February 6th Lower Parker Loop. An enthusiastic endeavour…!!!

Yee ha……the weather has taken a distinct change for the warmer……but still with snow at higher elevations. The weather network promised us a sunny day so I picked a trail fairly close to home that would keep us in the sun for most of the journey.

Lower Parker loop was the pick for the day. Another trail up by the observatory (DRAO) ……a nice looking loop according to the map….and Alltrails was telling me it had been travelled a few times in the previous couple of days. So off we went….!!

Snow tracking rather than path following on this one. The snow looks shallower than it actually is because the top layer is a bit frozen……

…….so the tracks we are following are mostly from snowshoes, but every half dozen steps or so…..your feet crash through.

It was a truly beautiful day…lots of sun and blue blue sky.

To begin with…its hilariously funny…as your feet keep disappearing….but it gets very wearing very quickly (as Scott described…its a bit like a reverse whack-a-mole where your legs suddenly disappear down a hole ).

The landscape did not disappoint, between the snowy line of the hills/mountains, and the strips of fluffy cloud giving us those calendar page vistas…..the skyline was spectacular.

We were grateful to be following the snow tracks, but even with them, by the time we got to the almost halfway point it had taken more time than anticipated. It is hard work slogging through the snow and we were starting to lose the light. (Editor. So Mho turns to me and and says that we’re less than half way and starting to lose the light and we should probably retrace our steps ….what did I think ? Well those of you who know me will know the answer.) The decision was made to complete the loop rather than backtrack…….

………and then the snow got deeper…..

So now we were almost leaping from step to step (still following someone else’s footsteps.) At this point we decided we were actually going to lose the light if we went all the way round..

……but it looked like we could cut off a section by striking out through the gully rather than round the next hill.

Best laid plans…..the snow (now virginal) was knee deep and deeper…..my gaitors had completely given up staying over my boots by this point…….so we waded through the snow…expecting it to let up any time soon….it didn’t…… LOL…I thought it was going to get shallower as I got close to this tree to fix my gaitors……NOPE…!!

It really did not help that we were killing ourselves laughing as we were falling all over the place in the snow. It still makes Scott laugh out oud when he looks at the pictures of me falling over, or disappearing in the snow….!!! (Editor. I had the unenviable task of ‘running’ on ahead to take photos looking back, then falling behind to take photos in the direction of travel and finally running to catch up again. Somehow we convince ourselves this is fun, sometimes not at the time but it always is looking back.)

Eventually we got to the fence line and the very welcome sight of snowshoe tracks on the other side..

Yes…that last picture is my leg disappearing…….again…!!!!

A quick check of the alltrails map suggested that this snowshoe trail should lead us down to our start point …and a trail to follow was much easier trekking than breaking a new one. (Another moment of appreciating what the pioneers must have faced…!!)

By the time we made it back to the trail proper…we were both slightly tired…..!!!!

It was a 6 and half km hike……but probably the hardest we have done…

….but so beautiful.

The next post is a day that very much reminded us of the ever present bear population….!!!

Extra Pix (this was a tough one to winnow down the pictures because there were soooo many good ones..!!)