New trails underway in Chelsea Park

The trail building in the area encircled by Old Chelsea, the 105, and Scott is a good example of the spirit and vision of Chelsea Trails. This ‘triangle’ contains two elementary school, the Meredith Centre, and many homes and municipal green spaces. But right now, in many cases, a child living 500 metres from their school can’t walk or bike there. This is particularly true if the only entrance to a home or street is off of the 105, on which children are not allowed to ride their bikes (since the speed limit for cars is 70km/hr).

Marc Desjardins, the SCT Sector Champion for this area, hopes to change all that. For the past several years, Marc has been working with the municipality and local landowners to create a system of footpaths that can link streets in this area to each other and to access points on Scott and Old Chelsea. Work this summer  will be done behind Ben’s Towing but there are also three other paths in this area that have either been restored or are in the planning stages. Much of these trails follow municipal corridors, but some portions are only possible thanks to the collaboration of local landowners. Marc has knocked on many doors and held open meetings to garner support, and has taken the wishes of local landowners into account when designing certain portions.

As always, these improvements would only be possible with many hours of volunteer effort, in collaboration with the municipality. One important volunteer has been Leilak Anderson, a certified arborist, who has kindly donated and delivered extra mulch for the trails.

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Interpretive Panels along the Chelsea Community Winter Trail on display at Chelsea City Hall, February, 2017

2017-02-18-13-56-34Since 2009 Sentiers Chelsea Trails (SCT) has partnered with the municipality of Chelsea to pro
vide a multi-purpose groomed snow surface along the currently unused railway tracks.

In 2014, SCT initiated a partnership with the Gatineau Valley Historical Society (GVHS) to develop and install interpretive panels along this trail, featuring scenes from Chelsea’s past. (more…)

Spotlight on the Chelsea Park Sector

chelsea-park-trailThe trail building in the area encircled by Old Chelsea, the 105, and Scott is a good example of the spirit and vision of Chelsea Trails.

This ‘triangle’ contains two elementary schools, the Meredith Centre, and many homes and municipal green spaces. But right now, in many cases, a child living 500 metres from their school can’t walk or bike there. This is particularly true if the only entrance to a home or street is off of the 105, on which children are not allowed to ride their bikes (since the speed limit for cars is 70km/hr).

Marc Desjardins, the SCT Sector Champion for this area, hopes to change all that. (more…)

What is Sentiers Chelsea Trails up to this summer?

Once again, volunteers are busy building trails for the benefit of the community!

The major work this summer is on the Chelsea Park Trail, which runs from Ch. du Manoir to Route 105 (behind Ben’s Towing). Coordinated by Marc Desjardins, this roughly 1km trail features a beautiful 14 meter bridge and one more to come this fall – the result of many, many hours of volunteer building effort! It’s designed for travel on foot only – not bikes – to respect the wishes of adjacent homeowners. (more…)