The spring like weather continued today (as long as you stayed out of the wind) so I took full advantage of it by heading out to Banff National Park with Cecil to shoot around Lake Minnewanka and Vermillion Lake. The skies were clearer than yesterday with bright blue backgrounds behind large grey clouds. It was a great day roaming but would probably have felt better for Cec if he hadn't had his shoe sucked from his foot by the freezing mud of Vermillion Lake. I think it was made better by us watching another guy do the same, then as we laughed and talked with that guy another one came along and lost a shoe too (he was less amused and simply said "that's it for me tonight" and hobbled off the ice with one shoe on and just a sock on the other foot) Very entertaining for me, the only dry footed guy out of four.
The main shot below is of the sun striking the boathouse at Lake Minnewanka (now closed for winter) with Mt Inglismaldie behind. The gallery has simple captions just to show where the shots are taken.....11 different shots of the same mountain, is it overkill?
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I spent the afternoon in Kananaskis today dodging winter snowstorms and trying to find a few images. The warm chinook winds are still here and liquid water has returned to many of the lakes. The wind has thrown the remaining ice onto the surrounding shores making for nice foreground elements. The main shot is of Mt Indefatigable from across Lower Kananaskis Lake, the gallery below begins with 7 shots from around Barrier Lake followed by 2 from highway 40, the rest are all from the lower lake during a brooding storm.
I made the 8 km round trip to Rawson lake today with strong winds really dragging the temperature down. I didn't need the snowshoes to get up to the lake as the trail was well worn but experience told me to carry them anyway.
After repeatedly plunging thigh deep in snow while trying to get to Sarrail Creek to make photos, I decided it was about time for the snowshoes, they allowed more exploration of the little area I now know so well. I've made this hike numerous times now so there's no full write up today, but for those seeking more detail on the location with directions click here to see a previous write up. The main image shows Rawson Lake guarded by Mt Sarrail and that little tree still hanging on to life even though it is exposed to the freezing cold 9 months of the year. The gallery below has captions and shows a good selection of images from today and hopefully suggests the biting cold of this wonderfully enjoyable winter mountain trek. I walked the river circuit with Cecil today working on some specific aspects of exposure, so I made a few images along the way. There's little choice of topics along there right now but I liked the light on some of the decaying leaves so shot that today to post this small gallery.
A rare excursion to the front of the house today to catch the beautiful sunrise. The sun is so far south at this time of year that it rises directly south east from us (straight out of the front door). As you can see, the warm chinook wind is still with us and the snow has almost cleared out and better still, it looks to be staying that way for another week at least.
The chinook wind that brought the warm temperatures yesterday is still around, surprisingly it brought rain at sunrise today. The very first time we've seen rain here after October and for me the very first time I've seen a rainbow at sunrise. Usually any precipitation we get this time of year is snow so it's a little strange to see rain but if it means seeing things like this I guess it's not so bad.
With temperatures soaring thanks to a warm chinook wind I set out today to make the short hike to Elbow Lake with Cecil. There was more cloud than predicted but that actually played into our hands as we made the 5.5km hike. The thawing of the ice saw a few wet boots along the way and with snow over knee deep in places we had fun negotiating the route around the lake. At one point a wolf with a wonderful deep tone howled out of the forest and it echoed around the lake, when he stopped I howled back a couple of times and got a response which was awesome (though Cecil was not so keen on the idea) Unfortunately we didn't catch sight of the wolf but we did catch some nice shots including a bonus sunset as we drove home along highway 40. There are no captions today as all of the shots are around Elbow Lake except for the sunset.
At 4:30pm this evening Sarah discovered that our hometown of Cochrane was turning on the christmas lights. There was going to be free hotdogs, hot chocolate, coffee, and fireworks, who's going to miss that?
By 4:40pm we were heading down to the town centre and the main street. We had a lovely couple of hours (and a number of free hotdogs and hot chocolate with marshmallows) before heading back to the house to watch the fireworks from the balcony. It was a really enjoyable evening and a good reminder of why life in a small town often beats the city, small crowds and a real family atmosphere at events like this genuinely do make a difference. With a break in the snowstorms this evening I thought I would head out and try to catch a sunset. Unfortunately the elbow valley campground is still closed for construction so I had to find a secondary venue. I drove back to the river beside the highway looking toward the campground. I had just got set up when another snowstorm blew in and obliterated the setting sun. I moved again, walking upstream on the rocks and grabbed a few shots before the cloud moved in and shut me out again. I decided to call it a day but as I drove home past Elbow Falls the sky was still clear so I decided to grab a few shots there too. I did some 'wool spinning' 'light spinning' and a milky way image as well as the main 'watching the stars' shot.
When setting up by the river today I knelt down very close to the water and a lovely small brook trout darted from the rock beneath my knee so fast that he beached himself in the rocks to the side of the water. Obviously I picked him up and put him back in, he was a beautiful little guy with dark red spots on his deep green back and a red underside, everything about him was absolutely pristine. After leaving Elbow Falls and heading home I saw a moose in my headlights, he was just getting up and seemed as if he was settled down to sleep on the roadside (cleared of snow and holding a little residual heat from the day it probably made a nice warm bed) He was startled and tried to run causing him to slip and fall down again, I felt bad about disturbing him but I turned around to see he was OK and he was just standing by the road until I started toward him. At that point he trotted off into the trees raising his head high with a last glance back toward me looking incredibly aloof as he disappeared into the darkness of the forest. How wonderful it is to interact with nature in it's smallest and largest forms just by being out there with the camera chasing shots. I set out for a hike along Canyon Creek this afternoon but got caught in a pretty wicked storm after an hour or so of hiking. I sheltered in the forest for half an hour then followed the storm back out to my truck having started to get cold due to lack of movement. I've posted a small gallery of the shots I took early on before the storm hit. Back in the warmth of the truck I still felt it was nice to have got out for a couple of hours, after all things can't be perfect every day.
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AuthorWe arrived in Calgary, Canada on 29th December 2011 to continue our journey. This blog is intended to keep our family and friends informed whilst we explore Canada.You can use the RSS feed below to stay updated. Categories
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January 2024
The Shaman, West Texas
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