Hikes — BLOG — Jafari Photos

I heard from some of my coworkers that the Lake was frozen at Black Bay and Amethyst Harbour. According to the weather forecast, we were going to have a partly cloudy day. I have been taking Fridays off in November and this month to consume vacation days.

My plan for today was to stop at Silver Harbour to see if the Lake is frozen there too, and if so, providing the weather delivers too, since I have a decent composition there already, I should be able to get an interesting photograph, with the frozen lake creating a perfect reflection of the colours in the sky.

I was up at 5:30 and headed out of the door at 6:30. The weather looked dark and gloomy, promising an overcast morning, but I still had hope. When I arrived at Silver Harbour, there was no ice on the Lake, so I drove to Amethyst Harbour – the next stop. Right enough, the Lake was frozen there, but the only spot to access the Lake without trespassing on someone’s property faced west!

I was going to head to Black Bay next, and failing even that, I would just resign myself and do a day hike at Red Rock. The Nipigon Riven Recreational Trail has wonderful lookouts that can produce excellent pictures even on a gloomy overcast day. I was getting low on gas, so I was going to get a refill at Pass Lake, but then when I checked for my wallet, I just remembered it was in my other jacket. UGH!

What a great start of a day!

I drove back home, got my wallet, made myself a cup of coffee and had a complete change of plans.

The new plan was to get gas at Kakabeka and then drive to Quetico Provincial Park.

By 10:30 I made it there. Before I left home, I looked online for information on hiking trails at Quetico, and I decided to try the Pines trail. I couldn’t drive to the trailhead because the road was being groomed for cross country skiing. I guess that meant a pre-hike to the trailhead. I found a little trail following the lakeshore of French Lake and followed it to the trailhead. The trail follows the river connecting French Lake with Pickerel Lake. There was a lot more snow on the ground than in town. The lakes were frozen, and the sky was still gloomy and overcast, and there was an occasional drizzle of freezing rain.

The hike was easy and uneventful. It was -6 degrees Celsius, but I was warm enough not to need gloves are hat. I was back in my car a couple of hours later and then headed back.

I ended up taking a couple of pictures, but I can’t say they were special, I just felt I couldn’t go back empty handed. You be the judge.