It had been weeks in the planning – a hike trip at Lake Louise for Jakko and me (Anton). We packed yesterday, and set out early this morning. We also heard the lake was still frozen, which is a pity as the color of the water, in combination with the reflections of the trees and mountains, is supposed to be the best part (see some of Jakko’s posts last year for that). The ride there is already part of the fun, coming out of Cochrane, the Rockies are right in front of you, and you see them getting closer by the minute.

The drive went smooth, and we arrived when it was still early, and reasonably quiet, and cold! I first bought a ‘Lake Louise’ sweatshirt, as my coat and vest were still on the couch back home 🙂

It turns out Louise is still pretty even when frozen! In places, the holes were big enough to see the water’s colors, and if you manage to catch the reflections just right, you get snow covered peaks in between the floes of ice on the water. Not bad.
Our plan was to hike to the end of the trail, but about half way, there was a sign warning for spring avalanches. We went on a bit furtherer, there was a great viewpoint nearby, and found a nice place for having a short break and a snack. But when we continued, we soon saw the tail end of a fairly recent avalanche: great heaps of snow covering the trail, and lots of broken trees and snapped-of tree-trunks. Also, the snow was getting deeper, so going on would mean increased risk of avalanches, but also much heavier going.

So, we turned around, went back, and initiated plan B. The guy at the gift shop (sweater) told us the Lake Moraine road had opened today, so we went there. This was also very nice, but the trail was still closed, and they were still clearing out snow everywhere. We could hardly get onto the start, as the snow was more than knee-deep, and the hard crust had started to melt, so every third step or so we would sink right in. I learned that you can actually cut your shins doing that – it doesn’t really hurt too much (it’s cold anyway), but it does bleed a bit ;-).

We took the scenic way back along the ‘Bow Park Road’, which is on the other side of the Bow river from where the highway is.

In all, this is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. I include some of the pictures I took with my new (second hand) EOS 40D (thanks again Rem! very timely deal and great delivery service ;-), but to appreciate you really have to get out there and walk. Feel the cold crisp clean mountain air coming off the frozen lake, smell the pines, hear your boots crunch in the half-frozen spring snow, be surrounded by mountens all sides around you except up (you hope)! The pictures don’t do that justice, but are nevertheless quite nice to look at, I think. 😉