Skip to content

Travelling in your own backyard

You might think April was a tedious extension of winter. Will it snow again this weekend? Probably not. But if it did, you would not hear me complaining.
010513_mather
Although winter seemed to be hanging on for dear life this season, the chilly April was actually not that unusual, says columnist Viki Mather. Photo by Viki Mather.
You might think April was a tedious extension of winter. Will it snow again this weekend? Probably not. But if it did, you would not hear me complaining.

After all, this April has been closer to what it used to be than it has been for a very long time. Thirty years ago, we were still skiing on three feet of snow April 21, and no one thought it was strange at all.

I remember that day well.

Allan and I had skied through the forest that morning on the firm crust — we could go anywhere. Where we did go was to the sugarbush two kilometres from our little log cabin in the woods.

Groves of sugar maple are uncommon in the area and this one was a beauty. More than 100 mature maples graced the eastern-facing hillside. Skiing through that open forest was way easier than working our way through the thick spruce and balsam lower on the hills. The sun shone high in the sky and warmed the air enough that we skied in shorts.

The ice held firm on the lake well into May that year, something it will likely do again this year and something it does at least one of every three years since I started keeping records.

For us, this is not a hardship, but an opportunity. And this year has been one of the best for getting out for long morning treks.

Over the past four weeks, we have hiked, skied, snowshoed and even bicycled over more territory than ever before.

After the rains came cooler temperatures and crusty snow. Slush disappeared from the lake and, this past week, the surface was perfectly textured to give good grip to bike tires.

We spent sunny mornings in mid-April bicycling for hours.

I loved biking in April on the lake. No hills. When I got tired, I just left the bike on the ice and walked in the woods. Granted, I had to pick my spot for getting on land. Some places had several feet of open water between the 16-inch-thick ice and shore. Other places had the good ice packed right up tight to the land.

Cold mornings kept the crust of the snow strong enough to walk everywhere, so everywhere is where we went. We strolled to places we never go any other time of year, through valleys and wetlands, over hill tops and along ridges. We saw soaring cliffs and metre-thick ice falls.

Two weeks ago, when the ice was still good everywhere, we discovered small lakes with glassy ice and wished we had brought along our skates. Thoughts arose of how we might get there in summer … far from roads, far from trails, tucked deep in the forest to the north.

As temperatures rise each day, the ice softens. More rain takes away the ice even faster. Our days of easy travel on the lake have come to a close.

But then, a different world opens with the water at the shore. Soon we’ll be paddling again.

Viki Mather has been commenting for Northern Life on the natural world and life in Greater Sudbury since the spring of 1984.

Comments

Verified reader

If you would like to apply to become a verified commenter, please fill out this form.