On winter days when an inversion layer covers the Interior, the valleys are filled with a grey clouded-in shroud.   We may be able to drive above that cloud layer to find some sunny weather.   On this December day I drove up the Lac le Jeune Road in search of the sun, but even at Stake Lake (at 4300 feet) it was still grey light.   Continuing up the Chuwhels Mountain Road, the skies cleared at 4500 feet and at the end of the plowed road at the far end of Lodgepole Lake, I was in the sun.

When I paddled the lake in the summer I talked to the Rec Site operator who told me about a trail that goes around the lake so I went through the camping area and picked up the trail which was bearing south into the forest.

A hoar frost covered the trees around the lake.

The trail was cleared and maintained by users.   There was lots of evidence of chainsaws clearing fallen trees along the south end of the lake.

The Lodgepole Lake Trail contours along the slopes between the forested shoreline and a replanted cutblock, then drops down to the lakeshore twice.   At the end of the lake, the trail disappears as it comes to the Chuwhels Mountain Road so we just walk along the road back to the Rec Site.   On this late fall/early winter day there was no one around.

The Lodgepole Lake Loop is only about 1.5 km around, but on a colder winter day, that was just right.

More information:

• Lodgepole Lake Rec Site
• Lodgepole Lake Snowshoeing
• Lodgepole Lake (paddling)
• Snow and Trees at Lodgepole Lake
• Lodgepole Loop (snowshoeing)