60 Ottawa Ski Club <strong>Year</strong> <strong>Book</strong> <strong>1944</strong>-45 The renovated Pink Lake Lodge The old green eyed monster
Ottawa Ski Club <strong>Year</strong> <strong>Book</strong> <strong>1944</strong>-45 61 Geographically speaking, <strong>the</strong> G.atineau country extends as far as <strong>the</strong> shores of <strong>the</strong> Ottawa River; for all practical purposes however, it ends or begins just where <strong>the</strong> Pink Lake trail shoots out of <strong>the</strong> bush, about a mile and a half from <strong>the</strong> street car terminus. The first part of that last stretch is still pleasantly rolling, <strong>Gatineau</strong>-like land ; <strong>the</strong> rest. is flat, pancake-like, strongly reminiscent of <strong>the</strong> endless plains of Eastern Ontario across <strong>the</strong> river. Between <strong>the</strong> Wrightville car line and <strong>the</strong> great ski centre of Camp Fortune, a trail has been gradually developed through years of incessant work by ski pioneers, attached or unattached to a clu:b. This is <strong>the</strong> Wrightville trail, <strong>the</strong> most useful perhaps, and certainly · <strong>the</strong> most abused of all our snow waysuseful because it goes straight home, whereas o<strong>the</strong>r trails wander round in search of hills and scenery, abused ibecause it includes a few flat stretches, and quite a few steep twisty descents generally made fast and icy by <strong>the</strong> passage of hundreds of plank hoppers. Such as it is however, <strong>the</strong> trail is a great favourite with <strong>the</strong> more democratic members of <strong>the</strong> ski fraternity. <strong>the</strong> penniless and <strong>the</strong> "autoless". It is also popular with <strong>the</strong> energetic and tireless because it gives <strong>the</strong>m a chance to let off steam and stretch <strong>the</strong>ir legs to <strong>the</strong>ir heart's content before getting home. The abuse or criticism d'oes not come so much from <strong>the</strong> old habitues who Pink Lake A new Ski Centre have mastered <strong>the</strong> art of negotiating turns and bumps and can make good speed over flats, but ra<strong>the</strong>r from green skiers, or ski-tow addicts, who, having outstayed <strong>the</strong>ir leave at Camp Fortune and missed <strong>the</strong> return bus, undertake for <strong>the</strong> first time, and with legs already wobbling, to cover this long stretch of bush and clearings at <strong>the</strong> close of <strong>the</strong> day. It is indeed a fairly long stretch, possilbly ten miles and certainly not under· nine, made up of a number of sections or branches, each called a trail. These paths were gradually developed one by one, named as <strong>the</strong>y came into being, and later connected to make <strong>the</strong> great "Wrightville Trail". Starting from <strong>the</strong> lodge of Camp Fortune, <strong>the</strong>y include <strong>the</strong> following: The Lane, a steep grade connecting with <strong>the</strong> Ridge Road; George"s, from <strong>the</strong> Ridge to Kingsmere Lake, a wicked little trail, of bumpy disposition, known from time immemorial as <strong>the</strong> graveyard of poor skiers; <strong>the</strong> Mica Mine Trail, from Kingsmere Lake to Pink Lake lodge, over MacKenzie King's broad acres and four long, smooth, . extremely "pleasant slides. The last section, which has been re-routed at various times during <strong>the</strong> last fifteen years until it now takes in all <strong>the</strong> sloping ground that can be found in that part of <strong>the</strong> country, is <strong>the</strong> Pink Lake Trail; it starts from <strong>the</strong> lodge, climbs a bit at first <strong>the</strong>n drops into <strong>the</strong> bush by a series of tricky and
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