Gatineau Park 'a dangerous place' after storm, visitors urged to stay off trails

Gatineau Park took a hit during Wednesday's major ice storm and is left facing what the National Capital Commission says will be weeks' worth of cleanup.

Trails are scattered with fallen branches and damaged trees, said Alain D'Entremont, senior manager for visitor services at Gatineau Park, on Friday.

Hiking or walking the trails is off-limits right now, as is use of the parking lots. 

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"It's a dangerous place to venture," said D'Entremont. 

After days of clearing efforts, the NCC has been able to open the parkway network on the south side for one last weekend of cross-country skiing, D'Entremont said.

"These wide roads are groomed for cross-country skiing, so these parkways will be available," he said. "But all of the trails that are in the woods, all the smaller trails, will stay closed."

Most of the cleanup is being done on snowmobiles right now, D'Entremont said. But with roughly a metre of snow still covering the park, that could be an issue with double-digit weather in next week's forecast.

"It will become more difficult to go in by Ski-Doos [but the ground will also be] too soft, for instance, for pickup trucks."

The NCC is urging people not to use the trails until it's safe to do so, adding that they shouldn't attempt clearing the pathways themselves.

Widespread damage, outages

The park's neighbours also experienced quite a bit of damage from Wednesday's storm, which has left tens of thousands of people in Ontario and Quebec without power.

Pierre Guénard, mayor of Chelsea, Que., said crews were out all night Wednesday into Thursday morning clearing trees and branches from local roads.

"Witnessing that on our own roads, I just can't imagine [what it's like] with all the trails of the Gatineau Park. It must be terrible," he said.

But his concerns stretch beyond the cleanup efforts: as of Friday afternoon, tens of thousands of Quebecers were still without power due to the ice storm, including Guénard himself.

"There wasn't as much damage as the derecho, but you can see how much damage it's done on the Hydro-Québec system," Guénard said.

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On its website, Hydro-Québec wrote that they're "doing everything we can to restore electricity service as quickly as possible."