Lake Beautiful

This is my 44^th trip to Strathcona Park this year as I am celebrating its 100^th Anniversary. I am trying to hike and photograph as much as possible for the year. Every time I hike to the same places, I come away with different photos as the weather and lighting changes. On a bright sunny day, I get no decent photos but today was different. When I was driving to Mt. Washington, the sky was cloudy but when I arrived at the parking lot the sky was clear and the temperature was a cool 3*C so I wore my mitts. The wooden boardwalk was frosty and slippery. Some of them were slanted and treacherous. I wish they were tiled to make it safer. I actually hate boardwalk as I prefer walking on soft ground and the steps lengths are far apart that they do not coordinate with my stride so it is kind of awkward walking up or down.

I had gone on a little hike yesterday and my legs were a bit tired so I didn’t make it to Lake Helen Mackenzie as fast as I should have. The sun was hitting the forested hill across the lake and that wasn’t good news. I hoped for clouds. I plan to do a circuit hike by heading to Hairtrigger Lake first then to Lake Beautiful and back to the parking lot via Kwai Lake/Battleship Lake. Very few mosquitoes out thank goodness; I’ve had enough of them this year. 

A remnant snow patch in the shady forest

It is always so nice and peaceful walking in the early morning when no one is around. I don’t even see any animals except the whiskey jacks which always drop by for handouts but I do not feed them as I feel that one should not feed any wildlife. They have to fend for themselves.

It was 1 hour and 50 minutes when I reached Hairtrigger; 20 minutes too slow. Billowy clouds were floating across the sky so I waited until it blocked out the sun before I took a shot. 

 Hairtrigger Lake

There is a path which goes around the lake so I followed it to the end of the lake then I had to search for the path in the light bush before continuing to the other side. Since the lake surface was still, it provided nice reflections of the fluffy clouds. When I finished photographing here, I went back to the junction and headed towards Kwai Lake which was all downhill. When I arrived at Kwai, I headed south to a sign “Lake Beautiful”. The trail goes to Mariwood Lake where I spent time photographing the clouds and the lake. 

 Storm clouds building over Mariwood Lake

I headed over to one of the islands in the lake; the channel which separates the island had dried up so it was easy getting to the other side. Last time I had to ford the water which wasn’t deep.

I ate my lunch and filtered water as several mosquitoes came around to pester me. The clouds had blanketed the entire sky and the temperature dropped so it was a bit chilly. I thought about whether I should go to Lake Beautiful as I recalled the trail headed downhill from here and that means hiking back uphill on the return. I decided to head back and see if I could find anything interesting to photograph. When I came back to the main trail, I decided to take this other trail heading south. I had bypassed this several times on my previous trips here. Further along, I was surprised to see a signpost pointing the way to Lake Beautiful. I thought the other way was to the lake and I could have been mislead and wasted a lot of energy. This section of the trail is very beautiful as there are many alpine tarn in the open landscape. 

 Alpine Tarn

It was a short hike to Lake Beautiful where I met a group of hikers coming back from Cruikshank canyon.

A creek drains off a small lake and tumbles down a rock bluff into the lake. I scrambled down the rock to the shore of the lake and took a photo of the falls entering the lake. 

 Waterfall tumbling into Lake Beautiful

The sky was cloudy and the atmosphere kind of dark so Lake Beautiful didn’t appear too beautiful under the dull light but this diffuse lighting sure made for good photos of the waterfall. I was able to use a fairly slow shutter speed to blur the water motion. I felt a few sprinkles of rain and the time was 12:30 pm so I made my way back. I bumped into a backpacker and his dog. He was heading to Circlet Lake.

I saw a few tents at Kwai Lake. The weather is supposed to turn rainy this evening and tomorrow. The showers are already here. I got out my umbrella as I don’t like wearing my raingear because it makes me sweat a lot and I end up being wet.

I bumped into a couple of hikers heading back and they mentioned that it had snowed on Mt. Albert Edward. I wasn’t too surprised considering how cold it was this morning. The hike back was long and uneventful. I am amazed there are people heading up the trail at 2 pm.; a group of young kids wearing shorts (like me) but with no raingear or umbrella.

In the forest, a couple of women asked me if I saw any cougars but I assured them that I had not seen any cougars or bears during my frequent visits here. One was a bit astonished that I hike alone. I feel very comfortable hiking alone after doing so for 34 years. I don’t see people being prepared with bear spray. I carry bear spray all the time and recently bought a hunting knife (with a 7 inch blade). Bear spray is useless in windy and rainy weather so it’s nice to have some sort of backup if attacked.

This hike was the first where it rained on me this summer. The weather had been dry up to this point. When I was hiking back along the boardwalk at the meadows, I saw the first signs of fall colors; not much but it’s the beginning.