Winter in Gatineau

I'm back in the Lower Mainland after having spent a week in the Ottawa area for the holiday season. Most of the time was spent with family, but I did get outside at least a few times... thankfully!

One day was spent on the snowshoe trails in Gatineau park. For those who don't know, Gatineau park is a rather large (363 km2) park to the north of Ottawa. It is operated by the federal government, and is one of the hidden gems of the Canadian parks system... but it's not officially a National Park! I highly recommend spending some time there, preferably in the less well traveled areas, if ever you're in the National Capital Region. With an observant demeanor and a willingness to explore you're bound to come across many natural wonders.

As for our day out, it was a good day and made a much appreciated change from sitting around at my parents home all the time. There was snow a plenty and the occasional sunny break! This old barn made some nice pictures.



The forest here is full of paper birch, white pine, red pine, some cedar, and Balsam Fir!


If you're interested in plant identification, including trees, try smelling them whenever you can! Your sense of smell triggers memories and recognition far more powerfully that visual stimulus ever could. For me, nothing smells like Christmas like the smell of a Balsam Fir!

There were also lots of mushrooms around like Horse's hoof fungus, or this yellow ball thing, found on a birch, which I have yet to identify:



Or these things:


Which again, I have yet to identify! If anyone has the answers (or even suggestions!) please let me know!

On our way home we stopped to try fire lighting in cold weather. It was about -12 C. The whole affair was rather rushed as it was getting on and we were expected for dinner that night. Still, using a small twig bundle, some dead pine branches, cattail fluff, birch bark and, most importantly pine resin, we managed to start a small camp fire.


The pine resin really was critical in getting the fire going; that stuff just keeps on burning! It came from a red pine that we'd come across earlier in our walk.


With more time devoted to preparation of the tinder, kindling, fuel, location, etc, and better still a small axe, we could have had a really nice little blaze going. It's really nice to practice these skills and develop proficiency with them in all conditions!