CALEB NICKERSON
BRISTOL Feb. 15, 2019
On Feb. 15, a crowd of local officials and tourism stakeholders gathered at Coronation Hall Cider Mills for the unveiling of a new search engine for outdoor activities in the region: outaouaisoutdoor.ca.
The website is a project of the Outaouais Outdoor roundtable, which is coordinated by Loisir sport Outaouais (LSO), an organization that promotes physical activity.
“It was a will of all the regions of the Outaouais for a couple of years now that we should structure a bit better our outdoor activities on offer in the region,” explained LSO outdoor project manager Charles Antoine Rioux. “Our ideal was, that with a few clicks and just an idea you could easily find somewhere to play outside.”
He said that for the launch of the search engine, which is bilingual, they started with only hiking activities in the summer and snowshoeing trails in the winter, but would be adding cross-country skiing and paddling in the near future.
He explained that each trail has to meet certain standards of upkeep and amenities, and they are all mapped extensively, with lookouts and parking marked.
“We sent one student this summer, she had the best job in the world, she actually just walked the trials with a GPS … to really find out and qualify the trails,” Rioux said.
He added that for the moment, motorized activities such as snowmobiling won’t be a part of the group’s mandate.
“We have a strict definition of what outdoor activities are, dependant on the government and … we really have to stay within these limits,” he said, noting that they are looking at options for promoting those activities as well.
