We have returned from adventures north! And, boy, were they some cold adventures. Temperatures hovered just above and below the 0*F mark (that’s -20*C for those north of the 49th.. As a Minnesotan at the core, we didn’t let this stop us at all, but I have no idea how Nicole does it so early in the year; it felt like January in November!
Anyway, the sun shone most of the time, and all the trees looked sugar coated and beautiful. The bigger lakes, like Lake Louise here, weren’t frozen over yet, so they were steaming and looked so magical in the light.
This is the hostel where we stayed. We’ve stayed here before and we love it. I love hostelling so much; I should do a post on the wonders of hostelling another time. This particular hostel is very special though, as it’s a wilderness hostel. No running water, a solar panel for electricity, and a wood-fired sauna for bathing and getting warm to the core. The one bummer is using an outhouse…in the cold. Needless to say, I was mighty grateful to use a heated bathroom after our stay.
Although it was very. very. cold, there is something so serene about the frozen world. Kind of like the desert, any living thing you see has adapted to life in those conditions. The snow dampens all the sounds, and there’s this dulled sonoric quality all around. And the stars! So many stars… that’s always one of my favorite parts about getting out really far from big cities. And in the cold, the starlight is amplified and looks like nothing else.
Piko loved it – of course. She was able to run around with a couple of other dogs that were at the hostel, and was a champ on the trail. We took her hiking and snowshoeing. It was so cute to see her fall through the snow chest deep and try and plow her way through! I love this picture of her looking like such an adventurer, surveying the horizon and eyeing up her next conquest.
I can't wait to go back....something to daydream about. :)
shanti >> sondra
This is the hostel where we stayed. We’ve stayed here before and we love it. I love hostelling so much; I should do a post on the wonders of hostelling another time. This particular hostel is very special though, as it’s a wilderness hostel. No running water, a solar panel for electricity, and a wood-fired sauna for bathing and getting warm to the core. The one bummer is using an outhouse…in the cold. Needless to say, I was mighty grateful to use a heated bathroom after our stay.
Although it was very. very. cold, there is something so serene about the frozen world. Kind of like the desert, any living thing you see has adapted to life in those conditions. The snow dampens all the sounds, and there’s this dulled sonoric quality all around. And the stars! So many stars… that’s always one of my favorite parts about getting out really far from big cities. And in the cold, the starlight is amplified and looks like nothing else.
I can't wait to go back....something to daydream about. :)
shanti >> sondra
