Our last excursion to Petit train du nord for the season is Saturday September 16. We will be skating from the train station in Labelle and skaters will choose their desired distance of up to 100k. After the skate we'll enjoy a great meal at the Labelle train station and compare notes.

Enjoy blissfully smooth recreational paths, great National Capital scenery, superb fall foilage, and help The Ottawa Food Bank all at the same time.

The entire $25 registration fee is donated to the Ottawa Food Bank. They in turn can leverage every dollar donated into $5 worth of food. Registration at Dick Bell Park at 8:30 am, departure time at 9 am.

No amount of rain could dampen the spirits of Festival skaters. On the contrary, a little environmental adversity makes for excellent stories! The 2 km kids race and the 5 km family fun race saw great competition and decisive finishing sprints from up and comers from Ottawa, Harriston and Gatineau. The kids faces made it clear: this is awesome fun.

The marquee event, the marathon, saw skaters taking on hair pin turns on Colonel By Drive with panache and care; appreciating the encouragement from volunteers and spectators; and being elated when they made it to the finish. Similarly, the lead event, 10 k, saw fun competition and much cooperation. The final event of the day is the 21 k- remarkably a number of skaters who had already competed in other distances, hurried to the start line for another 2 laps!

We are going to post skater's reports over the next few days. Meanwhile, check out the photo galleries: Steve's pics, Alicia's shots, Dan & Lee's gallery, Annick's collection.

Thanks to all of our sponsors for their support.

And, yes, we are already planning for next year. So mark OISF in your calendar for Labour day weekend and keep your eye on our website.