Capturing the Art of Nature
Mystery Lake
I enjoyed such a lovely hike a few weeks earlier on Mount Seymour that I decided to try another, this time to Mystery Lake. This small alpine lake is near the top of one of the chair lifts.
Category
Serendipitous Discoveries
2007
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My earlier hike around Goldie Lake inspired me to explore additional alpine lakes on Mount Seymour. So Ethan and set off to hike to Mystery Lake which involves a bit more elevation gain then Goldie but was still a fairly short hike. I had hopes it would be just as inspiring a view, but being later in the season I was concerned that we may run into snow which could prevent us from reaching our target.
Upon arrival in the ski area parking lot we noticed a few small piles of snow but looking over the slopes in the immediate area revealed no traces of snow, so my hopes remained high that we would have a pleasant hike to the lake. After looking over the area we finally found the start to the trail and began our climb to Mystery Lake. The trail was wet and muddy in places and as we started to climb in elevation we encountered patches of snow and ice on the trail. Before long we came upon a smaller pond along the path that was mostly frozen over. This was not a good sign to me as I prefer the look of open water rather than ice covered, and coupled with the overcast sky the colours were quite muted. But the trail was still easy to walk and so we kept moving forward.
Soon the snow was a foot deep along the trail and since this was my first visit, I was beginning to get concerned that we would not be able to continue. Especially as the path was no longer easily discerned and I wasn’t sure we were still following the trail. Fortunately by the time we were struggling to find the path the trail leveled off and presented us with a lovely view of the lake. It was mostly frozen over but it still had many interesting angles to shoot from.
We stopped at the lake for a snack and enjoyed the views from the area while we rested. The clouds parted a bit and brightened up the colours for a while which brought a bit of life to the photos I was taking. I was impressed with the setting and will definitely be back once the snow has cleared and I can get some shots of the unfrozen lake. After taking a number of images we set off to complete the hike, we noticed some footprints along the eastern side of the lake so that was the way we went and we soon cleared a small ridge and made our way along to the base of the next chairlift. Then it was up the slope and over to the main run back down to the parking area.
Definitely a fun trail to do, I would have preferred to not have encountered the snow this time but it still yielded some lovely views. My next time here will be earlier in the season to avoid the ice. But I will also be back in the area this winter with my snow shoes to see what we can find hiking with them.