This weekend I had the pleasure of getting out into the mountains, accompanied by nine friends for a hike on snowshoes. I hadn’t been snowshoeing for a very long time and wasn’t certain what to expect. Our destination was Watridge Lake, a round-trip of 7.2 km (4.5 mi) from the trailhead at Mount Shark. By hiking standards this isn’t a long trek but doing it with baskets strapped to my feet was an unknown. Of course, snowshoe technology has advanced since my youth and they were very manageable, even for a novice. We completed our journey in about 3 hours, including a lunch stop at the lake. A leisurely pace enabled us to enjoy a beautiful, sunny day surrounded by stunning scenery clad in its winter finery. It was a little cold for standing around (-17 deg C or 1.5 deg F), so we were motivated to keep a steady pace. Being warmly dressed and burning a few calories made the trip very comfortable and enjoyable.
The area we visited at Mount Shark is a provincially-maintained area for winter recreation, primarily cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. It’s 45 km (28 mi) south of Canmore along the Smith-Dorrien Trail. On a clear day, the trip itself is worth doing, splendid scenery and the possibility of seeing some wildlife. We were fortunate on this trip to encounter a mother moose and her youngster on the roadside. They were a hit with many travellers who also stopped to visit with them. I start with shots of these beautiful animals, Mom first. She’s a fully grown female, standing about 182 cm (6 ft) at the shoulder and weighing in the neighbourhood of 360 kg (800 lb). Despite her size she was a little tentative and tended to stay aloof from the stopped vehicles.
She kept a close eye on junior moose who was less wise, more curious and also attracted by the road salt on the cars. I did capture this picture of the young moose savouring some calcium chloride. Won’t the returning owners be pleased to see they had their car washed in their absence!
Okay, back to snowshoeing. We began enthusiastically from the trailhead at about mid-day. In this picture, you see the peloton trekking vigourously along the trail. We did our best to avoid disturbing the tracks cut for the cross-country skiers. They hate that!
The next two shots feature three of our group sprinting toward our destination, Watridge Lake. The first picture shows the beautiful surroundings with Mount Engadine in the background. The close-up displays the focus and determination of these three intrepid hikers.
Scenery along the way was breathtaking, so I did make several time outs to get pictures. This first example is a picture of Watridge Creek, a stream we crossed en route.
As we enjoyed lunch at Watridge Lake, this next scene caught my eye. It’s a corner of the lake illuminated by the afternoon sun, about to disappear behind Mount Shark to the south. I like the long shadows on the frozen lake and the glistening snow on the tree branches.
Update: As a follow-up, I did a little work on a black and white shot that I have decided to include as an update. This is another shot of Watridge Creek. I have enhanced the contrast substantially to display the great highlights showing where the sun has penetrated the forest cover. Something a little different, the photo looked right for this black and white presentation.
I collected many good shots of the surrounding mountains on our trip to and from the lake. I’ve included them here as a short slideshow.
The light was a little tricky with the strong contrast between the darkness of the shadows and the brilliance of the sun-lit snow. The challenges it presented were worth it; I find the combination of light and shadow in winter photography can produce great results. The taking of the pictures was generally straightforward, simply paying attention to the ambient light which varied considerably. In exposed areas with abundant sunlight, shutter speeds were very fast (1/200 to 1/2500 sec @ 100 ISO), so no difficulty capturing movement. In shaded areas, the light was very subdued and I needed to be attentive to shutter speed to get the sharp focus I wanted. I was able to do so with the camera set at 400 ISO.
I also discovered a very nice area for summer hiking and I look forward to returning to Watridge Lake this coming summer to see the Karst Springs, a little beyond and above the lake.