The Skyline Trail
Last Saturday was a beautiful sunny day here in Ottawa and I wanted to take advantage and get outside for awhile. Gatineau Park has hundreds of kilometres of walking and biking trails in the summer and I have only been on a couple so far. My first thought was to go see the caves that are located way into the park. They are supposed to be pretty neat and the trail is about 10km and goes through them and in the woods. However, I didn't want to drive almost an hour to get to te caves and then see them on my own so I entered the park at Chelsea and went in search of Pink Lake. Now, if you see a map of Gatineau Park and try to get to Pink Lake by following it's directions, you will NEVER get there. I know this because I drove around aimlessly for about half an hour looking for it... I realize the gene pool gave me Al's sense of direction and not Cheryl's, but still, I can usually follow a map quite well. Finally, I gave up finding a trail on my own and went to the Visitors' Centre to get some help. The young girl at the desk told me that Pink Lake is quite hard to find (duh!) and then told me the right way. Since the trail at Pink Lake is only 2.5km, I asked her to show me another trail that was around 5km or so that I could do first. That took me to the Skyline Trail.
The Skyline Trail is not a trail for a first-time hiker. It is mostly up and down hills and the path itself is quite rocky in spots. If you have bad knees, you wouldn't want to be on it. It does have some great views overlooking the city and it is a great little workout as the trek from parking lot to the trail and around the loop and back is about 8km. I didn't run into too many others on that trail and I got some nice pictures. I love hiking on my own because it gives me a chance to clear my head and think and relax. I think I was out on that trail for just over an hour and enjoyed it a lot.
The Skyline Trail is not a trail for a first-time hiker. It is mostly up and down hills and the path itself is quite rocky in spots. If you have bad knees, you wouldn't want to be on it. It does have some great views overlooking the city and it is a great little workout as the trek from parking lot to the trail and around the loop and back is about 8km. I didn't run into too many others on that trail and I got some nice pictures. I love hiking on my own because it gives me a chance to clear my head and think and relax. I think I was out on that trail for just over an hour and enjoyed it a lot.
Pink Lake
With my new directions, I made it to Pink Lake! There was lots of people on this trail - every walk of life from young to old to short and tall, every nationality and a multitude of languages. This trail is not a difficult one to hike and at only 2.5km it doesn't take long to go around the loop.
Some background on Pink Lake... Pink Lake is a meromictic lake which means that it has layers of water that do not intermix with one another. The lake is not pink at all but rather a deep green color due to the abundance of algae. It is named after a family of Irish folks back in 1826 who settled to farm in the area.
I wandered around the lake and took some pictures and people-watched. The lake itself reminded me of summers spent at Kinnesis Lake in Haliburton when I was a kid. It was calm and had a nice forest surrounding it. It was a very nice walk and a good trail for people to try out if they want to see the park at an easy pace.
Some background on Pink Lake... Pink Lake is a meromictic lake which means that it has layers of water that do not intermix with one another. The lake is not pink at all but rather a deep green color due to the abundance of algae. It is named after a family of Irish folks back in 1826 who settled to farm in the area.
I wandered around the lake and took some pictures and people-watched. The lake itself reminded me of summers spent at Kinnesis Lake in Haliburton when I was a kid. It was calm and had a nice forest surrounding it. It was a very nice walk and a good trail for people to try out if they want to see the park at an easy pace.