Skating for Miles

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I determined this weekend that Quebeckers (not sure how to spell that!) do winter better than anyone else I know. I think it is because they normally get so much snow but at the same time have relatively mild winter temperatures (as opposed to back home in Alberta). It has typically been about -5 to -10 degrees C this winter, so great weather for being outside. Unfortunately after a good start of snow in late November, we have had basically none since mid December. Ironic that the winter we are away and wishing for snow Edmonton has the most snow it has seen since 1985! Anyways, with no snow we went looking for other winter activities. In the local paper this week they showed two places nearby with networks of skating trails. We decided to check them out.

Saturday to Lac Sept-Îles:
If you keep going down our range road about another 3-5km, you end up at Lac Sept-Îles. It is a popular small vacationing lake in the area and is surronded by cabins. The large islands in the middle of the lake even have cabins completely around them. We were told that the cottagers every year set up a skating trail around the lake and this year with so little snow the ice is the best it has been in years. It was amazing. The trail is supposed to be ~10 km long. It goes along the surface of the lake around the complete perimeter. In a couple of places, people have set up little coffee stands in front of their cabins. Some have little skating rinks between their cabin and the main path. In several spots they have put out benches for people to stop and take a rest. Because of so little snow, even off the path itself you could probably skate, although it would be a bit bumpy. Volunteers from the lake even flood the ice on the path. We met the homemade "Zamboni" while we were doing our trip. We skated for about a 3/4 hour in one direction. We think we were about half way, but M woke up from his nap in the Chariot and was cold and mad. Because we weren't certain that we were half way, we decided to turn back as we knew how long that would take us to get back in that direction. I would love to go back another day and do the whole loop. It was snowing lightly so a rather hazy day, but in the sunshine it would be really glorious. If there was wind it would be a cold skate though because you are very exposed. It is impressive that it is all done informally by the lake people and there is no charge for the use. There were quite a bit of people out skating, visiting and enjoying the day.

Sunday to St. Catherine-de-la-Jaques-Cartier:
Today we decided to try a different skating place. St. Catherine-de-la-Jaques-Cartier is about 20km away on the way to Quebec City. It is a very nice little town on the Jaques Cartier river. The homes you drive past on your way through are very picturesque. Anyways, they have a great winter recreation parc in town - Parc du Grand Héron. When we arrived, the parking lot was jammed packed so it must be a popular place. Unlike yesterday, this facility is not free. It cost us $9 for 2 adults and the kids are free. However, it was set up well. There are indoor skate changing rooms, snowshoeing and cross country ski trails, a sledding hill and two ice areas for hockey. But what we went for was the 2.5 km of skating trails through the forest. Today was a beautiful sunny day, -10, but a bit breezy so it was good to be in the trees. When you came out you felt the wind. We skated for over an hour. Not sure how far we skated but we did several times around the main loop, which appeared to be about a km long. It is kind of one main outer loop with several connecting trails making smaller loops through out the area. There were so many families skating that you had to be careful when you changed trails and skating counter flow was tricky. P pushed M in the chariot the whole time. He was much more confident having the stroller to balance against so it allowed him to go a bit faster. There was even a section of the trail at the back end where it went up and down a long low hill. I have never skated up hill before! I am guessing getting the ice surface on the inclines was tricky at the start. We enjoyed a hot chocolate around the fire and headed home. M woke up as we got back to the car. Two trips and each time he has fallen asleep just as we arrive so he is yet to try out his new skates. We decided that Lac Sept-Îles (on a calm day) is less busy and being free is a better deal, so we will more likely return there. However, these forest trails are lit at night so we do plan to come back once in the evening for night skating through the trees. A great weekend! Stay tuned next weekend for an ice fishing adventure!

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Photos

Skating on Lac Sept-Iles
heading out along the lake from the starting point. This section cuts across a bay so is not close to shore.

Lac Sept-Iles 2
loooking back along the trail towards the start.

Homemade "Zamboni"
this is the fellow who was plowing and flooding the path. The ice quality was great.

Across the lake
This is taken from our turn around point across the lake. We started from the shore to the right of the large island.

close up of across the lake
Our starting point was the church. This is a close up of the previous picture and you can see the church spire to the right of the island.

Church at the lake
It is interesting that just like every small town here, these recreation communities have their own rather fancy church.

Parc du Grand Héron map
This map shows the loops of skating through the forest. (shown as "sentiers de glace en foret" if you click on the photo to see larger version).

along the forest trail
It was neat to skate right in the trees like this.

Up hill skating
Yes, we are going up hill in this section.

downhill skating
a good time to know how to stop yourself!

Comments

[Terry]

looks like fun
Looks like fun Tracy!! You had better tell Claude to get in some of those pictures and slow down on the work!! Glad your have a great time,the blog is a neat idea. Terry @ Glaslyn Sask.

[Tracyandboys]

thanks Terry! Yes we are having fun. Claude was the one pushing the stroller on the lake trip. But yes, he has been working too hard, but we are off to Disneyworld in 10 days for a 2 wk break. Can't wait.