White Christmas

Cold

Jack on the Dakota Ridge snow shoe trail
going grey with ice and snow

Tue Dec 28th 

The weather predictions were pretty accurate and the snow and cold temperatures have continued through the Christmas weekend.  It has been a very 'white Christmas'.

Nick and Lizzie arrived mid afternoon Christmas Eve and stayed through to Monday afternoon.

Hopkins Landing Wharf just after dawn

Sadly the NZ branch could not make it because of work demands, (their summer of course) covid restrictions and expensive returning quarantine requirements, nor Fred's sister from London.  We had a great few days and though we could not meet in person, Zoom kept us in touch with distant relations.  

The local walks and weather made Christmas rather special and it was mainly blue skies in between the snow showers.  Day time it's been around -5c and -16c at night.

The road up to Sprockids Trails

Boxing day (it's called that in Canada as well) we headed down to Cliff Gilker .  The snow had got through the tree canopy, which created a beautiful walk through the trees and alongside the creeks.  It was surprising that none of the creeks had started to freeze, perhaps by the end of the week when temperatures will have been below freezing for over a week.

Mon 27th, which was a public holiday, we decided to head up to Dakota Ridge, to test out the snow shoes Nick and Lizzie had bought us for Christmas.  

We were a bit unsure what to do with Jack as it was expected to be around -10c at the top and whilst he has 'enjoyment' in excess, it's not always matched by common sense - well he is a spaniel!  Do paws get frostbite?

Dakota Ridge is an undeveloped ski and snow shoe area at the end of 14k of forest service road, north of Davies Bay/Wilson Creek.  We rented a couple of more sets of snowshoes from the outdoor store in Wilson Creek and bought our $6 day tickets.

Snow chains are mandatory and we had checked out the chains on Nick and Lizzie's 4Runner the day before.  

Nick was concerned drivers of the huge chunky 4 x 4's might laugh at the fact a 4runner was having to use snow chains.  He relaxed as we neared the top to see a Ram truck buried in snow up to the tops of its windows off the side of the road.  Regrettably it had been dug out by the time we came back down so no photos! 

The drive up was stunning but slow.  Limited by the conditions and snow chains, it took about 30 mins to get up to the trail head.  A warming hut, with smoke gently drifting from the chimney on the roof and kiosk were sum total of human presence at the trail head.  No restaurants, bars or cafes.  There were half a dozen vehicles already there and after strapping on snow shoes and getting directions from one of the guides we set off on the Balsam Loop trail.  The videos and images rather tell the story.

The drive up the forest service road

Mad Spaniel
Fred goes off-road!
Part of the trail

Team photo

Snowy!

Jack clearly enjoyed the snow though by the end of the 3k trail he was stopping every 50m or so to chew the snow and ice out of his paws.  By the time we got back home he had defrosted and was non the worse for the experience.  Some dog owners use 'boots' for their dogs in cold snowy conditions.  We'll check em out, though it feels a bit like putting snow chains on a 4Runner!
-12c

Back home Nick and Lizzie headed off to the ferry and we starting thinking about the next expedition up to Dakota Ridge.  We both want to try cross country skiing and the outdoor shop also does ski rental s and lessons.  Need to get some snow chains that fit my vehicle first!

Dakota Ridge ski area


More snow on the way!






















  

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