Sunday Stroll

On Sunday, ManNorth & I went snowshoeing for a few hours. I don't have time to tell the entire story so here are some pictures to do some of the job for me. We began by travelling along the length of a lake used in the summer as an airstrip for float planes. At the end of the lake we turned off onto a snow mobile trail that took us through forests of Dr. Seuss-like knobby spruce trees along a high ridge, down into a protected valley (where the trees were bigger and less misshapen) where we hopscotched between smallish pond sized lakes and the trail until we got out to an enormous lake framed by forested rocky outcrops on one side and almost barren rocky slopes on the other. We ventured out across the snow covered ice until we could see most of the lake and then turned around to rejoin our track for a short while until we found another track to take us part of the way back to our starting point at the float plane lake.

Travel was easiest along snow mobile trails, although we did slog across country, breaking trail through 2 feet of snow for part of our route, as my sore legs today can attest to. The balaclava I wore was designed to be used by someone riding a snow mobile, not by someone engaged in aerobic exercise, as I was on my snowshoes. Although it protected my nose from the biting wind nicely, I found myself needing to adjust it to get more air than I could intake through its screen over my mouth during the more strenuous parts of the trail.

A curious fox walking a circuitous route left a zig-zagging track as it explored unusual lumps of snow that could hide carcasses that could be scavenged.

ManNorth kept up quite a pace and was glad for his breathable wool clothing which showed off the frost he generated in the cold air.

We stopped for a break and had hot coffee, cheese & crackers at the edge of a narrow creek.

My snowshoes cast pretty shadows on the snow during our snack break.

With a better camera and lens, I might have been able to capture the many tiny cabins that line this lake. Most are shut up for the winter, although tell-tale snow mobile tracks suggest that some are visited occasionally, perhaps as winter camps during hunting or ice fishing excursions.

Flocks of redpolls flitted through the trees as we snow-shoed (sp?) along the trails. A group alighted in some alders and willows near us, giving us a chance to see them up close. The birds are unusually skittish, compared to birds in the south, and refuse to be called in, although I’ve tried “spishing” for them repeatedly. Of ten photos we took as the flock moved through the scrub, only one frame successfully captured on of the birds peering briefly at us before flying off with the rest of the flock.

Scattered occasionally under alder bushes was evidence that windblown alder seeds also provide food for redpolls. Look for the marks a wing made as a bird alighted (or flew away).

Foxes, birds and snow machines weren’t the only passers-by to leave trails in the snow. Our tracks cut across tiny sastrugi formed by the wind into pretty ridges and wave-like patterns in the snow covering the lakes.