One day I was sitting alone in my room and pondering on why Jack didn’t just join Rose on the floating door after Titanic sank, while also thinking about where I wanted to adventure next in life. I had already picked a spot, but it was the middle of winter, and for some odd reason people don’t like doing a 15 km hike to a frozen lake when it’s -12 outside. I was at a loss about what to do next. I had already messaged my hiking partners who were all excusing themselves with various known and unknown illnesses. However, where there is a will, there is a way. In this case, the way was a completely random follower of mine from Instagram who wanted to go an adventure with me. I mean if the vegetable falls into a frying pan by itself, why not right?
I was actually quite impressed with the courage of Deer on joining a random stranger on a stroll in the mountains. This was until I found out he’s been frantically sending snap chats to his friends all day informing them of where they should look for him and who they should come after if he doesn’t get back to them in a couple of hours (which he did not cease to remind me). Deer turned out to be quite an adventuring and curious spirit himself, pausing at random locations to check out plants, trees, dirt, rocks, snow and moss (all the interesting parts of a hike… who cares about mountains and views right :’)).
The hike started from a road I had been on before. This was the same road where I had run into bears while jogging in the early morning at camp Pocaterra during the summer (story of another time?). After a steep hill and a very cool suspension bridge (on which I demonstrated the correct method of walking and looking from a bridge), we were immersed into the snowy nature of Galatea Creek and the path that lead from it to Lillian Lake. There were some very amazing views along the way such as bright blue frozen waterfalls, tall sheltering trees and of course the rocky mountains. At one point in the hike, we were surrounded by massive amounts of snow on the edge of a mountain, with strong winds, kind of like the scene from Lord of the Rings where the companions have to turn back because Sauron is causing avalanches. We, of course, didn’t turn back because it was not quite as intense. I don’t know why I thought this was going to be an easy hike for my newbie partner Deer but he held his own against it all, and I was impressed yet again. I felt like giving him a medal or at least a certificate of appreciation.
As we neared the end of the hike, Deer noticed some rather large prints in the path ahead of us and I was reminded of the mama bear and two cubs I had run into in the summer. I didn’t know what bear prints are supposed to look like in the winter so assumed it was a moose and kept going (my intelligence surprises even me sometimes)! Fortunately, we didn’t encounter any bears however we did encounter a weird unidentified creature in the trees that was giving us one of those stare downs you get from your mother when you sample the food before the guests arrive. It was, however, a very cute little thing and if I had a DSLR I would have been able to capture it properly for you guys (give Hasnain a DSLR for his birthday, start a go fund me account).
It was a fun day overall as we stopped to pet horses that didn’t want to be pet, lost the car keys in the middle of a frozen barrier lake and did a 15 km hike in the winter that I could have sworn I had read was going to be easy. By the way, the hike’s name is “Galatea Creek to Lillian Lake trail”.
Hasnain Raza Baloach 