Trail 71, a 7.1 km Snowshoe/Fat Bike Trail in Gatineau Park

Trail 71 in Gatineau Park is an awesome snowshoeing and fatbike trail. Although it’s not super long, it was fairly challenging! Lots of short, steep little hills made sure of that.

Along the way there was a gorgeous view over Lake Carman, and a rest stop with a built in fire pit (and pre-chopped firewood!). Besides all that, Trail 71 was just a beautiful, long walk in the woods.

Trail 71 is designated as a snowshoe trail so it’s only open in the winter.

Quick Facts

Length: 7.2 km
Difficulty: Between moderate and hard! (on a scale of easy-moderate-hard)
Trailhead Coordinates: 45.585780, -75.903784
Washroom at Trailhead: Yes
Dogs Allowed: No
Cell Reception: Good
Wheelchair Accessible: No
Parking: Right at the trailhead.
Cost: $8.70 to access the trail.
Open: Mid-November to mid-April (depending on snow conditions).

Getting There

Trail 71 branches off of Trail 70 in Gatineau Park, which starts at P15. You can use these coordinates to get there: 45.585780, -75.903784.

P15 is a massive parking lot, with space for easily more than a hundred cars.

Near the back of the lot is where Trail 70 starts- the trailhead is marked by a big blue sign.

This is also where a small outhouse has been put up, and where you can pay for your trail pass. Here, only cash is accepted so I recommend bringing the exact amount required. Alternately, you can buy a pass online, or you can borrow one from the libraries around Ottawa!

The Trail

In order to get to Trail 71, I headed out along Trail 70, which is also a snowshoe trail. The trail starts in a massive field, which is often windy and feels a lot colder than the temperature actually is.

Just 150 metres along, I came to the first split for Trail 71. There was a big brown sign posted, informing me that Trail 71 was off on my right-hand side. Not knowing where the next trail split was (Trail 71 loops back and connects to Trail 70 further southwest as well), I decided simply to head in this direction.

My Route

This resulted in me hiking the loop counter-clockwise, and arriving at the rest station much earlier into the hike than I would have if I had hiked it clockwise. It’s hard to say which direction I’d recommend. Maybe I’ll have a better idea once I’ve written this whole post!

Trail 71 continued through the open field, albeit in a different direction. It brought me back behind the parking lot, and ran parallel with the road I had driven in for a bit. Almost immediately there were small, rolling hills that I had to traverse.

The NCC had marked the trail, as always. Since there were very few trees on this first section of the hike, trail markers were posted on metal poles that had been hammered into the ground. Where the terrain was hillier, the trail markers were placed close together to help ensure you wouldn’t missed them. On flatter sections they were further apart, but still easy to spot ahead of you.

The field itself was pretty ugly, and I hiked through it for quite a while. I actually started to wonder if this hike was going to be completely lame the entire time.

The Forest and the Firepit

I passed through a stand of trees around the 1.75 km mark that looked promising, but it ended just as quickly as it had begun! Then, after I had hiked 1.9 km I reached a trail split that would finally get me into the forest. I turned to my left, following the markers for Trail 71. The trail also went off to my right but there were no markers in that direction.

After 2.4 km I reached the point where Trail 72 connected to Trail 71. A big brown sign indicated which trail was in each direction at the split. The fire pit and rest area was just beyond this point.

It looked like a great place to stop for a break, with tons of pre-chopped firewood close by. A little beyond that, I began to get views across Lake Carman, which were gorgeous. The forest floor was rising up on my left-hand side, and did the same across the lake, making for a really cool, hilly landscape.

There was a family with young kids enjoying the fire pit so I didn’t stop for pictures.

I crossed over a short bridge, and the trail began to wind along the shoreline of the lake.

The Elevation Gain Begins in Earnest

At the 3 km mark I reach yet another trail split. An unmarked trail stretched ahead of me, but a very obvious sign in the trees indicated that Trail 71 headed into the forest (and away from the shoreline) on my left. Here, the hills and elevation gain would start in earnest.

The terrain also got a bit rockier, so I had to be more strategic about where I was placing my snowshoes. Later in winter, with more snow, this wouldn’t be an issue at all.

After hiking 3.8 km I came to the top of the steepest hill yet. This hill was marked with a caution sign (for bikers coming the other way). There’s a notation on the NCC’s map about a steep hill to be aware of on the trail, although it turned out that this was the first of two that were steep enough to require additional marking. I came across the next one at 4.7 km, but fortunately got to go down this one instead of up!

The trail continued to wind through the woods, bringing me through a few valleys where the forest floor rose on either side of me, which was pretty cool.

Back to Trail 70

At 6.1 km the trail basically spat me back out onto Trail 70. Following the signs posted here I turned left to follow Trail 70 back to the parking lot. The trail here was super wide and went downhill, before it led me out of the forest and back into the big open field where I had started. Again, I followed the trail markers on the metal posts (although I could see the parking lot from where I was).

By the time I arrived back at the parking lot, I had hiked a total of 7.1 km. It had taken me just under two and a half hours, with very few breaks. I thought I was moving at a pretty good pace, but I’m also a bit out of shape so do with that info what you will!

Trail Thoughts

I really enjoyed Trail 71. Maybe because when it started out it seemed so lame that it could only get better. But probably because of the combination of the challenging terrain, distance, and gorgeous views over the lake.

The fact that I was all by myself, enjoying the peace and quiet without any kids around probably helped a bit too. 😊

If you go, I hope you love it as much as I did!

Map and Elevation Gain

Whenever I’m hiking somewhere new, I tend to wonder about who was on, and who took care of that land before me. I’ve enjoyed using this website as a place to start learning more about the Indigenous people whose land I’m on: Native-land.ca.