Outdoor Education Center
Youth, families and groups are welcome to visit the Ark for single or multi day outdoor education programs. With an onsite maple syrup production facility, 164 wooded acres, a back country tent campground and over 10km of groomed hiking trails, the Ark is the perfect place to learn all there is to know about our environment and the outdoors. We currently host 3 day camps for Ottawa high school outdoor education classes, as well as multi day camps for Army cadets and Dovercourt Recreation Center's Leadership In Training (LIT) program. Our outdoor education single day camps have been utilized by youth hockey and soccer teams, scout groups, cadets, birthday parties and Dovercourt's Summer Camp Program.
- no trace tent camping Other nearby options which are not affiliated with the Ark include: - canoeing on the Gatineau River (3km away)
"First I need to start by saying that 100% of the activities that take place at the Ark's Outdoor Education Center take place out in nature, in the great outdoors. This setting in an uncontrollable environment. "Man" can simply not control nature, so anything is possible. This premise doesn't just apply to the Ark, but to any outdoor endeavour. However, with that said, I do everything in my power to ensure that safety is maximized at every opportunity. For example, we don't allow games like tag or capture the flag here at the Ark. These games involve running off the trails and this can be a very dangerous undertaking. There are sharp branches sticking out of trees, uneven ground, large rocks, and small cliffs that any individual who is running and not paying attention to their path can meet with misadventure. Running in the woods is just one the seemingly benign activities that is closely scrutinized. Children under the age of 18 are always closely supervised and our child to supervisor ratio never exceeds 10:1. So we do what we can to maximize safety and minimize mishaps, but accidents can and will happen. But as a lifeguard for 6 years and a paramedic for another 12 years, I have seen my fair share of accidents and have been trained and practiced at dealing with them. Although the Ark has the perception of being true wilderness "in the middle of nowhere", in reality we are only 18km or 20 minutes from the Wakefield Hospital and we do have access to 911 ambulance service. In the unlikely event an ambulance needs to be called, the patient will be professionally packaged and ready to go upon its arrival at the Ark. As I said, The Ark exists in an uncontrollable wilderness environment where anything can happen. We have been in operation for 7 years now offering team building activities, summer and winter racing, youth programs and weddings. Over these 7 years we have hosted thousands of guests. During this timeframe we have experienced 4 accidents: 1) a minor second degree hand burn by a student who attempted to take the metal cook grate off the fire with her bare hand I'm pretty happy with this track record so far. Yes we have had 4 injuries, but they have been minor and we have learned from them. I'm sure there are other unforeseen minor injuries in the future, but I'm confident we'll never experience the same injury twice! If you'd like to know more about our safety procedures, please don't hesitate to contact me or even make a trip to the Ark yourself to see first hand how we operate." |
