Fox Lake November 18, 2017

There is never any doubt that a snowshoe adventure into Fox Lake in British Columbia will be filled with everything there is to embrace about winter!  It's not for the true novice nor inexperienced route finder.  It's for those that enjoy deep snow trail breaking, are comfortable being back and beyond out there and are able to embrace that pleasantly depleted feeling at the day's end.   I love all that about snowshoeing and especially snowshoeing into Fox Lake!

We had that favourable early start.  

No one was on the trail before us.  

For the first little while we followed the official snowshoe signs.  

We reached the X-C-Ski section which had been groomed last evening yet snow fell since that grooming.  We snowshoed parallel to the track and managed to get that part done with only meeting one skier.  We had a quick stop at the picnic table and then began the task of breaking trail in knee to above knee deep snow through the meadow and forest finding our way to the border where we would cross over from Alberta into British Columbia.

 The trees were tall.

The snow was deep.

That's when the magic happens!

We tried to follow a track we had from before but had to take detours.  Numerous of those large trees had come down since last winter and blocked our way.  We bushwhacked a bit, clambered and climbed over trees and then got back onto a trail that led us to Fox Lake.  We had no blue sky nor sunshine but we did have warm temperatures and no wind.

This is what I like my snowshoe package play time to look like!

Even more importantly I like how my friends play together.

It's time with them that make the total package complete!

After more than an hour embracing Fox Lake in every which way possible, it was time to vacate the place and hit the trail back.  The sun tried to shine and did create some shadows for us and brighten up the area somewhat.  That prolonged our visit another few minutes.

 arriving back into Alberta with a view of The Continental Divide

We opted to include a loop into our day which meant more elevation gain late into the afternoon and I found that tough.  I put my head down and got the job done.  The sky offered up some light blue and some dark blue.  It made the scenery poppingly pretty.

 We savoured one last view off to the glowing mountain before making our way down the last stretch.

 The deep untouched white gold was pure delight!

Instead of taking the snowshoe trail which follows through the forest, we stuck to the wide open space and went for it.  Dusk was descending upon us and we wanted to get back to the vehicles in the light.  We made good time getting to the bottom of this.

The last couple of minutes before reaching the trail head, the wind picked up and it didn't feel like a chinook wind.  It was bitterly cold.  Our timing was spot on as our adventrue ended when we wanted it to.  I am thankful for how our day played out and happy my friends were game to play today.