Hiking

This was a memorable day of geocaching for a few remote caches int he Ministik Bird Sanctuary.

I made the snowy walk to scout out a geocache hide, realized I wasn’t going to be able to get to it, so continued on to visit the Ministik fireplace and Red Chair Lookout.

I had a glorious trudge through (not over) the trails to Dorward Lake today to find two caches.

I met my buddy Hugh and we spent hours walking over crusty lake ice to find geocachings hidden on islands on Oliver Lake in the Ministik Bird Sanctuary

I had an excellent walk over hardened trail snow and lake ice to get to remote cache in the Ministik Bird Sanctuary

A geocaching buddy Hugh and I trudge across lake ice early in March, 2021 to get to an island on which a “puzzle” geocache was hidden.

A hike to a fairly remote fire tower in the Ministik Bird Sanctuary southeast of Edmonton is brought to life with StoryMapJS, software that combines maps with images and text.

I’d been “map-dreaming” for literally years about making the trek to Grizzly Ridge Tower. I’d even tried and failed once foiled by muddy roads. But because of the kindness of friends, I was finally able to get there.

It seemed as if I was floating along the Ministik trails today. Of course I wasn’t. Gravity was actually in full force. But during a couple of snowy hikes this winter, even when walking on snowmobile tracks, it was hard going, having to push, sink and sometimes slide in the snow with every step. It wasn’t at all like that today. The snow along the trails was packed down by sled tracks, but more importantly it was crusty-hard and supported my weight with every step.

A winter walk over lake ice to Birch Lake Isle near Innisfree, Alberta.