Lodgepole – Chuwhels Snowshoe Loop
From Lodgepole Lake there are many snowshoeing route possibilities. We can go up the Chuwhels Mountain Road. We can snowshoe around the lake. We can snowshoe south over the ridges toward Eureka Lake. We can loop out to Melba Lake and back. We can follow user-made tracks through the marshes, cutblocks, double tracks, and single tracks, exploring, and making choices on the fly. On this last day of snowshoeing in the area, we followed known routes past two large ponds and then returned by the Chuwhels Mountain Road.
The sun was shining through the clouds as we crossed the Walloper Creek pond/marsh below Lodgepole Lake.
From the end of the pond, we followed a marked track through the forest and along the edge of a replanted cutblock to an old double track. From there we followed a motorcylce trail along the shores of the upper ponds.
The trail winds through the lodgepole pines to the far end of the drainage.
We chose to go along the Roots of All Evil Trail to the end of the upper pond and back, with a quick jaunt through deep snow to take in the view on the pond.
We returned on double tracks all the way to the Lodgepole Lake parking area, a 4.3 km route, breaking trail for part of the route. After several days of breaking trail, we have chosen to opt for stomped in tracks for a few days as the winter winds down.