Stormy Lake Lookout

Today was a bright sunny day and -23.  We had nothing on the agenda, so a snowshoe hike was planned to Restoule Provincial Park to check-out the Stormy Lake Lookout.  We had been here before Christmas without snow shoe and promised ourselves we would return.  So John and I packed a lunch and headed out around 1 pm.  We used mapper.acme.com to plot some gps points and print out a topo map--one large and one close-up of the area.

There was some ice on the back roads so I had to drive with care.  But we soon arrived at our destination.  You can see the cluster of markers on the map in Restoule Provincial Park.

We parked the van at the entrance to the park (marker F) and walked about 400 m down a road to the trail head (marker G).  There was a very sleight wind and my face started to freeze in the 10 mintute walk to the trail.  Once on the trail and in the trees we had only to contend with the -23 temperature.  I didn't know the direction of the trail--only that it eventually led to the fire tower (marker J)

The walk was beautiful.  The sun shone bright through the snow covered trees.  After about an hour we checked our location with the gps and our topo map.  We still were only about half way.  At this temperature I didn't want to take any chances getting lost or extending our hike beyond day light.  So we stopped for hot choc and a snack and John looked out over a cliff.

While hiking back to the van John heard the faint sound of a woodpecker.  He spotted it and we moved in closer to get some video and pictures.

Internet Photo of Pileated Woodpecker

We were able to get quite close and see that it was a Pileated woodpecker.  You can hear the sound he makes as he bores into the tree.

It is always cool to observe wildlife and not interfere with what they are doing.

Good spotting John!

The Restoule area is very scenic and beautiful.  We will be going back for sure.