Newyears weekend snowshoe trip.

[exophysical]

 Not sure if this qualifies as "primitive" enough for you guys but its what I do, hope you enjoy it. I was determined to do a trip this newyears weekend, although I tried to find a partner there were no takers so me and Duke ended up going by ourselves.



Our destination was a hike in lake that had trout, the summer trail is closed so the winter option is to hike down a pipeline. This year the oil company didn't plow the road into the pipeline so that added a few kilometers and quite a bit of climbing. It took me about 4 kms and 500 feet ascent to get up this.




This is looking the other way from the top photo and its what I would optimistically refer to as the "trailhead" most years, from here its about 3 km of deep snow and hard trail breaking.



There are a few steepish climbs, coupled with the deep snow and the logs that are left on the pipeline to prevent erosion I had to be careful not to work up a sweat.



Not the most fashionable of adventurers (that's right, I like trekking in coveralls) but we made it to our destination, because of the extra miles I didn't have much time to fish so I gave it about an hour and then set up camp.




This was my first time using a tarp, home sweet home.



You know the tempature is dropping when even Duke wants a soft bed and a warm fire.



According to the thermometer clipped to my day pack the tempature got down to -28 C that night, I've experimented with sleeping in this weather before but for some reason I was having trouble getting warm, probably because after a full day in the cold my body wasn't generating much heat. Finally I warmed up, right about the point I needed to use the bathroom, and so it went. The next day dawned cold and windy so after some oatmeal me and duke headed back without doing any fishing, after a night in the cold we both benefited from getting the blood flowing. Our trail had drifted in but had set up nicely and the trip back was a fair bit easyer.



Its all downhill from here.



And heres our ugly mugs back at the truck, which barely started. Total milage was 12 kms, although none of the climbs was particularly steep according to the GPS our total ascent was 800 feet so we had a bit of a workout.

[Hawken50]

 Dont care if primitive or not thats some Beautiful country. Kudos to you for doing it. Dont know if I would had the guts to do it. Thanks for posting it.

[pilgrim]

      what Hawken 50  said  and thanks for the pictures.     

[Hanshi]

Beautiful country and well worth the trip.  BUT!  I notice that this friend "Duke" is carrying all the supplies.  He's got the backpack on and pulling a sled.  He looks kinda "funny" if you know what I mean?  But if you vouch for him who am I to judge.  I notice your friend Duke appears to be a human; you know, of course, that they tend to foul up a good trip.  Next time forget this guy "Duke" and pick another buddy; one that ain't a human. 

[Red Badger]

Beautiful pictures!  Thanks for sharing~   Please don't mind these other guys - they just wish they could do what your capable of :)   

[Patocazador]

So where are the trout that this lake has?? 

[DandJofAZ]

A primitive Gatorade bottle in bed.  no more getting cold just to pee...

PS make sure it it empty be for bed...

Doug

[Micanopy]

Really pretty... but looks down right cold!

[Red Badger]

Really pretty... but looks down right cold!

yeah but your originally from Florida and anytime there is white stuff on the ground you call it cold....  ...  of course now that I am moving slower I see why my grandparents always packed up and went south for the winter....   

[Patocazador]

Anytime there's white stuff on the ground, it IS cold .. real cold.    Unless that white stuff is Gulf-coast white sand.