CAVES ARE COOL, IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE Ottawa-Gatineau has an underworld to explore By Andrea Cranfield
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f summer heat and humidity start to get under your sweaty skin, go down to escape. Way down. Underground in fact, into one of the many caves located within an easy drive from Ottawa. Climbing into a dark crevice maybe shared by bats might not sound like a barrel of laughs but it’s exciting and fun. Touching rocks shaped by millions of years of seeping water, walking with the earth’s surface many metres overhead, seeing fossils tracking the cave’s history makes delving into caves a memorable summer activity. So Ottawa Outdoor Magazine asked several cave managers about what’s going on down there, and here’s what they had to say: Wear non-slip walking or hiking footwear and bring a sweater or jacket because it gets cool underground. Wearing clothes you don’t mind getting dirty is also a good idea. A head lamp lets you use your hands, and in some cases a safety helmet is recommended. And don’t forget your camera. Contact each cave to find out when they’re open, and whether tours are available.
Taking a break at Lusk Cave.
BONNECHERE CAVES, 1247 Fourth Chute Road, Eaganville, Ont. These caves appeared on the first map of the Bonnechere River in 1853, made by Alexander Murray, a geographer for the government of what was then Canada West, today’s Ontario. The caves are a postglacial formation in limestone that dates back to the Ordovician Period about 450 to 500 million years ago. Visitors can expect to see fossils and finely formed passageways, experience absolute dark, and learn the area’s history and geology from friendly, knowledgeable staff. The Bonnechere Caves are an extensive and accessible cave system, which at their deepest point go about 25 metres down. There is no place where you have to crawl or squeeze, and bats hibernate in winter when the caves are closed to the public. The lights go out for a few minutes every tour to show visitors what “absolute dark” looks like. The temperature hovers around 10 to 12 degrees. LUSK CAVE in Gatineau Park. From the Lac Philippe campground, it’s a two-hour hike to Lusk Cave, formed about 11,000 years ago, when glaciers from the last Ice Age melted. Even today, water from a stream through the cave continues to erode the marble from its walls. Even beginners can enjoy exploring this geological gem, with a minimum of equipment and preparation. The galleries, which follow the underground stream, are about 100 metres long and the water level can be as high as a metre or more. This is a more or less horizontal cave, with a few open spots to get in or get out.
Think of it as a sort of tunnel a few metres under the surface. Some tunnel sections are only one or two metres across, others wider. There are no boardwalks, stairs, ladders or electrical lighting. And the stream flows constantly, even in dry weather, even in winter under the ice, though it’s off limits to winter visitors when the bats are hibernating. WARSAW CAVES, northeast of Peterborough by about 20 minutes, near the village of Warsaw. This is not a single cave, but a series of seven along a trail of less than a kilometre, carved out of limestone bedrock by meltwaters of a glacier that covered Ontario 10,000 years ago. They’ve been known locally probably since the mid-to-late 1800s.
Exploring Bonnechere Caves is a must this summer! Bruce Cave promises to be an adventure.
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