Manning Park, 20-22 Mar 2009

A weekend in the snow in Manning Park… bliss. Potted summary below.

Friday
We had arranged to rent a cabin with 6 friends. We left on Friday morning and drove out east to Manning Park. Rain here, but dry in park… at least it was until we decided to go for a quick snowshoe around Lightning Lake. At first it was snow, then it turned to rain and there is nothing more miserable than snowshoeing in the rain. I can take hiking in the rain, but somehow it’s just not fun with snow on the ground. But then it turned back to snow again, then stopped for a bit so in the end we had a really nice walk. We had a huge pot luck dinner in the evening.

Saturday
Saturday we headed for the Fat Dog trail. We did this a couple of years ago but didn’t get as far as we’d have liked so we tried again. We couldn’t have asked for better weather – the rain and snow had gone and we had blue skies all day. Just fabulous. This time we did almost get to where I was aiming for – we were stopped by the fact we hit our turn-around time, and were only about 1 km short. The snow was so deep and powdery that breaking trail through it was exhausting. We must have burned a couple of thousand calories just doing that. But the views – OMFG the views… The others soon forgave me for driving them uphill through the snow :-) It took us 4 hours to get to our turn-around point, but only 2 to get back to the car – that’s how hard we were having to work going uphill. We got back to the cabin in time to soak in the hot tub and the sauna before filling our faces again with more food.

Sunday
Sunday morning we were all shattered so we went for only a short 5 km trip along the Similkameen River. We had planned to do some cross-country skiing but the snow was now all icy and no good. Amazing how much difference a day makes. After lunch we drove home and ended up at Moderne Burger for a delicious dinner. Next time I think I’ll share a milkshake – a whole one is a little gratuitous…