How serious outdoor recreationists shape the place-making of Gatineau Park

Leisure unfolds in space, yet through practice and meaning-making, these spaces are continually constituted as places. Serious outdoor recreation exemplifies this process, as participants’ long-term engagements co-produce social networks, shared meanings, stewardship, and relationships with the landscapes they inhabit. This study explores how serious recreationists in Gatineau Park contribute to place-making through embodied practices and sustained encounters with nature. Fourteen go-along interviews with deeply committed participants revealed that leisure here is not simply attachment but an active, relational re-making of the park as a lived moral and cultural landscape. Embodied practices fostered continuity, belonging, and shared meanings, while resonant encounters shaped how participants interpreted and valued the park. Enthusiasm emerged as a future-oriented force sustaining commitment and motivating discovery. Responsibility surfaced as an ethical dimension, reproducing stewardship and care through everyday practices. Together, these processes demonstrate how serious outdoor recreationists contribute to the ongoing production of Gatineau Park as a dynamic site of becoming. By tracing how serious leisure generates continuity, resonance, enthusiasm, and responsibility, this study highlights leisure’s capacity to counter placelessness and affirms its role in shaping parks as enduring cultural and heritage landscapes.