Peter Lougheed Provincial Park Snowshoe Trails March 5, 2020

It took some effort to gear up for a snowshoe outing after spending a week hiking in sunny short-sleeve shirts & shorts weather down south.  While my X-C Skis are in the basement now, my snowshoes still sit at the front door.  I gathered all my winter gear & wear and went for it.  I was thankful I did!  I truly do love to be "out & about" on wonderful winter days wandering wherever.  We have loads of winter left up here in the north and out here in the west.     

Today I joined two others for a winter wonderland snowshoe trek out in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park in Kananaskis.  We were afforded one of the one-wayers being dropped off at William Watson Lodge and finding our way to Pocaterra Hut for a pick up a few hours later.

At this point we already covered a couple of kilometres.

 The Lower Lake always has a bit of open water in this area.  

We reached the dam and stopped to check out the flowing water before heading across.  It is hard to tell from this photo but the water was racing in a grand abundance at a break neck pace.  We wondered were they releasing water preparing for the amount of melt that will come with the short warm up that is forecasted.

 view as we crossed the dam

We noticed unique fresh snowshoe tracks that were heading in the same direction we were going.  Later we caught up with the owner and as we approached we did notice there were issues with ascending the least bit of the tiny hill.   The track looked neat and the snowshoes looked bright and colorful but that's about it.

 following my friend

 There were opportunities along the way to go off trail into some deeper untouched white powder.  

 making our own track through an untouched meadow

 The snow was heavy and knee high.  

There would be no running nor jumping today in this snow.  

 looking back at where we came from

 view along the way

passing by the stack

We reached the cabins.  The road is plowed and there has been worker activity yet the cabins are closed for the winter.  I wonder if employees stay here at other times of the year.  I thought oh how fun it would be to spend a night or two here.

 I like Cabin 2!

 front entrance to the cabins

 crossing a small dam with more large amounts of fast flowing water

We reached the area near Pocaterra Hut and carried on adding more distance to our day.  It had warmed up quite a bit and the scenery was so pretty.  Time was on our side so we followed along side this snow covered swampy lake area to the far end and into the forest.

 snow was sticking to the top of my snowshoes

 it was balling up on the bottom

My friend was having a rough time with the amount of snow accumulating on the bottom of his snowshoes.  I got a great kick out of his problem.  It was not funny for him but he did add a chuckle every now and then.

 We headed to Pocaterra Hut to enjoy a little time before catching our ride home.  

My friend sat his snowshoes in the sun with hopes the heat would melt the snowballs.  There was no success with that and he had to poke and prod with his pole tips chipping away at what now turned to ice.

 This would be the cause of the snowball formations!

 our one way route

I enjoyed everything about today!  The shorter route at an enjoyable pace worked for me.  We are in for a large amount of snow this weekend.  Yes, we still have lots of winter left here.  I may need to bring my X-C Skis back up to my front door.