Gatineau Park ski conditions 5FEB P16-19, Taylor Lake-detailed damage report

Classic looked very good today, a few thin spots but a 9/10.  That is the good news.
 
For skaters its a much different story.  I left p16 around 8:15am.  The trail had been groomed overnight and looked great however I soon realized that the trail changed from bi-level to tri-level and back and forth.  This makes for a more challenging skate.

Fortunately there was no fresh snowmobile tracks when I started.  However after about 10km here came the maintenance snowmobile.  Naturally he was driving either in the wider part of the trail (ie. skate lane) when it was bi-level or right in the trough when it was tri-level, making things worse.  Why would he be out there after the grooming if he is only picking up garbage or whatever else they need to do?  Get it done late in the day and then stay off the freshly groomed trails.  Or if they can't do that have the machines ride on the upper part of the bi-level in an effort to flatten the trail.

The damage was done and remained until Lac Philippe when he obviously went on the snowshoe trail.  Then we were back just to the bi-level to p19 and it was not too bad.  The road to Lac Taylor was pretty good.

On my return trip going through the camping area it was obvious that since I had come through a snowshower and walker had now walked in the skate lane-right beside the snowshoe trail.  The damage here lasted for a couple of kms. 

At this point it was obvious that the snowmobile that had come toward me earlier in the morning had now come back.  Instead of 2 ruts we now had 4!  The skate lane was now a mess and it was likely only 10am.  This continued until Healy and then we were back to the simple bi-level, tri-level grooming.  I realize that the trough that runs on the trail is past damage from having snowmobiles on the length of the trail as the trough is the exact width of these machines.  If they needed to do this why have them ride on the same part of the trail each time? 

If you classic you could have had a great day, if you skate its an exercise in frustration.  However, given how bad the grooming is I think that the standard bi-level, tri-level grooming is going to be as good as it gets.  Demsis simply does not know how to provide a flat surface on trail 50 and when you see how the snowmobile destroys what has been done you have to wonder if Demsis is even trying.