GATINEAU PARK LOOKOUTS AND FORESTS REMIND HIKERS OF THEIR FOREBEARS BY KATHARINE FLETCHER
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s Ottawa struggles into spring after El Nino’s wintery grip, people of an outdoorsy bent are dusting off the hiking boots and heading for the hills. Lucky us. Gatineau Park’s Wolf Trail and the King Mountain trail, provide grand views of the Ottawa River and Valley and an introduction to intriguing human and natural history for anyone who pauses along the way. WOLF TRAIL, No. 62 (used to be No. 16) Access along Meech Lake Road, west of Old Chelsea Time: at least three hours, but allow for 4½ Drove to parking lot 13 on Meech Lake Road, so you can ascend this trail in back of the Eardley Escarpment, aka “the Ridge.” You climb 218 metres through mixed forest, picking your way along a rocky trail throughout this 8.3-kilometre hike. About 500 metres from the trailhead, the path splits. Stay right, then remain on trail No. 62 following the signs to Mahingan (380m) and then the reward of Tawadina Lookout (335m). NATURAL HISTORY: You are climbing through mixed hardwood and softwood forest. Watch for black bear claw marks on the smooth silvery-gray bark of American beech trees. When you see them, stretch your hand up to the lowest ones – a great selfie where you can compare the span of your fingers to the bear’s paw.
Looking down at the Ottawa River valley from Tawadina Lookout on Gatineau Park's Wolf Trail.
As you approach Tawadina, notice how the vegetation changes to a habitat of stunted red oaks along the escarpment edge. Don’t be fooled by their size: these are not young trees. Their height is limited by the scant topsoil and rigours of weather in this harsh, exposed environment. They are well over 100 years old. Come summertime, roses blossom here, along with harebells and other flowers that need direct sunshine but can get by on little moisture – quite unlike the understory plants of the dense forest you climbed through. At the Lookout, smooth Canadian Shield rock formations allow an unimpeded view over the Ottawa River. Formed in Precambrian times, these hills are remnants of a mountain range higher than the Rockies, eroded to their current height after millennia of glaciation, faulting, and exposure. HUMAN HISTORY: The name Meech Lake recalls Asa Meech, a Congregationalist minister, doctor, and teacher who arrived in Hull (now part of the city of Gatineau) in 1815 from New England. By 1821 he owned the first farm “up the mountain” in what’s now Gatineau Park. Although his house isn’t identified by the National Capital Commission, you’ll have driven past this white clapboard home along Meech Road en route to Blanchet Beach.
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PHOTO BY ERIC FLETCHER
Human and natural history on Wolf and King Mountain trails
