Sunrise on Iskwatikan Lake
It was a very cold morning, but with a beautiful clear sky and sunrise. Since we didn’t have a thermometer we guessed that it was below -30C (and when we got home found that it was -32C in La Ronge, so we would have been that cold or colder).
Although we’d planned to cross-country ski to Nistowiak Falls, but we felt it was just too cold to do so safely. Even with an extra sock cover for our ski boots we were worried that our feet would freeze. So instead of skiing we decided to snowshoe.
After sunrise, close to 10 am, we set off down the lake following the snowmobile trails. It was much easier walking without towing the toboggans, and we got to the end of the lake about noon. The trail leaves the lake about 400 metres to the west of the canoe portage, and cuts across to the north until you reach a path that heads east to the falls. The last part of the trail is a snowshoe only path, and when we reached the falls we stopped to eat our lunch.
It was bitterly cold at lunch. Our sandwiches were pretty much frozen. Our cookies were in crumbles (since I’d stepped on our lunch this morning), but we gulped them down as fast as we could. Although it was beautiful and sunny, there was a very light south wind blowing off the river towwards where we were eating, and the moisture combined with the cold and wind made it very frigid.
By the time we’d finished lunch we were getting cold, but we took pictures as fast as we could. The falls are spectacularly beautiful with ice crystals on all the surrounding trees. Across the river on the east shore is a solid wall of ice from spray which has frozen agains the rock wall.
Above Nistowiak Falls
Above the falls the river remains open, so there are clouds of steam rising into the air. Then the water falls over the ledge. Unlike the summer the falls are muffled. With all the snow and hoar frost on all the surfaces to deaden the sound, there is only a soft rumble, not the loud roar of summer.
Nistowiak Falls
We didn’t stay long. My fingers were very cold from operating my camera ((in fact when we got back to the tent I discovered that I had frostbitten my fingertips, and they were quite sore). When we left the falls, too soon for they were so beautiful, but we were also so cold, we both wore both our sweaters and down parkas. We walked for over half and hour until we had warmed up enough to take off the parka layer and gp back to our lighter walking jackets.
After snowshoeing about 15.5 km we got back to the tent in time to start the fire, eat some gorp, and then cut a huge stack of firewood. Graeme thought we had enough, but I said I wanted to make sure we had lots to get through the night, so we cut some more (as it turned out, we didn’t need it all and still had a lot left the next morning).
Supper was supposed to be turkey stew, but when I opened the cooler Graeme said, “does that label say ‘Turkey Broth’?”
And of course it did, as I’d taken the wrong container out of the refrigerator. Fortunately there was a few pieces of meat in the broth, and we had some homemade buns, so we didn’t go hungry. However we did joke about our arctic explorer broth of shoe leather.
Tent lit by lantern light
It was very cold, but also very clear, and the full moon lit the sky brightly and reflected from the snow on the lake. It was so bright that you could only see a few of the brightest stars.
I kept the fire going all night, awaking every three or four hours to re-stoke the stove. It made for a pretty comfortable night. As well there was a rapid change in the weather. At 11 pm the sky was still clear and it was bitterly cold, but an hour later at midnight the sky was clouded over and the temperature was rising.