One of my favourite things about winter in Ottawa was hiking or snowshoeing in pure white snow with indigo blue skies above. I enjoyed many a hike in the Gatineaus and Adirondacks where, as my friend Glo called them, the “Anita Blue” skies made my heart and soul sing. I just loved those days. And this was one of the things I was afraid I had to give up. Well today I discovered that I don’t have to do that.
Today we hiked Bald Mountain, one of our favourite hikes. Bill & I discovered the easy switchback trail, with so many great views of Lake Cowichan, and surrounding hills all the way up, back in March (see this post). Today was our fourth ascent; each one we shared the wonder with someone that has not yet hiked it. We went with Nicky in April, John and Heather in August, and today, we shared it with Nadine and Tim (along with John and Heather again).
With the recent cooler weather, we have noticed quite a low snowline on the hills and mountains around us, so we expected to see some snow on the trail, as well as the surrounding hills. Well, snow we had. The lower parts were clear of snow and as we ascended, we went though some light snowy sections of trail and got progressively more snowy as we got higher. We had hoped for blue skies, and although it was not raining when we started, there were some thick clouds obscuring some of the hills but that got better, as well, as we hiked higher.
The last .5 km we actually broke trail in 12-15″ of snow, and the clouds disappeared and I saw my indigo skies for which I have been homesick. It was such a treat! In some ways it was better. We were in very comfortable temps of about 4°C, in shirt sleeves and a vest, and walking a pleasant switchback trail. Very different than some of the frigid hikes of past.
Views at lunch were pretty spectacular since the low clouds were moving out, and we had a full vista of the lake. Pretty nice for just a 4.5 km walk with 350m in elevation gain.
It was a pretty perfect day. The sun, snow, and indigo skies made everyone smile and realize how lucky we are to live in this paradise.
Life on the Island 
Certainly was a stellar day!!
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Anita, your reference to “Anita Blue” skies brought back memories of those cold, crisp days in the Gatineau hills and on the Adirondack summits. I hiked with Norm and Erika on Thursday in shirt sleeves with puffs of balmy warm air wafting by us as we descended. We are enjoying the creep into winter but look forward to having enough snow coverage to get out on the ski trails.
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The day brought back a lot of memories for me. It was very special! Probably the most memorable was my 50 th on Giant!
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