Rawson Lake -- January 18, 2009

Rawson Lake at the height of winter. Another one of those hikes I'd heard so much about, but never got around to doing thanks to the crowds in the summer, long drive, whatever other reasoning I could think of.

This was where Nat and I had attempted a few weeks back as we hiked along Upper Kananaskis Lake and were turned back by treacherous ice on the trail.

Hopefully in the thick of winter, there would be a lot more snow, a lot less ice.

We couldn't have been more right.

Even the day started better -- clear blue skies and a calm day, unlike our previous journey. The lake looked a lot more inviting -- even when snow-covered:



A recent frost gave everything a "fuzzy" look. Most fascinating was this lakeside bench:





The lake has long since frozen over, however, chunks of ice were pushing out of the lake. Like this beast, a lot of them had this amazing blue tinge:



Some parts never freeze over.... and the view of the Rockies was superb.





The path eventually turns away from the lake and into the forest. Neither Nat or I had ever hiked this trail before, but it seemed like not only we were getting higher.... then snow was getting that much deeper. This fallen tree was a thick, mature tree when it fell... and its trunk is still dwarfed by the snow covering it:



Only as we approached Rawson Lake did we get an idea of how deep the snow was. This fishing sign would normally stand at about chest height of the average man:



Off trail, the snow was deep, but very very loose, unlike the heavy packed snow on the trail. I stuck my poles into the snow to take a photo of the lake, only to have them sink almost all the way in:



Worth it: