The round trip hike up then down a mountain trail was 15km (9 miles) with an elevation gain of 2400 feet.
Weather at the bottom of the trail was mostly sun, just above freezing. At the top of the trail, it was 9 degrees below freezing with cloud and a chance of snow on the way. During the summer, this trail is heavily used, however in the winter months it is rare to see anyone up here which why I like coming here during this time.


Standard gear, food and extra warm clothes, gloves, toque etc in the backpack for the day which also enough to spend the night if it came down to it. The jacket though not all that heavy was too warm and I took it off here after only about a 1/2 mile. For the duration of the hike, I wore a lightweight poly shirt, light fleece sweater, running tights and Supplex nylon pants.
Took the trekking poles today and again I only used one as I carry my camera in my left hand. I ended up switching the carbide tip to the rubber tip as although the snow was hard enough to walk on, it was deep. Many times the pole tip would go into a soft spot and sink down a foot or so and almost make me fall over as my weight was shifted onto the pole...this got old after about 10 times. With the rubber tip on, it was as not as slippery as I thought it would be and there was only one other part of the trail where I put the carbide tip back on.


The area is mix of second growth cedar, fir, pine with poplar and birch more prominent up higher. The sign on the tree is the 3km marker.


Although the outer bark on this cedar tree is wet, the bark peels off the tree easily and exposes the inner bark. This bark is dry and easy to light if you ever need to.


In this area, there is an abundance of moss (in NA, there are over 300 different spieces). This moss has may useful purposes either wet or dry. When damp, the moss has an antiseptic quality and is also good for rubbing on insect bites or other minor scratches. It is is also great for cleaning hands and makes a superb TP substitute. When dry, it makes great firestarting and insulating material.



Even when damp, the bark from this tree in the background is also a good fire tinder.



The water up here is as clean as it gets. In fact, all the water from this area flows into a reservoir about 10 miles away and is then pumped untreated to homes in the area.


Although it is hard to tell in this photo, this hollowed out stump is about 4 feet deep. Alhtough you cannot see beyond the stump, it is on a hillside over looking a gully and reminds me of an old military pillbox.


This piece of tree bark was just sitting off to the side of trail by itself and of course it caught my eye due to how orange/red it is. I could find where it came from nor could I identify the tree type as the bark was missing on the other side, however I am surmising it is cedar.

This trail is not noted for it's views along the way and this is about the only near decent one. The mountains in the background are around 3500 feet high.


After the powerline cut, the trail gets steep....and extremely slippery. The snow is very hardpacked and does not allow your boots to sink in for any grip at all. It was here that I put the carbide tip back on the trekking pole. Coming back done this part of the trail later in the day was no fun...I ended up wrenching my knee which bothered me for the rest of the way down despite putting on a knee brace which I always carry in the backpack just for this very scenario.


The proverbial fork in the road and The end of the trail for today. By this time, there is only about 2 hours of good daylight left and it was cold with a good wind chill.



About 4 kms from the bottom of trail and parking area, it was time to stop for lunch. Even though it is winter, there is no snow in the forest area here and the ground and fallen branches/ twigs are very dry so I scraped down a bare spot for the stove,


I take my $1.99 paint can stove on every hike and it is nice to light it up whenever I need it.


Five - six minutes later, the tea is ready and time to enjoy it with my lunch.


Nothing like sitting and enjoying a few last minutes of quiet and solitude before it is time to press on down the trail.


Fire from the stove is well extinguished and the previous scraped area is returned to its natural look.

That looks like a nice hike.
Two questions
1: What is the feature that looks like a cirque to the right of your trail in the picture?
It looks like it is about 4 or 5 miles to the (what I am assuming is) east of where you hiked.

2: Are there any Red Alders in the area? The bark in the photo looks a little bit like Alder bark. When you expose the sap layer to the air it usually turns quite a strong red

1) It is a frozen lake.

2) No red alders in the area that I know of and certainly not in the immediate area. I was thinking it could be belong to the juniper family of trees also. We have a juniper species tree in our back yard and the wood bleeds a dull red/rust color when exposed to air.

Hemlock? They can be pretty red sometimes too.

A lake. That is interesting. Is it an old crater then?

Looks like a great hike. Thanks for sharing the pictures!

I am green with envy. My day encompassed working on this infernal machine trying to find a new job.