Johnson Lake to Lake Minniwanka February 21, 2019

I have snowshoed around Johnson Lake, I have meandered throughout Cascade Ponds, I have driven down the road through Bankhead and I have explored all around Lake Minniwanka but never all in one day on my feet from beginning to end, until today!  It never crossed my mind to do this as a snowshoe trek, no one ever talked about it, I didn't even know there was a route to follow, until today!  

It was a perfect discovery day.  Thank you to the fellow at the back in this photo, him and a few others broke trail on Tuesday the entire way and it made our job that much easier.  There were a few centimetres of new snow on top of their track which was light & fluffy and oh so white.  

The route followed along a ridge high above the highway with views of Cascade Mountain through the trees every now and then.  The new snow still sat on the branches which just adds to the beauty.

 blue sky blanket of white

As we rounded the corner at the edge of the ridge we could see Cascade Ponds for below us.  

That was our lunch destination, we just had to get there.   

 To get there we descended the narrow trail which had a steep drop off to our left.  

After popping out of the forest we snowshoed across one of the Cascade Ponds to the picnic tables on the other side.  We settled in under the sunshine and stayed for about thirty minutes.  I savoured my chamomile tea, ham & cheese in a multi-grain cibatta bun with a light spread of mustard, multi-grain square chips, all washed down a big swig of water mixed with lemon gatorade.

I needed to capture some kind of shot of msyself  to add to my photo collection for the day.  This was an attempt at that jump I do but there was so much snow I could not get lift off.  I'll take this. Somehow I got the snow to swirl.

It was time now to move on down the road.  We found our way out of Cascade Ponds and over to where the winter road closure is and we snowshoed our way along Bankhead area for a few kilometers.  Once again, we were thankful for the people who broke trail on Tuesday.

 view along the way

We reached the intersection of where the people x-c ski off towards Cascade Valley.  For a few seconds I wished I was on my skis, it looked absolutely divine and those coming back from their ski looked delighted with their day.

Once back the Minniwanka parking lot we had a little time before departing so I geared down then headed off towards Lake Minniwanka for some photography fun.  The Lake was frozen everywhere and snow covered.

Around the corner near where the red chairs are, a few Inukshuks made of ice chunks were drawing people in.  Of course, I made my way over there.  As you can see this one is life size. They presented great photo opportunities.

 The line up!

I got kissed!  See it at bottom right!

 To capture this photo it took getting down and being one with the ground.

I followed a few others out to the boat dock in the middle of the lake.  

On the way back I watched this puppy and its human.  It seemed like the pup was in training.  It just wanted to go and its human was trying to go.  The pup was being patient.  I wondered, who is really in training here!

This was our snowshoe route from Johnson Lake to Lake Minniwanka.

Today was full of fun with great wandering!

This was truly a snowshoeing delight!

Thank you for today!