I Think We’re Off to a Good Start to the Year

On Tuesday, John, Matt, and I decided to go snowshoeing just outside of Port Alberni. We decided to snowshoe the Saddle Trail which is a trail that leads to the saddle between Mt Cokely and Mt Arrowsmith. It’s about a 4km round trip, and this was going to be my first snowshoeing experience!! We weren’t sure if we were going to summit a mountain or not. Just had to play it by ear. So off we go! Here we are at the start of the trail. We were lucky there wasn’t that much snow on the roads so we were able to make it to the desired spot.

You can see in the next picture that is where we’re roughly going… Straight ahead into the mountains (and the trail starts on the right).

This was about halfway (or just over halfway). No one around. Beautiful views. It was perfect besides the fact that I’m totally out of shape, so I was really tired at this point, and it was also raining/snowing so I was pretty wet by then. This was also the spot where the snow was deep enough for us to actually start snowshoeing! Yay!

We’re almost at the top of the saddle! It was beautiful! This part got really windy I guess because we were out of the trees. But at least my feet were still dry!

We made it to the top of the saddle! The wind got a bit crazy here, and it hurt when ice hits you in the face… So we had to wait it out until we were able to get a group shot. We’re soaked, but we’re still smiling. Time to run down the hill on the nice soft snow! What a great trip. Hopefully there will be more to come! … Must… Snowshoe… More! … And maybe get a Gortex jacket.

If you missed my previous post (HDR pictures of the Saddle Trail), check it out here – Week 44 of HDR Project: Saddle Trail

Week 44 of HDR Project: Saddle Trail

First post of the New Year! Awesome. So here’s the scoop… Right down to business. John, Matt, and I decided to do some snowshoeing, so John and I drove up to Port Alberni to Matt’s place to spend the night and plan the trip and all that. We decided to see how far up the Saddle Trail we could get to because we weren’t sure about the weather and all that up on the mountain. I didn’t take very many pictures because it was pretty wet out there and there were parts where it was REALLY windy! But I was able to snap a few shots for my HDR project. So here they are!

This was about halfway up the trail. Man was it beautiful up there!

10mm, ISO 400, F5

And this next one I had to Photoshop A LOT of rain drops out. It got really windy and the ice hurt when it hit your face. So I tried cleaning up this picture a bit…

11mm, ISO 400, F7.1

I’ll be posting a couple more pictures and a more detailed blog entry in the next couple of days, so keep an eye out for it!