Pen Lake Ski Outing

I joined some other members of the local Bruce Trail Club on our annual cross-country ski outing 3 hours north of here at a lodge on Pen Lake a week or two ago.  I couldn't ski myself, but I could walk and snowshoe.  We had a great time, had 3 sunny days in a row, and saw two waterfalls.  It was a nice break.

 Here's the view from in front of our cabin on the lake, just east of Huntsville, Ontario.  Sometimes we ski right on the lake, but this year the ice wasn't thick enough yet.

 It's a far cry from summer, when the lake would be buzzing with boats, totally surrounded by cottages or resorts.  But in the winter it's a pretty quiet place.  Those are the Hidden Valley ski slopes across the lake.

They build a rink out front on the lake, but I'm not allowed to skate yet either, so I was stuck with a walk down the trampled trail along the shoreline and back.  That's the cabin we stayed in among the trees on the right.

The white birch always seem extra beautiful to me in the winter, especially on a sunny day against the blue sky. It was sunny for three days, but it was also about -30°C (- 22F) each morning.  We had to dress warm, and we enjoyed the fire when we got home!

Later I climbed the snowshoe trail up the hill a bit to get a view over the lake.  I paddled this lake once, when I was a 14 year-old at a summer camp near here.  For the next few days we're going to be a long way from the valley, up in the north country.

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