Ottawa Valley, ON

Posted on May 6, 2018 by Anne-Marie

It has been a big year, and I haven’t had the change to get outdoors as much (or to the extend) that I would have liked. Good thing is – my favorite season is on the way, and I am prepping to move (yet again) to settle on Vancouver Island this summer.

Before that, I have tried to explore as much as I possibly could the Ottawa Valley for what it has to offer (a big difficult for me in the winter, considering the weather wasn’t particularly exciting this year… forgot how I did not enjoy -30C snowstorms!).

Here are a quick list of some of the trails and hikes that I did in the last few months. They do not require any special preparation neither heavy gear. I would actually classified these more as nature walks than actual hikes. Feel free to share with me any good trails in the area if you know some, as I still have a good 2 months to explore around here!

First, here as some photos of the Cross-country skiing trails and a part of the trail just off Laurentian Drive in Petawawa.

I also went again to the Mackenzie-King Domain in Gatineau Park, this time during the winter. There are quite a few trails to explore around in the free area of the park (I can’t get used to the overpriced entrance fees of the parks out here…)

Over Easter week-end, we also drove to Mattawa, where we hiked to the Eau Claire gorge. It was a short an easy walk, but the power of the current going down the gorge on a sunny day was exactly the energy we needed!

I’m happy to say that the snow is almost – finally – all gone, and we were able to explore some new muddy trails this week-end. We drove up to Deep River where we walked along the X and C trails on the Silver Spoon trails system. From there, we drove a few more minutes West and walked along the waterfront to soak up the sun and check out a possible canoe-hike day trip we would like to take on later in June (Deep River to Mount Martin in Québec, just across the river!). Any advices welcome!