Canadian ski marathon - trail scouting

Hadn’t expected to need (or want) to make this road trip to check out the ski marathon trails. It’s become a bit of an annual tradition though so it was a nice morning driving around in the Quebec countryside. After the big snows we received over Christmas I figured the trails for CSM were all set. There was some word that – like Gatineau park – a few sections of wooded trail needed to be cleared of downed trees but the snow depth should be fine. Then we got our annual “January thaw”. Significant warm temperatures and some rain dropped the snow pack a bit. Then we got another thaw!! This time even warmer temperatures and more rain. The snow pack in Ottawa dropped significantly after that one. Not enough to open up the trails here in the Park but a few water hazards here and there started to appear. So I figured maybe a drive to see the CSM trail would be warranted.


Checkpoint 4 - quiet today but soon to be a beehive of activity

As with past years I couldn’t actually ski on the CSM trail today. It passes over private property for much of the course so it’s only open to skiers one day a year – on “gameday”. That said the trail crosses many roads as it meanders through the county side so I can always check out the crossing points and take a few pictures. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves (perhaps aided by a caption or two;) but all in all we should be fine for next weekend. More pictures can be found HERE.

Not much snowbank to work with on this roadside section... but it was snowing!

A little rough at the gate but the rolling hills beyond look great

The sidewalks of St Sixte were ready to go
Good coverage on this part of section 10... almost home at this point
So the coverage still looks decent. A few of the stretches along the sides of roadways may be a little… ummm, sketchy but they often are so status quo on that regard. Hopefully the wooded parts are cleared now and the “debris” from cutting the brush back isn’t too much of an impediment. There is a slight chance of some fresh snow at the end of the week which could hide the debris deeper in the snowpack.

As it stands the grooming will make for some pretty fast tracks. Everything was hard and icy and could support me walking on the top of the snowbanks. Fresh snow could slow things down a bit so we’ll have to see what happens there. Depends a little when the snow falls vs when the groomers run over the course. If the snow falls on top of the already groomed track… it will be REALLY slow… but if the groomers can work the fresh snow into their fresh track then it should be quite good. Could be a last minute wax call for sure. I look forward to the wax guru’s advice – could be a tough job to get that right.

These girls were starting to carboload - too soon?