Just by Spray Lake and Mount Shark

We enjoyed a very pleasant snow shoe last weekend in the vicinity of Spray Lake and the intersting profile of Mount Shark. Our final destination was Karst Lake via Watridge Lake. The sun shone, the temperatures rose and the vistas opened up as we progressed along our chosen route.

The route is multi use, namely for cross country skiers, snow shoers and winter walkers. As we stopped to take in the scenery we chatted to other folk out enjoying the great outdoors. At times we felt overdressed as we passed some quite scantily clad people; short sleeves with no hat or gloves visible but no one was in shorts! While some folk were clad in warmer gear as they had been into the back country areas.

The scenery was 'awesome'; the snow clad mountains surrounding us and that bright, bright sunshine and the blue sky. Thank goodness for sunglasses it was far too bright to be without them. We arrived at Watridge Lake which was completely frozen and covered in a layer of snow. It was frozen enough to walk/ski on and we watched as two people made their way across the lake and as two skiers made their way towards us and like us took time to take in the view and have a refreshment break. As ever Bill always comes up trumps at lunchtime, I don't know how he does it!

From the Lake we found a path which made its way towards the forest, wide at first and then quite narrow. Not a place for cross country skiers but there was evidence that snow shoers had been before us. In the forest where the sun's rays hadn't reached for a while the snow covered trees glistened in the light, it felt cooler too. The trail narrowed even more and began slowly to climb. We came to a bench and we watched and listened to the stream as it made its way down towards the Watridge Lake. The final few switchbacks took us to our journeys end, Karst Lake. Not quite a lake but a large pool of water emerging from the limestone.

Now it was easy to understand why the stream was full of mosses - all due to the minerals in the water. There was also a bench, not just to rest after the last push to each Karst Lake but to admire the view, mountains bathed in bright sunshine.

We were the only two people taking in this view and on our return journey there were many times on the trail when we were alone with this magnificent scenery.

Is this winter .....?

It's Sunday February 7th. 2010 and this morning as we headed out of a foggy and chilly Calgary (minus 13C) we wondered what the day would hold for us in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park. We had elected to go snow shoeing along the closed section of Highway 40. Not far along Highway 1 the fog lifted and we were greeted with sunshine and bright white snow along the Highway - the fog produced hoar frost features but left the greying snow gleaming and glistening white.

A few of us turned off onto Highway 40, some turned off towards Kananaskis Village and Nakiska; offering more than 60 runs with 50 or so open for downhill skiing. The rest of us drove further towards the end of the road in winter and the delights of snow shoeing and cross country skiing deeper in the Provincial Park itself.

We parked our car with the two others at the road closure sign; it was bright, the sky was blue and temperatures were rising. We changed our shoes for winter boots, gaiters and snow shoes, locked the car and set off along the closed road covered in snow.

We only passed four skiers near the midpoint of our walk, the mountains opened up as we progressed on our route. The only sounds we heard were that of the light breeze, the odd bird call, running water under ice and planes flying overhead! there were numerous footprints of deer, coyotes, mountain sheep and Wapiti (elk) in the snow. Despite the fact that Bill had the camera ready to snap any living creature none appeared to want to have their picture taken!!

It was so warm that we discarded our hats and gloves for the return journey.

We saved our flask of hot chocolate for the end and as ever it tasted good. The return journey toward Highway 1 afforded us views of the snow capped mountains and Barrier Lake which was frozen, although at the edges the ice was thawing. As we approached Calgary we could see the bank of fog, temperatures dropped and the headlights and fog lights went on. Another grand day in the mountains.