- Joined
- Nov 27, 2004
- Messages
- 3,124
Hi all,
I am back in the city, after a pleasant holiday not far to the north (but far enough for it to be an entirely different climate). I have lived in Canada all my life, but I am still occasionally surprised at how wildly our weather can swing from day to day.
This week, I was on Blue Mountain, all set to enjoy some lengthy snow-shoeing trips (which I did). Over the course of four days, I went from wearing full winter gear, recreationally trudging through deep snow, to wearing a poncho in the driving rain while building a fire to boil water for coffee, after a combination of high winds and flooding knocked the power out for half a day. I loved it! Unfortunately, between the fog and the rain, my pictures of the fire-making excursion didn't turn out.
But my snow-shoeing pictures from a few days earlier did!
Here's a shot of my always-eager hiking companion, Ruby, not long after we hit the trail.
There were tracks everywhere, mostly rabbit, with some deer. Here are a few rather large rabbit tracks. Ruby loves following these, and my favourite way to blaze a snowshoe trail is to take a page from the Matrix and 'follow the white rabbit'. (though most of the rabbits in this area are brown).
A few random shots from the trail:
I kept my eye out for good shelter spots, and there were tons. The initial snowfall in this area was incredibly heavy, and many of the young evergreens were simply bent in half by the weight of it. So there is an abundance of natural snow caves with ready-built branch roofs. It would take only a few minutes to excavate a decent shelter.
That's about it. No knife photos this time, which is scandalous, I know.
The really amazing part is what this same forest looked like two days later. The temperature went from -15 to +15 C (really!) over the course of a day. The snow turned into rain, and a heavy fog set in. There were gusts of genuinely warm air coming from the marshy areas, which were recently covered in at least 3 ft of snow. I went for a snow-shoe outing, dressed appropriately for late December weather. Half an hour in, I was down to my fleece, with no toque and no gloves, and I was still sweating! The forest was beautiful - it reminded me of morning in the temperate rainforest in BC. The fog was so thick that visibility was down to 20 ft. Most of the snow on the trees had melted, and I was able to get a good sense of how much damage the early snowfall caused - it was pretty catastrophic. I was reminded of the Band of Brothers episodes about the Battle of the Bulge, where the forests were devastated by air-burst artillery. Looks like I'll be clearing a fair bit of brush come spring!
I'm sure this bizarre spring weather will pass soon enough, and the woods on Blue Mountain will once again see deep snow cover. And when they do, I'll be out there blazing a few new trails, chasing rabbits.
Until then!
All the best,
- Mike
I am back in the city, after a pleasant holiday not far to the north (but far enough for it to be an entirely different climate). I have lived in Canada all my life, but I am still occasionally surprised at how wildly our weather can swing from day to day.
This week, I was on Blue Mountain, all set to enjoy some lengthy snow-shoeing trips (which I did). Over the course of four days, I went from wearing full winter gear, recreationally trudging through deep snow, to wearing a poncho in the driving rain while building a fire to boil water for coffee, after a combination of high winds and flooding knocked the power out for half a day. I loved it! Unfortunately, between the fog and the rain, my pictures of the fire-making excursion didn't turn out.
But my snow-shoeing pictures from a few days earlier did!
Here's a shot of my always-eager hiking companion, Ruby, not long after we hit the trail.
There were tracks everywhere, mostly rabbit, with some deer. Here are a few rather large rabbit tracks. Ruby loves following these, and my favourite way to blaze a snowshoe trail is to take a page from the Matrix and 'follow the white rabbit'. (though most of the rabbits in this area are brown).
A few random shots from the trail:
I kept my eye out for good shelter spots, and there were tons. The initial snowfall in this area was incredibly heavy, and many of the young evergreens were simply bent in half by the weight of it. So there is an abundance of natural snow caves with ready-built branch roofs. It would take only a few minutes to excavate a decent shelter.
That's about it. No knife photos this time, which is scandalous, I know.
The really amazing part is what this same forest looked like two days later. The temperature went from -15 to +15 C (really!) over the course of a day. The snow turned into rain, and a heavy fog set in. There were gusts of genuinely warm air coming from the marshy areas, which were recently covered in at least 3 ft of snow. I went for a snow-shoe outing, dressed appropriately for late December weather. Half an hour in, I was down to my fleece, with no toque and no gloves, and I was still sweating! The forest was beautiful - it reminded me of morning in the temperate rainforest in BC. The fog was so thick that visibility was down to 20 ft. Most of the snow on the trees had melted, and I was able to get a good sense of how much damage the early snowfall caused - it was pretty catastrophic. I was reminded of the Band of Brothers episodes about the Battle of the Bulge, where the forests were devastated by air-burst artillery. Looks like I'll be clearing a fair bit of brush come spring!
I'm sure this bizarre spring weather will pass soon enough, and the woods on Blue Mountain will once again see deep snow cover. And when they do, I'll be out there blazing a few new trails, chasing rabbits.
Until then!
All the best,
- Mike
