The trip in to Shark Lake (also known as Marushka Lake) can be described as “short but sweet”. It is one of the most scenic snowshoe trips in non-avalanche terrain. Of course, it helped that the sky was a brilliant blue and the snow was sparkling. The trip itself is quite easy and the short distance makes for a short day.

There was an area cleared on the side of the road for cars near the trailhead, so we didn’t have to park at the ski trails and hike back. We set off from the cars at 10:45am. The trail starts on an old logging road through the trees and then passes through a couple of cut blocks.

Enroute to Shark Lake

There are a couple of breaks in the trees with views to the Spray Valley and then in the second cut block, there is a wide open view point.


View of Spray Lake Resevoir

There were recent ski tracks and less recent snowshoe tracks, making the route easy to follow all the way in. The snow was in good condition and not crusty at all. However, once off the trail it was sometimes supportive and sometimes not which added an element of surprise!


Aldis recovering from a surprise fall through the snow

Even with stops to enjoy the views, we were at the lake by 11:55am. Dorothy-Ann told of us an old poacher’s cabin in the woods near the lake so we set off to try to find it. It appears to have been removed as all we could find was a clearing in the trees. The cabin was still standing on her last trip in to the lake in the winter of 2000.


Johnny Musko's Cabin (from trip in 2000)

Deciding that we hadn’t worked quite long enough to earn lunch, we took a tour around the lake before settling in to a nice sunny spot for lunch. While there we were serenaded by the rat-a-tat-tat of a woodpecker who was soon spotted in a dead tree nearby.


Settling in for lunch

Shark Lake

Temperature for the day ranged from -4 to +2 with occasional light wind. We were back at the cars by 2:15pm. The only thing that would have made the day better would have been a little longer hike!

Thanks to Joanne, Dorothy-Ann, Aldis, Karen, Nadine, Phillip and new member Kendra for a great day! Brenda c/s/p (special thanks to Dorothy Ann for scanning her slides of Johnny Musko’s cabin from her ski trip in 2000).