fresh air only 15 minutes from my house, it's not too shabby.

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.

Luskville Falls Trail

Woo hoo! This past weekend I finally hiked the Luskville Falls trail, which has been one of my local bucket-list things to do for awhile.

Not for the faint of heart, it's a 290 metre vertical climb that goes up...

"It's building character honey"

...up and more up!

Those first two photos are a bit deceiving because while it looks like we were all alone, that's just my ace cropping skills at work. In reality there must have been a thousand people climbing the trail at the same time as us. Now you would think that the steepness of the trail would discourage others from hiking it, but perhaps due to the beautiful weather we've been having, or perhaps because it was a long weekend, we found the trail very crowded.

Margot cutting the horde off at the pass

While I like how so many people choose to enjoy the great outdoors, I have to admit it would have been nice if just this one day they chose to binge watch some Game of Thrones instead and leave the trail to us.

Still, even with the crowds, there is no denying the beauty of the area. It has a different feel than the other trails in Gatineau Park as it marks the literal dividing line between the Canadian Shield and the flat lowlands that make up much of southern Ontario. Because of its southerly facing direction, it also is warmer than a lot of the surrounding region and supports a lot of rare plant species and wildlife.

Fortunately, Glosette Girl, Margot and I managed to find a few quieter moments where we were able to enjoy this cool micro-climate, dip our fingers into the falls that give the trail its name, and munch on a few M&Ms. Not a bad adventure all things considered!

Exploring the East: Near Mer Bleue

Hintonburg is in west Ottawa. And that means most of the shopping and hikes I go on are in the western part of the city. It's true: west, west, and...west! OK, well maybe it's debatable whether Gatineau Park is in the "west" (it starts near the centre and then sortof meanders west) but, generally speaking, my life is in the west.

But this past Earth Day, Glosette Girl, Margot and I decided to shake it up a little. We ventured east to the Mer Bleue area of Ottawa for some trail walking. We used to visit this area a lot when we lived at our old house in Quebec. Now...not so much.

That's too bad as the main Mer Bleue trail is really interesting. It consists of a long boardwalk over a tundra-like bog that is normally found in the arctic. I think there are also cool bug-eating plants in there. But to avoid the crowds, instead of the main trail we tried a lesser known one right nearby, which meanders through a forest.*

It was supposed to just be a Sunday stroll but Margot really got into the Earth-day spirit and decided we should pick up any garbage we found along the way. Picking up garbage wasn't on the agenda so I didn't pack any garbage bags. Luckily for Margot eating was on the agenda and I was mighty hungry so...

No that's not what I meant! GROSS! What I meant to say was that we brought a couple of bags of snacks (M&Ms, nuts, etc.) and we were able to improvise a few garbage bags by eating the food in them first!

Yeesh.

It was slow going as it turned out there was a surprisingly large amount of trash on the trail and Margot wanted to pick it all up.** But no one ever said that saving the planet one M&M and pistachio bag at a time was going to be easy!

The fruits of our impromptu labour

* Starts at the P20 parking lot.

** We had to skip some of the bigger garbage items on the trail as we didn't have anywhere to put them. This caused a mini crisis for Margot as she wanted to pick everything up. She really is an all-or-nothing girl.

Island Stillness

The stillness of the forest. Crunching new fallen snow with your boots. Crisp winter air. Simple pleasures are everywhere.

Last Friday there was almost no snow. Now it sits several inches deep. Winter is here in Ottawa in spirit even if technically* it hasn't arrived yet.

The change in weather was the perfect excuse to go for a walk with my visiting family, R, N and A in nearby Morris Island Conservation Area, one of my favourite places for a walk within an hour's drive of my house (the rough amount of time I'm willing to drive for a casual day trip) .

I love Morris Island because it's essentially true nature, not semi-nature like the greenbelt that surrounds Ottawa. Don't get me wrong, semi-nature has its place too but sometimes it's nice to know to your miles from anyone and the realm you are walking isn't quite tamed yet.

Margot and A technically didn't walk the whole route. They hopped on the Dada express for about half the trail. I didn't mind.

Children's Laughter is also a natural forest noise

We came, we walked, we appreciated and we left nothing but our footprints (or toboggan prints).

*Winter starts on December 21st

Gatineau Park by the Back Door

Glosette Girl and I used to go for walks in Gatineau Park all the time when we lived on the Quebec side of the border. The park is huge (361 square kilometeres) with many day use and over night trails.

I made it my mission to try all the day-use ones. Some are gentle. Some are rough and tumble. And some have historical plaques or sites. Personally, I just like walking in the woods. It's so peaceful!

Paradoxically, around this time of year, when the leaves are changing colour and many would say the park is at its most beautiful, accessing the park can be a bit of a pain it the butt. There are just too many tourists descending on the same few trails and lookouts hoping to snap their photo of "Canadiana".

The standard tourist route is to take the main road through the park, the Champlain Parkway, and stop at a few of the lookouts and maybe do a short hike (probably Pink lake) on the way up to the Champlain lookout, which overlooks Ottawa. It's a nice route but again the swarms of tourists take away from the experience.

Recently though, I discovered a new trail on the  north eastern edge of the park: Brown Cabin Trail.

Orange + yellow leaves = fall. Actually its been so mild there's still a lot of green...

Think of the park as a wedge. Most people drive up the middle to the lookout. To access the Brown Cabin trail you have to drive around the wedge, up Highway 5, and stop just before you get to the pretty village of Wakefield (side note - if Glosette Girl and I hadn't decided to become urbanistas we probably would have ended up here. Haha I probably would be walking around in mud splattered overalls after a day of harvesting up my organic crops right about now).

It's only just over 30 minutes from our house to get to the trail head, which is amazingly short amount of time to get to an a trail in an almost wild trail like this one. Plus, we were practically all alone! 

Showing off the latest in wood walking styles

Singing about Star Wars in the woods

The hike itself was two hours (6 km) roundtrip at Margot-speed. And there is a 4-season cabin with a wood burning fireplace you can rent in the middle to boot! Hmmm I may have to try that this winter...

Greenbelt Walk

Last weekend the weather was a glorious 4 degrees Celsius. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, and I could almost imagine cartoon birds singing.

Margot, Glosette Girl, and I decided to take full advantage of the balmy temperature and went for a winter walk - technically, the last winter walk of the winter season.

Ottawa doesn't have mountains or oceans (unfortunately, sigh!) but it does have a good number of walking trails within - or just outside - the city limits. A large number of those trails are in Ottawa's greenbelt, which is a green crescent of forests, fields and farms encircling the original city. While the original idea (that the greenbelt would constrain development and encourage development in Ottawa's core), hasn't quite worked out that way, the greenbelt is still a great easy-access resource.

So on Sunday we moseyed on over to Shirley's Bay, which is the part of the greenbelt in the west of Ottawa.

Technically the trail is supposed to be for cross country skiiers only until April 12th (which tells you something about typical Ottawa's weather!) but the snow was melting fast and we took a chance that the skiiers wouldn't be too grumpy if they saw us.

The trail itself is dead flat and doesn't have much going for it in terms of scenery. But we had fun.

That was probably due to the fact that my Dad-instincts* were on full power and I had the foresight to bring a sled for Margot to sit on.

Mush Dada!

Instead of lil Ms. Grumps...

I think I'm in trouble in 10 years...

...there was lil Ms Sunshine!

...but maybe not!

Whoever invented sleds must have been a parent!

* Small chance it might have been Glosette Girl's instincts.

Snow Storm Walk

A couple of nights ago there was a snow storm. Big fat flakes filled the air and obscured everything more than 50 feet away.

So that meant it was the perfect night for a walk!

Our street when the storm hits

Glosette Girl, Margot, and I put on our sexiest snowpants and wandered down to Fairmont park, which is the second closest park to our house. It is a nice park in a slightly more gentrified neighbourhood - about 5-10 minutes away.

Tennis, anyone?

Fairmont is definitely a great park to wander through in the winter as the trees give it a magical aura. I think elves live in some of them.

Although it was only 6:30 pm or so, we were almost the only people walking around. I liked that. It felt like the storm, as fierce as it was, was a present just for us.

Past the Invisible Wall

My new home in Ottawa, Ontario, is just 5 km from the Quebec provincial border but for some people it could be 1000 km away. For many, there is an invisible wall running through the middle of the Ottawa river that prevents them from imagining a life on the other side.

Yes, people are willing to work wherever their job takes them. But when it comes to living (buying a house, going to school, raising kids, even going out) doing so in the "other" province is a challenge that many people in this area struggle with.

I have first hand knowledge of this because I used to think like that! When I first moved to Ottawa I couldn't fathom living in Quebec (I'm from small-ish town Newmarket, Ontario). However, cheap rent and housing prices eventually had me take a good look at Quebec (having a cute Quebec wife doesn't hurt either). I ended up living in Quebec for 9 years.

Language was a bit part of why I was so reluctant. I didn't like the idea of living as a minority language speaker within my own country. Plus there was the whole Quebec separatist political scene, which annoyed me (and still does).

Eventually though, with Glosette Girl's help, I got over my jitters. And I'm glad I did. Although I love urban Ottawa living, geographically and culturally, Quebec is just a beautiful province. You are on the doorstep of nature.

This past weekend, with my sister and her family in tow, we re-visited the Mont-Ste Marie festival of colours. Glosette Girl, Margot and I discovered this a few years ago and we loved sharing the experience with my sister's gang. It was a colour explosion!

This place is only about an hour from my home in rural Quebec.  We started the morning with coffee shops and sidewalks and in the time it takes to watch one Broadchurch episode we were amongst the trees.

A very relaxing way to spend Thanksgiving. I really enjoy discovering these places - wherever they may be.

p.s there was Poutine at the bottom of the hill waiting for us as a reward. That didn't hurt either!