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Rocky Mountain Ramblers Association

Trip Report
Trip Date:
13-Jan-2018
Activity:
Snowshoeing
Trip name:
Cascade Amphitheatre snowshoe
Coordinator:
Teresa
Report:
Three of us left Calgary when it was still dark, but we were not alone on the highway. It seems that everybody was delighted with warm temperatures and promise of a sunny day. On the way to Mt. Norquay Ski parking lot we saw a lonely deer crossing the road. When we arrived around nine o’clock, the parking lot was half filled with cars. After stopping for a short time at the lodge we were on our way to Cascade Amphitheatre. It took us about 40 min. to reach the bridge on Forty Mile Creek. The scenery along the trail was beautiful due to the few inches of fresh snow. There were many fallen trees in the forest in the lower part of the trail. A few of those blocked the trail causing minor obstacles. We started with the clouds over our heads and light snow but soon we welcomed blue sky and the sun picking though the trees. The trail was broken, and we enjoyed hard packed snow under our snowshoes. We arrived at the Cascade Amphitheatre about 12:15 pm.



Approaching the meadows.




Teresa and Barb in the meadows.




Meadows of Cascade Amphitheatre.




Breaking trail in the meadows.

We were following the broken trail to the right of the meadows, but it soon disappeared. The meadows were in the shadow of surrounding mountains, so we started to break the trail in the search for a sunny, out of the wind lunch spot. The snow was knee deep, or deeper at some places but easy to walk on. We stopped for lunch under the old spruce tree enjoying the sun and mild temperatures.



Sunny lunch spot.

It took us only about half an hour to reach the junction with Elk Lake trail on our way back. The junction is about 2.5 km from the meadows of Cascade Amphitheatre. For the whole day, we had the trail to ourselves. We met two ladies on skis past the Forty Mile Creek bridge on our way back.



Barb on the way back to the lodge.

We were back at the lodge about 3:00 pm, and back in Calgary shortly before 5:00 pm. It was a very pleasant day in the mountains.

Big thanks to Barb, and Lenard for great company, scribe Teresa.