The world has been transformed! We have been blessed with 25+ cm of snow over the last two days so we didn’t really have to go Up Island to find it. We have been watching the snow pile up on our deck and appreciating this different aspect to the western winter. We know it may not last long, since temperatures will rise again later in the week. So we get our snow fix and then it’s over. Oh, and we found out that the strata actually will clear our driveway!
The pewter grey skies bringing all the snow have muted the landscapes into almost monochromatic tones, but they are oddly peaceful and soothing. So, over the last couple of days, we have been outside enjoying all it has to bring. It’s been a treat breaking trail in deep snow and enjoying the scenery.
Yesterday, since the roads were still unplowed, we did our circuit route, close to home, that takes us up into the woods and back through part of the town. Someone nice person on an ATV had actually driven part of the trail so we had it easy. Then we broke some trail, having fun walking in almost knee deep snow. We enjoyed the quiet, the small snowballs rolling down the hill and crossing a small stream, appreciating the snow hats on the rocks and icicles on the small waterfall. Coming back by the houses we saw every manner of snow clearing: manual shovelling, snow blower, large tracker, ATV with a bade on the front. It was fun to see people outside!
Today we did a hike we have done before but looked forward to avoiding the large mud puddles and obstacles we had. This amount of snow frozen and covered the yucky sections, making it much easier. The Holt Creek hike is great because you get the fist third through a quiet forest and then the trail hugs the Cowichan River. It was a perfect day for this hike. Snow conditions provided solid footing, the temperature was hovering around 0˚C, so it was not cold, and the snow on the large trees, many with moss, provided beautiful contrast. The river was flowing quickly so the sound, its lovely green color and large trees on the banks made it a wonderful and soothing sight.
I love the large Wolf Trees with their gnarled branches dripping with moss, and now snow covered. They were beautiful.
We found some really large trees, and picked our way carefully in some spots.
So we got our fix of fresh snow (lots of it) and had great hikes to enjoy it. We are interested to see how quickly it disappears with warming temperatures and the upcoming rain. Stay tuned.
Life on the Island 
Nice winter wonderland hike. Did you snow shoe it too?
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HI Derek – we left the snowshoes at home (by accident!) We could have used them but bareboating with some traction worked fine too. Snowshoes would have tramped the trail better for those that followed though!
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