Bryant Creek Warden Cabin from Provincials to Nationals

While I have enjoyed investing time the past little while working on my relationship with my X-C Skis, my snowshoes still sat at the entrance of my front door, never far from my thoughts.  I vowed to devote just as much time to them and I was overly excited for today's adventure on them.  We decided  to repay a visit to the Spray Valley Provincial Park area but this time add a new twist just to shake things up a bit.  Our intended plan was to hit Watridge Lake, visit the Bryant Creek Warden Cabin, attack the Spray River & Spray Lake edges, conquering a big loop that would encompass spectacular scenery the entire way.  

We aimed for early, for the 100% ownership that would afford us.  The first few clicks along the ski trail went by quickly, but that was all that went by quickly. We arrived at Watridge Lake surprised to see the amount of snow we would have to contend with.  We broke trail the entire length of the Lake to the far end.  The views were already pretty.

 at the far end inlet 

It was from that far end inlet that we then made our way through the forest aiming in the direction where we believed the X-C Ski trail was that we would intersect and end up at the bridge that crossed the Spray River.  Once again, we were taking turns breaking trail through the deep snow.  I was already wondering would we be able to conquer our intended plan for the day.  Standing on the middle of the bridge is a fine place to capture Cone Mountain.

me and my friends

We reached the bridge that crosses over Bryant Creek and then carried on along the trail hoping the Warden Cabin was not too far along.  It was still tough going for us following the edge of the trail making our way through the snow.

 We made it!

The Cabin is in such an amazingly gorgeous location with a mountain backdrop and the open creek running by.  It is closed for the season, no one had been, we needed to break trail down to it.  We explored around the place, played, took photos, admired the beauty, then settled down to dine.

our destination shot

 wood pile

 my location shot at the hitching post 

 framed mountain view

After all the fun and games were taken care of at the Cabin, we geared up and headed back to begin the next portion of our adventure.  I was still wondering what our success rate would be for completing the plan of attack for the day.  I then voiced my opinion and my concern!  We were all of the opinion that it would be best to play it safe and alter our plan. It didn't take long at all to make that decision and then we happily carried on.  We veered off trail and snowshoed down a portion of the Spray River until we reached our turn-around time. 

 We made it far enough down that we got to enjoy the beauty.

Another location shot!

 Another destination shot!

For the sake of safety and finishing in daylight, we made our way back the same way we came.  We had the luxury of following our already broken trail from hours ago.  What was surprising was how much our trail along Watridge Lake had been wind blown over.  We made it back to the open ski trail and enjoyed the scenery that was offered us the whole way back to the parking lot.

pretty picture 

 As we were nearing the end, it was that golden time of day when the lighting is fabulous.  

The snowshoeing athletes that we are, we were able to go from Provincials to Nationals in one day.  Normally one would complete something Provincial and work their way up to go to Nationals.  We began our day in Spray Valley Provincial Park and snowshoed our way to Banff National Park.  While Nationals would usually mean bigger and better, in today's case Provincial and National were on the same level.  Both were equally beautiful and fun places to explore around.  I am sure my friends would concur with me, that we all tied as winners in both categories!