GATINEAU PARK

N 45°36'47" W 076°00'36"

45.6130, -76.0100

(lac philipe)

A place I just love so I threw it in here. A stop on the Quebec side by Pontiac, it’s just a forty-five-minute drive from the Nation’s Capital. I'm not even sure where to start, the trails, the water, the scenery... It’s a must see in my opinion and even though its completely outside Ontario it is on the Trans Canada. I stay with friends or rent a room and visit the park. The friends know me, so they don’t mind that I just wander off on my own or think I’m rude. Gatineau itself has dirt cheap short term room rentals and I love practising my French avec les Québécois. I set up camp behind a construction fence for week (taking it down every morning), and even rented a camp site for one night. It’s definitely better day time visiting, in the off season when the day use is free and there are fewer regulations. During the busy season, you're instructed to swim inside the buoys, waist deep to me so...kind of ruins the enjoyment of the beaches. The lifeguards do leave at six. Coming after labour day, the gates are removed so admission is free and the lifeguards and buoys are gone. Freedom. Fewer people means I can enjoy my highs a little and let my guard down too. I've been camping here since childhood and enjoy taking my kayak between the three beaches on Lac Philipe. There are also some shallow rocks in the centre of the lake I go put up inuksuk’s on. About an hour hike from Parent Beach there’s also the Lusk Cave Network formed by melting glacier forcing water into cracks in the marble causing it to erode. My phone died playing music that day so no pictures. It’s like an underground waterfall with small plummets. I’ve never been to the Mackenzie king estate, most of the hiking trails or pink lake. I have caught a bullfrog over a foot long there and hiking through the deeper parts of the woods the most trilliums I’ve ever seen in one location mixed in with the ferns. A visit to the nearby town of Wakefield, a very artsy little community, is also a 'must be recommended' as well. The entire park is huge at over three hundred kilometres with over a hundred and fifty kilometres of trails so I've narrowed it down since there’s just no way to have seen everything there is. Even doing my research for this I found out there is a supposed unofficial nudist beach on Meech Lake. As a curiosity, for the conspiracy minded, a friend from the area has mentioned a hidden government lab I can’t find any references to…2021 was brought to an end by the passing of my car. Gatineau was supposed to be my next stop. Hopefully next year I can update this page.

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Gatineau Park Webpage