It was late May in Alberta when I left Calgary for Kananaskis Country, about 60 miles away. The temperatures were deceivingly warm, at 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit). It looked like it was shaping up to be a beautiful Bluebird kind of day, weather-wise. Having lived most of my life on the east coast of Canada, I was not aware of the extreme temperature variations that can occur in the mountains versus what it was like in the city. So, I blissfully set off for my hike to a place called Karst Spring. When I got out of my vehicle, I immediately felt the cold, damp air. There was no snow on the ground in the parking lot, so I donned my somewhat lightweight jacket and set off on my hike. Further up the trail, as the elevation increased, I noticed that snow was coating the trail, like icing sugar, dusting the evergreen branches. I was still warm from the strenuous hike despite my inadequate apparel, so I pressed onward and upward. The gain in elevation was only two hundred meters over a four-mile hike. The wind was dead calm. It was so peaceful; you could hear the Whiskey Jacks and other birds flitting among the tree branches. The only other sound was the wheezing sound coming from this out-of-shape Nova Scotian lumbering up the trail.
Like most mountain vistas, they suddenly appear — blocked by forest, then, in a clearing that pops out of nowhere, the majesty unfolds before your very eyes. I could not believe my luck. A calm lake with no ice, yet there was a dusting of snow on the trees. The foreboding clouds in the distance were of little concern to me at the time. I was just too caught up in the moment. The sight was breathtaking. This is a six-image stitched panorama. Getting the tripod perfectly level proved to be quite a challenge on the uneven lakeshore.
Lessons learned on this outing were, always pack for colder temperatures when in the mountains and when a guide book says the hike takes “X” amount of time, double that because you will always spend an inordinate amount of time looking for compositions and, depending on your physical abilities, take a lot of much-needed rest stops.
