The day before I had done an early morning hike, timed it to make sure I was back at the trail head well before the temperature went over 30 degrees Celsius that day. My preference is always to complete the hard part of the hike before the solar noon during the hot summer days. I was out hiking again the following morning, this time in the neighbouring national park, Kootenay. Half an hour before sunrise, I was on the trail making my way to Floe Lake. Enjoyed the sunrise colours taking place behind me and the nice morning light hitting the Rockwall front of me. It had rained during the night, with the vegetation hanging over some parts of the trail, the water off the plants felt great on a warm morning. Before I hit the fun switchbacks to the lake, I had a quick water break and then up I went. Had some quick chats with campers who were on their way out, but before I knew it, I was past the switchbacks. As I descended toward the lake, I was greeted by other campers who were still having their breakfast. Not one to take landscape pictures two hours after the sunrise, the light quality falls off. But when I saw the lake water was close to calm and part of the Rockwall that was behind the Floe Lake was being mirrored in the lake. A picture was waiting to be taken.
Floe Lake
A few weeks ago I was back on the trail to Floe Lake in Kootenay NP. Two months before I had done the same hike with friends, everything was still green and we must have seen several different types of wild berries. With all the berries, we were surprised there were no bear signs. But at least one bear had visited the trail after that summer hike. I saw along the trail old bear scat, it was a good size. With our fast moving seasons, the experience is always different when hiking the same trail more than once. Even more so when two months separated the hikes. In October lot more fall colours and I could see the rock wall covered with snow. A Few hours later I was going up the fun switchbacks, I was happy I had brought my ice cleats, they were needed on the way down.
Got to the lake, I had it all to myself. I explored looking for a place to take pictures from. The wind had picked up and I was not liking the ripples in the water. So with everything above the lake covered with snow, I thought this was a great opportunity to get a picture from higher up with the snow on the ground and the fall colours coming from the larches. With an ankle deep snow and even more in the gullies, it took some effort to get above the tree line. I was tired, but it was a great hike through the larches, seeing fresh snowshoe hare tracks and even fresher track belonging to a lynx. I got some good pics once above the tree line, but then I thought let’s see what it looks like on Numa Pass. It was beautiful there as I was trying to figure out if the day before six goats had gone over the pass, their tracks were still visible in the wind blown snow. In the end the best picture of the adventure was returning from Numa Pass, just above the tree line with blue sky and our favorite star shining middle of the day.
Floe Lake
Around this time all hikes for me have to do with fall colours, here in the mountains, it's all about the golden yellow colour of the larch tree needles. We had decided to head for Floe Lake in Kootenay National Park. The vegetation along the trail was showing their beautiful fall colours, we kept our fingers crossed that the clouds we were seeing above the lake from our approach would move on. It was not meant to be, light rain was falling at the lake, after locating shelter we put on layers and ate. Soon joined by another hiker, we sat and talked as her dog Mena took turns licking our faces as the rain fell around us. I decided I was not leaving before getting one good picture of the larch, the lake and the famous limestone rockwall, few minutes before we headed back to the trail head, I had the picture.
Floe Lake
There are lot of great places in the Rocky Mountains to see the beautiful larch trees in their golden fall colours. This year I visited the beautiful Floe Lake in Kootenay National Park. A few hour hike to the lake, on one side the towering limestone cliffs and on the other surrounded by the larch forest and at this time in their fall colours. Many hikes offer a reward at the end of the trip, in this case any of the elements that make up the landscape would be a great reward. Put the items together, there is no second.
Until next moment,
Amar
