As the weeks pass I look forward to Thursdays more and more. When I first opened my front door this morning and witnessed an amazing sunrise show, I was ever more excited for the day. While I knew we were heading off to the far end of Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, I was not sure what route we would snowshoe along. I went prepared with an open mind ready to take on what would be decided upon.
I arrived at our meeting spot and once again admired the sky.
On our way to Elk Pass Parking Lot in PLPP, the option of doing a one way snowshoe from the Elk Pass Lot to the Pocaterra Hut was put out there, along with another shorter easier ideas. I was game for the bigger one way as this route was new to me so I threw out a few questions. Confirmation came back, we would be three keeners taking on this route today. Our hope was there would not be a great amount of tiring trail breaking. We found the start of the trail and then went on our way.
We followed the signs for the Hike Rockies winter snowshoe route.
We were fortunate others had been along this route days prior which meant no difficult trail breaking. I realized how lucky we were for this when I stepped off trail into the untouched powder and sunk up over my knees. Fortunate too were we for having some blue sky and mountain scene teases.
We worked our way through the Boulton Creek Campground.
My mind wandered to days just a few months down the road when camping season will begin.
The meadow sections were so pretty!
We took turns leading the way. We had a great pace going and already knew we would have enough time to get to our destination to catch our ride. After noon we found a bench off the trail where we settled down to dine. We noticed a few flurries flurring down off and on yet there was still a bit of blue further north.
Our route today was such a peaceful place to be. There were no others. We did see lots of recent moose tracks from either early today or late yesterday. I hoped we would see one but today the moose were elusive. We continued along eventually joining up with a X-C Ski track.
We snowshoed through the Elkwood Campground where once again my mind wandered off to days of camping. When that time comes there will be none of this. It would be an interesting sight to be here when that snow slides. By now it was fully overcast and flurring heavier. The build up here would only get bigger.
We arrived at Pocaterra Hut with a bit of time to spare before meeting up with our ride. We lined up our short snowshoes along side the tall X-C Skis then went inside to gear down and to snack up. Shortly there after our ride arrived and we were on our way home.
I am thankful for today and to have been able to share this snowshoe with the two others.
As I did leading up to today, I am now already looking forward to next Thursday.
I can imagine your feeling when you have seen such sunrise show. Wonderful!
ReplyDelete