Hiking in the Winter - A Few Things Not to Do

Following up on the last post, there are also a few things that you need to make sure you do not do to make you winter hiking more enjoyable. Some of these are safety tips, some of these are just comfort items, but all of them will hopefully help you out.

1 - Don't go out on the ice!

One of the most important safety tips is to make sure you don't go out on any rivers or lakes you are familiar with when they are covered in ice. It's hard to tell what the river current is really like if there's ice on top of it, so it may be fairly strong. The problem with a strong river current is that the ice will remain thin all winter, leading to a higher risk of falling through.

Another place to make sure you don't go out on the ice is any where near rapids or water falls. The rapid changes in water depth, current directions, and eddies means that ice thickness it very unpredictable.

2 - Know where the trail is

One aspect of winter hiking is that the trail is actually covered in snow. The snow cover can make it difficult to keep track of the trail in open areas or thinly wooded sections. Making sure that you have a good map with a compass or GPS to help navigate, or that the trail is really well marked, is essential to make sure that you stay on route and travel where expected.

3 - Don't sweat!

While is seems like an odd tip, making sure you don't sweat too much when its cold out side is really important. It kind of ties into my tip about having many thin layers to help with heat management. Sweating will make you wet. If you get to wet and something happens that ends up in you thermal layers getting damage or you just take them off for a bit you will lose body heat very rapidly. This can lead to a lot of complications, and getting warmed up again will be difficult.

Hiking in the Winter (or Canadian Fall!)

One of the joys of living in Canada is the extended duration during which you can enjoy winter activities. The snow, cold, and ice lasts a long time, letting you get out snowboarding, skiing, snowmobiling, ice fishing, and skating for about 4 to 5 months. The main downside is that it makes hiking a bit more difficult. By about mid-December I can guarantee the snow will likely be too deep unless we get some snow shoes, but that turns it into a different activity entirely! (Not that we don't plan to get snow shoes in the next few months.)

Two of the last three hikes we did had about 2- inches of snow on the ground and the temperature was about -10C. Hiking is still very possible but a few things need to be done differently.

1 - You have to use boots

When the snow get above about a half inch deep, you have to use hiking boots instead of trail runners. The main benefit to this is that the snow won't be able to work its way up and into the area where your foot is. Keeping you feet warm and dry is really important to both the enjoyment of the hike and avoiding blisters and sores.

2 - Poles make and even bigger difference

Once it starts getting a bit slippery, trekking poles go from helping ease the load on your legs and knees from the weight if the backpack you're carrying, to also helping reduce fatigue from trying to keep your core stabilized. If its slippery, you will use more inner thigh and core muscles than normal to keep your legs under control. Over short times and distances this isn't much of an issue, but over 10+ kilometer it significantly increases muscle fatigue. Trekking poles help to put that load on your arms, shoulders and back muscles if used properly. Then you just feel like you've lightly worked your whole body instead of did a double leg day at the gym.

3 - Micro-spikes are not a gimmick

Along with using trekking poles, good quality micro-spikes on your boots will also help reduce fatigue. They help reduce the amount of slipping you feet do, which in turn reduces the load on your body from trying to remain stable.

4 - Thin layers trump thick layers

This may just be a preference thing, but I greatly prefer having 2-4 thin layers on than having 1 or 2 heavy layers on. I have a lot of problems with heat management, in that I will heat up and sweat at even the lightest amount of physical activity. Having more layers means I can gradually reduce the amount of insulation covering me so that I don't keep suddenly changing from too hot to too cold as I remove one or two large layers.

5 - Remember to drink water

The cold really inhibits your desire to drink water when you're out hiking. The problem with this is that you still need to do it! You won't need as much water as if it were warm outside, but you still need more than you normally would while sitting around at home. When its cold out, I aim to drink a liter of water every 8ish kilometers instead of every 4 to 6 kilometers when its hot outside.

With these tips in mind, get out there and try hiking in the snow fall! Its a beautiful sight and you can get an extra month or so out of the hiking season!

Upcoming Plans

Coming into the holiday season, Roslyn and I are starting to plan out what we are doing and how much free time we have. Our weekends are already pretty busy and the week is only getting busier. We do not want to have any unscheduled skipped posts either here or on our Youtube channel, so we are preparing for the next few weeks and then planning on taking a month off over the holiday season.

The dates we are taking off are December 10th through to January 7th. The first blog post when we come back will be on January 8th and the first Youtube video after the break will be January 9th.

The content should continue as planned up until December 10th.

When we get back I will be adding a new series into rotation, Planning a Long Distance Hike. We are planning on hiking the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island next summer, and we are going to walk through our planning for it here so that everyone can use it as an example.

Thanks to everyone for reading so far and I wish you a happy holiday season!

Germany Trip - A Day Spent In Butzbach

Day number two in Butzbach was.... actually spent in Butzbach! We spent the early morning hanging out with Roslyn's family again, just talking and having a late breakfast. At 11 am we headed towards the town center to go on a walking tour of the town. The walking tour was pretty interesting. It covered the historic growth of Butzbach, the problems it faced, conflicts that greatly affected it, and the importance of the town wall that was created.

Roslyn and I standing at the 'Welcome to Butzbach' sign

Wall houses were made in the arches

One of the cool aspects of the wall was that the arches in the wall have had houses created in them in order to fit more people into the town. These houses are about 6 feet wide and 15 long, with two stories. Way, way to small for Roslyn and I to live in!

 Bathroom addition, no indoor plumbing when it was built

 Center of Butzbach

 

A more artistic(?) angle

 Watch tower where prisoners were kept

 A pretty impressive church

After the tour, we spent some time wandering around looking a the shops before heading back to hangout with the family again. Mid-afternoon we went on a walk through a local forest. We spent about 45 minutes going along trails and saw a few small deer. There are apparently boar in the area but we did not have the (dis)pleasure of seeing them.

Germany Trip - First Day in Butzbach

Our first day in Butzbach was actually filled with going places and seeing stuff, instead of actually staying in Butzbach. Roslyn's great uncle Erich was wonderful and acted as our tour guide. We spent a bit of the morning hanging out with Roslyn's Omi and her great aunts and uncles before going out with Erich. Our first stop was a local iron mine that had been decommissioned a few decades ago.

The cable drum for the elevator we went down in.

We hiked to the top of the mine to look at the elevator cable drum and the operators area. Both are still functional and we ended up taking a ride down the elevator for a tour of the mine after. We didn't get any good pictures in the mine because of the lighting, but we were shown the evolution of mining equipment over the life span of the mine, and had fun looking around.

After the mine, we headed to a castle we have forgotten the name of. First castle visit! On our way to it we stopped for lunch and walked around for a bit looking at the buildings.

Traditional German look

Gateway to the castle

We had lunch at the restaurant on the left

After lunch we walked around the castle and had a tour of the inside. Unfortunately, pretty much all castles that offer tours don't allow pictures or video of the inside. The inside of the castle was pretty extravagant, which was kind of expected. It was a pretty awesome half hour tour.

Gate in the castle wall

Rose in the court yard 

After the castle, we drove back to Butzback and spent a wonderful evening with all of Roslyn's relatives. Erich had us over for supper as well, and we spent the evening talking about pretty much everything.

This is Manitoba - Lights of the North Lantern Festival

This year there was a lantern festival held at the Red River Exhibition grounds called Lights of the North. A group of artists and performers came from China to tour North America, and were presenting both the lanterns they fabricated and an acrobatic and cultural performance. We decided to check it out because it sounded pretty interesting. On our way to the Exhibition grounds, we were treated to a home grown Manitoba light show, with the sunlight playing amazing colours across the clouds.

Light show across the clouds

Gate way to the Lights of the North

Inside the festival, we were treated to a collection of different lantern creations. They were spaced out all around the grounds so there was a fair bit of walking, but looking at them all was pretty good. There was also a concession area setup, with food trucks and traditional Chinese cuisine being served, including a cotton candy artist.

A great white bear roar out over the crowd

Phoenix rising in a temple

All the Zodiac symbols

Great dragon

Traditional temple, as a lantern

The festival also took the time to create a few tributes to our local Winnipeg heritage. Honestly, it was a great touch and I think it was really cool of them to do it.

Winnie the Pooh, a local hero 

The side of the Human Rights museum, redecorated

The Golden Boy in all his glory

The backside of the entrance was also quite impressive, and an amazing last view of the wonderful lantern festival.

The entrance/exit from afar

Last view of the festival

Mantario Trail - September Long Thru-Hike, Day 1

Date: August 31, 2018
Length: 19 km
Elevation: 221 m
Time: 8 hours 6 minutes

Map of Day 1

I've already covered this section of trail from the South Trail Head to Marion lake, but its definitely worth an update given that we knew what to expect and made far better time. The weather helped with this a lot as it was much cooler than during the July Long trip. I would recommend waiting to do this hike until September Long weekend if you can, but it entirely depends on the year.

This section of trail is getting very familiar to us, which is a good part of our improved time. The trail conditions were also great, with very little water and not a lot of over growth. A volunteer group must have gone through the week before because all the dead fall was cut away and there were fresh piles of saw dust every where. I just want to give a huge thanks to all the Trail Angels our there helping maintain everything in the park, without them our trips wouldn't be possible.

The three of us at the start of the trail

Some beautiful leaves

Us having lunch at the tower

Purple flower

Field of some kind of pink plant

Lots of blueberries along the trail

Ferns along the trail

One of the major differences for us this time was getting into Marion Lake campsite early in the day. We actually arrived around 3:15 pm so we had a nice relaxing evening. This was good because I managed to step on a hornets next about 150 m from the camping area. I managed to sprint the entire way to the camp site, and luckily Tyler and Roslyn didn't get stung. After counting, I ended up with about 10 sting marks on my right calf.

The rest of the evening was spent relaxing and talking to some people around camp. Each new group was announced by their screams as they too passed the hornets nest. Out of the 7 to 8 groups that showed up, only one got through with no stings.

Beautiful sky at Marion Lake

A great sunset after a great day

By bed time, about 20 to 25 people were happily setup around the campsite, with everyone except us planning to do a 3 day hike. We knew our limits though and planned to do a 4 day hike, with the first two days being 20ish kilometers and the last two being 10ish each. We figured it would be a much more enjoyable pace.

All in all, the first day was nice, easy going and a perfect start to our goal of completing the Mantario.

In Roslyn's words:

We finally did it! We finally got our throughike of the Mantario Trail in the Whiteshell Provincial Park. Yay!

Preparing for a throughike has definitely gotten easier since our first one. We still print out our list and check the boxes but there is less “am I forgetting something?”. For this trip we decided to spend the night before (Thursday night) at Keystone resort, only 20 min from the trailhead. This made it easy to get trekking by 7am. I would definitely recommend this if you wanna get on the trail nice and early.

The first section of trail has become familiar, yet has stayed anything but boring. It is always a new challenge of improving your pace, or picking out something that has changed since last time. We made great improvements on our pace this round and made it to camp by 4pm. As you have probably heard from Connor’s side of the story, there was a very unfortunately placed hornet nest (right on the trail before camp) whose inhabitants  were no fans of Connor. Lets just say we ran very fast to the camp.

Marion Lake campsite is by far my favorite by far (spoiler alert). The water is crystal clear and I was able to go for a little swim. Next time I will definitely bring a small pair of swimming goggles to look around. With lots of pitch sites, two picnic tables and a privy, you really can't go wrong.

This is Manitoba - Hiking in the Fall

Hiking in the fall is one of the most rewarding hiking experiences you can have. The colours are out in full, oranges, reds, greens, and many shades of tan. The air is crisp and refreshing. And if you're lucky the rain is staying away and the trails are dry.

And if you're really lucky, you'll get to go on an amazing hike in the snow.

That's what happened to our group on October 13th. We planned to head out and hike the McGillvary Falls and Bear Lake trails. McGillvary Falls ended up being amazing, but Bear Lake was too flooded to travel on.

Top section of McGillvary Falls

Water trickling down

View of the pond at the top of the falls

An even better view of the pond

After the falls, we continued to do the entire larger trail loop, which is about 5.2 km long. The trail presented us with plenty of elevation gain, which is nice over a short trail. The trail was a bit slick from the snow and rain, but it was a still pretty easy going.

Marsh section further along the trail

The variety of colors is always cool to look at

At the halfway point of the large loop there's a small three sided shack with some tables along each side. It was nice to duck into it for a bit to get out of the snow and rain and put some dry clothes on. We stayed there for about 20 minutes and had a snack before heading back to the vehicles.

Walking through a winter wonder land...

On the shore of McGillvary Lake

Trail through the trees

So that's the beauty of hiking in the fall in Manitoba. You can never be quite sure what you will get when it comes to the weather, but no matter what it is, the view if incredible!

If you want to check out some videos of our hikes, check out our youtube channel link on the right hand side of the page. If you like our content please share it and subscribe!