Winter Walks – Goose Lake Road (East)
When snow blankets all of our hiking routes, we can continue to winter hike, looking for trails that get stomped in. We can snowshoe, going to higher elevations to stomp our own routes on tracks and trails. We can also do winter walks on backroads. We look for gravel roads that get little winter traffic. We walk in boots with microspikes, walking on the shoulder or edge of the read. Most of these winter walks are between one hour and two hours, often on out-and-back routes, varying the distance with the conditions. Goose Lake Road is a favorite.
Goose Lake Road is usually plowed so it is a good surface to walk on. It is 12 km long so there are several sections to choose from. And, the number of vehicles on the road is few. Weekends are busier, though. On this walk on the east end of Goose Lake Road, there were only two vehicles passing by. The road from the Long Lake side follows Peterson Creek upstream.
Fenced pastures are on both sides of the road at the east end, but there are also sections of aspen groves and marshlands farther along. There were crows and magpies and a few animal tracks along the way. The low winter sun shone on the open hills, and on my face, a perfect antidote for SADD.
We will be returning to the Goose Lake Road to do another section and then we will pick another backroad for winter walks.
A week later I walked the road again.