{"id":470704,"date":"2026-02-12T18:40:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T18:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/470704\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T18:40:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T18:40:07","slug":"forest-skating-trails-are-a-winter-wonderland-heres-a-few-to-try-across-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/470704\/","title":{"rendered":"Forest skating trails are a winter wonderland. Here\u2019s a few to try across Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Adventure Skate Loop at Apex Mountain Resort in British Columbia.Apex Mountain\/Supplied<\/p>\n

The ribbon of ice wound smoothly away, between spruce flocked with overnight snow. Skaters slipped into the woods and vanished. Frigid conditions at the six-kilometre skating trail at Patinage en For\u00eat in Lac-des-Loups, Que., didn\u2019t faze the weekend crowd that had come to experience a frozen, forested playground. <\/p>\n

In fact, the conditions were perfect \u2013 ideal, even. Each winter I take road trips in search of great skating ice. An archipelago of outdoor rinks in Montreal and Quebec City once scratched the itch; in recent years, I\u2019d acquired a taste for more adventurous terrain. Instead of an endless looping circle, I\u2019d come to experience one of the forest skating trails popping up across Canada, in locations from the Maritimes to British Columbia.<\/p>\n

We traded a beach resort for an ice slide on our family escape to Quebec City<\/a><\/p>\n

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Domaine Enchanteur is a network of ice trails near Trois-Rivi\u00e8res, Que.Etienne Boisvert\/Supplied<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a child I always dreamed of skating through the forest, but I never thought it was possible,\u201d said Patinage en For\u00eat<\/a> owner Dave Mayer. (Tickets for his skating area run $17.39 for adults.) Then he saw footage of Domaine Enchanteur<\/a> (adult tickets $27.40), a network of ice trails near Trois-Rivi\u00e8res, Que., that\u2019s widely seen as Canada\u2019s first such project. It was his childhood dream, come to life. \u201cI said to my wife: \u2018I don\u2019t know how, but I\u2019m going to do that,\u2019\u201d recalled Mayer. <\/p>\n

During my weekend visit in February, the trails were quiet despite the buzzing skate chalet; one-way trails let the skaters space out easily, passing each other at signposted intersections. I heard only the hissing slick of ice underfoot, the pop of branches flexing in crisp air. <\/p>\n

This ski club has quietly maintained wilderness trails for 50 years<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019d woken that morning in Old Chelsea, a picturesque village amid the low-lying Gatineau Hills of Quebec\u2019s Outaouais region, just outside of Ottawa and a gateway to Gatineau Park<\/a>. It\u2019s where I\u2019d booked a weekend stay in its central Lofts du Village<\/a>: strategically close to multiple ice trails, restaurants and post-skate relaxation in the thermal waters at Nordik Spa Village<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Driving northwest toward Patinage en For\u00eat, however, Chelsea\u2019s chic gastropubs gave way to small-town casse-cro\u00fbtes<\/a>. Few outsiders used to venture up here, Mayer explained. But since he opened the trails in 2017, Mayer has met visitors who travelled to tiny Lac-des-Loups from Sweden or New Zealand or London \u2014 all keen to lace up their skates and explore the forested land where Mayer\u2019s Irish ancestors once grew potatoes.<\/p>\n

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The kilometre-long Forest Skate at nearby Mactaquac Provincial Park stays open late to the glow of trail-side lights.Supplied<\/p>\n

Robert McLeman is a professor of environmental science at Wilfrid Laurier University and the director of citizen science ice-monitoring program RinkWatch<\/a>, which uses backyard and community rinks to study climate change. He notes Canadian skaters have long made the most of ice. McLeman remembers reading Quebec author Roch Carrier\u2019s descriptions, in Our Life with the Rocket: The Maurice Richard Story, of the informal skate routes that once turned Montreal neighborhoods into playful labyrinths. <\/p>\n

\u201cBack alleys and side streets literally became skating trails that kids would use to skate around town,\u201d he said. \u201cOn prairie farms they would have old sloughs, ponds and watering holes for livestock \u2026 you could almost call it opportunistic skating.\u201d <\/p>\n

Skating trails are constructed by spraying \u2013 and smoothing \u2013 layer after layer of water. But they capture that enterprising spirit, finding ways to play where recreation would otherwise be limited. The 15 kilometres of forest skating trails at Domaine Enchanteur<\/a> turned a failed pine plantation into a wonderland dotted with warming huts, cocoa stops and petting-zoo enclosures. When Toronto\u2019s free-to-use Bentway Ice Skating Trail<\/a> opened in 2018, it transformed a marginal urban area. \u201cThe space underneath elevated expressways isn\u2019t the most attractive in the world, but that\u2019s a good use for it,\u201d McLeman said. \u02d9<\/p>\n

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Toronto\u2019s free-to-use Bentway Ice Skating Trail opened in 2018.Mila Bright Zlatanovic\/Supplied<\/p>\n

For my second day of skating in Quebec, I headed from Chelsea to nearby Le Sentier du Petit Pingouin<\/a> (adult tickets $20.88), a meandering 5.5-kilometre network of trails winding between the snow-covered greens of a golf club. When owner Carl Ch\u00e9nier took over management of Club de Golf Touraine from his father, he knew he needed a way to generate revenue through western Quebec\u2019s long winters. \u201cWe started out in 2021 with just a short loop trail,\u201d he recalled. \u201cBut 500 people came that very first weekend.\u201d <\/p>\n

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Little Penguin Trail skating trail in Quebec is a meandering 5.5-kilometre network of trails winding between the snow-covered greens of a golf club.Tourisme Outaouais\/Supplied<\/p>\n

Many were locals. In keeping with Canada\u2019s skating heritage, the best forest skating trail is often one that\u2019s close to home. Isabella Mehlitz, a city employee in Fredericton, N.B., heads to the kilometre-long Forest Skate at nearby Mactaquac Provincial Park<\/a> (adult tickets $8.70), which stays open late to the glow of trail-side lights. \u201cIt\u2019s the kind of winter memory that sticks with you,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Toronto-based marketer Emanuel Petrescu loves the 1.3-kilometre forest skating trail at Arrowhead Provincial Park<\/a> (park day use $18.58) in Muskoka, two and a half hours north of the big city. \u201cIt\u2019s a proper trail, not like a frozen lake,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s more dynamic, more exciting and more fun.\u201d <\/p>\n

Kristin Kelly of Port Carling, Ont., takes her six- and three-year-old boys to the 1.2-kilometre ice trail in Bala that circles a forest-wrapped cranberry bog at Muskoka Lakes Farm & Winery<\/a> (adult weekend trail pass $20). \u201cI recently took our oldest son and skated around the trail, and we just had the best time together,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

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Apex Mountain ResortAlexia Boyd\/Supplied<\/p>\n

Massage therapist Megan Holley of Naramata, B.C., visits the nearby one-kilometre Adventure Skating Loop<\/a> at Apex Mountain Resort. Just outside Penticton, the trail (tickets $15) passes through an evergreen forest with night skating, too. \u201cIt\u2019s very beautiful, and feels very Canadian,\u201d Holley said. \u201cLike an adventure, or outing, rather than just to the rink or back.\u201d <\/p>\n

For some, that adventure is worth a longer journey. Back in Quebec, after looping twice around the rolling ice track of Le Sentier du Petit Pingouin, I ducked into the shipping container that serves as its warming hut. Inside were a pair of women who\u2019d arrived from Nova Scotia that morning. <\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone else in the Halifax airport was heading to Mexico,\u201d said Kerri Lafond, as she laced up a well-used pair of hockey skates. \u201cThey were like, \u2018You\u2019re going to Ottawa now?'” Lafond and her partner, Alexa Stewart, planned to visit five skating areas before returning to Nova Scotia after a three-night stay. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s minus 24 C and we don\u2019t even care,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cWe\u2019re so excited to skate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The writer was a guest of Tourisme Outaouais. It did not review or approve the story before publication. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Adventure Skate Loop at Apex Mountain Resort in British Columbia.Apex Mountain\/Supplied The ribbon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,2922,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-470704","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-noastack","12":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}