We snowshoed from Lodgepole Lake southwest across ponds and cutblocks to do a loop of the Walloper Creek drainage, Our intent was to head over to Melba Lake and create a larger loop, but we cut off too soon and went through some very dense forest and windfall, making our whole outing quite a bit longer.

The route across Lower LP Pond had already been stomped in and a flagged trail led from the end of the marshes up into a plantation, a route we know well.

A branch road became part of our route up to Roe Pond. The winter sun was shining through wispy ice-filled clouds for the first part of our outing.

We know some OHV trails in the area. This one is called Roots of All Evil (hence Roe Pond).

We crossed the south end of Roe Pond then climbed into the plantation cutblock.

Instead of bearing 240 degrees for 500m to get to Melba Lake, we followed an OHV Trail due south and continued into the dense Walloper Creek drainage which was full of spruce trees and windfall. As we emerged from the drainage into cutblocks, the gullies were jammed with lodgepole pine windfall, blown down next to the open spaces in the forest due to the timber harvesting. We spent a long time winding around gullies, going through plantations and eventually emerging onto a branch road, our route back.

Along the way were plantations with a few tall standing trees left as seed trees where the cones will help to restore the slopes.

The route we had planned was a good one and we instead inadvertently added an hour of bushwhacking, a bit of adventure on a snowy day. in the high country near Lodgepole Lake.