Hikers step up to wintry artistic challenge
Snow tagging involves ‘drawing’ in the snow by following map and compass
LA MAURICIE NATIONAL PARK, QUE.— The green boughs of the trees are laden with fresh snow and the orange and pink jackets of other hikers pop in and out of view as we head up the hilly trail toward Lac Solitaire, the blank canvas that awaits our group of snow-tagging artists.
The only thing you hear deep in the woods of La Mauricie National Park is your breathing. That, and your snow pants rustling.
The park is just a corner of the vast Mauricie region, named after the river that’s smack dab between Quebec City and Montreal.
Near-endless forest is interrupted by municipalities such as Shawinigan, Trois-Rivières and La Tuque, surely a favourite Canadian place name (and one that was inspired by a tuque-shaped mountain).
Forget escaping winter. In Mauricie, you dive in with both boots. Or crampons, for this 2.5-kilometre hike.
When we arrive at the lake, we peel the crampons off our boots and put on the snowshoes we’ve been carrying on our backs. We haul out laminated maps, a few compasses and start stomping our way around the lake to create a giant snow masterpiece.
Snow tagging is half art, half science and 100 per cent fun. The map and compass tell you how many steps to walk in what direction to create an image — be it a giant bicycle, a Parks Canada logo or, in our case, a spider and its web. We split into two teams. My group takes on the spider.
One budding artiste holds a rope and I hang on tight to the other end and walk around her to create a pretty darn impressive circle. We stomp in single file to make the insect’s little head and then we head off in different directions to make the eight spider legs, carefully backtracking when we get to the end.
I go rogue on the last leg, guesstimating both the number of steps and the direction.
We finish in an hour or so, swap out the snowshoes for our crampons and scramble up the trail to admire our winter magnum opus from above. A few fist bumps and photos (no one calls out the one weird spider leg) and we hike back to the Rivière-à-laPêche lodge, where a fire is waiting for us on the deck.
We sit and watch cross-country skiers come back in after a day exploring some of the 80 kilometres of groomed trails in the park. Every five kilometres or so, the trails have a “refuge” — a little wooden hut to take a break. We popped into one the day before while out skiing. A fire was crackling and skiers were drying their gloves on spikes above the fireplace.
There are also fat-biking trails in the park. Beginner tip: start with wide trails. On narrow trails, you may swear more than you expect as you repeatedly hit the snowbank and your leg sinks in snow up to your thigh every time you try to push off again. Better-mannered cyclists just let out happy yelps as they crash into the snow.
After leaving the park, we head west to explore some of Mauricie’s 2,800 km of snowmobile trails. At Pourvoirie du Lac Blanc, near SaintAlexis-des-Monts, we are decked out in helmets and big warm gear to roar off into winter.
I’m happy to be a passenger. The only thing I have to do is give a little wave to oncoming snowmobilers to indicate we’re the last in our group. The rest of the time I just hang on to the heated handles, enjoy the view and admire the hardcore riders wearing bright geometric gear that matches their machines.
From the air, the snowmobile tracks across the lakes of Mauricie make their own works of art. We take off from Lac Sacacomie in a Hydravion ski plane for a 20-minute looksee over dense forest and giant dots of frozen lakes.
Some lakes are snowmobile freeways — the well-worn tracks are straight as an arrow, very much A to B. Other patches of white are covered in lively loops where riders have gone a little freestyle. One lake looks like a Picasso sketch of a woman’s face. And I swear she’s smiling up at us from the snow. Jennifer Allford was hosted by Parks Canada and Mauricie Tourism. Neither reviewed or approved this story.