Gatineau Park – Parkways

The following is a note from Ian Lennie the volunteer coordinator for Gatineau Parkway closures.  Thanks to KN’s own Linda Martin & Matthew Foster for handling the closure on Thanksgiving weekend.

Hi all,

The parkways in Gatineau Park are now officially closed for the winter.  We can rollerski, cycle, long-board or in-line skate on them any or every day until snow arrives.  Please continue to move safely and respect each other and the park environment.  As always, our continued access depends on it.

Thank you to this fall’s parkway closers, who came forward quickly and cheerfully, long before I even considered pleading or arm-twisting.  According to all reports, the task was tidily taken care of every weekend and free of incident — or, as Hugh Blakeney put it in an e-mail after his stint: “Done.  It was uneventful.”

So please, a big round of applause for:

Piers Drew
Richard Turgeon
Hugh Blakeney
Matthew Foster and Linda Martin
Rick Heroux
Lisa Meyer
Ross MacLeod
several athletes from XC Ottawa who shared the duty last Sunday
and John Fahey, who again offered his property as convenient storage base for the signs and pylons

One final note: North Loop construction.  As you know if you’ve passed by P8 in the last week, this is underway and substantial.  Completion date is tentatively the end of November but could be later.  That’s one big culvert, and a fairly constricted job site.  Snow may well arrive before the job is done.  We can forget about roller-skiing (or cycling or skating or boarding) the loop this year.   Enjoy the rest of the parkways and, soon hopefully, the ski trails.

See you out there.