It was early in the morning, saw few vehicles on the road as I made my way to the Waterfowl Lakes Campground. The campground was closed for the winter, but I was there to hike to Chephren Lake and take pictures. It had been a while since the trees last held snow but the ground was heavily covered. When I stepped off the packed snow that was on the trail, I was met with snow up to my thighs.
I was few minutes away from the next main turn, when I decided to follow tracks which went away from trial, I hopped it connected later with the trail. Took the early turn not to save time but to have fun in deep snow. But I got more then I bargained for, after about 200 meters the tracks stopped, leaving it for me to connect with the main trail. I did not have the ideal snowshoes for the snow, after 15 minutes of good workout I joined up with the trail and made my way to the lake. Where I was met by a Gray Jay, otherwise a quite pleasant visit to glacier fed lake. Complete opposite to what I encountered when I was at the same lake end of last August.
It was warm muggy day then, walked along the the shore for a place to eat and to enjoy the view before heading home. Just as I sat down, I started hearing loud yells, various random yells. They kept getting louder and louder, with very little pause between. Even though I was few hundred meters away from were the trail first comes in contact with the lake, I knew the one doing the yelling had reached the lake as four grebes were scared off. The person did not stay long, he left just as fast as he had arrived, within few minutes it was quite again. I stayed seated and enjoyed food in the shade.
Afterwards I headed back, but not before taking pictures of a mountains surrounding Chephren Lake. Half way along the trail I came across a lady who looked to me to be in her seventies, had that look of a person who had seen and hiked these trails many a times. She looked comfortable and content, smile on her face, pack on her back and water bottle in her hand. I smiled and said hello. She greeted back and asked if I was staying far back as possible behind the man who was making all that noise. I told her not on purpose, it just how it worked out. She said she wanted to speak to him but was afraid to. I asked why was she afraid. She said as she got near to him on the trail, she read what was on his t-shirt, “I’m smart and you’re stupid”.
Until next moment,
Amar