Livingston Springs Snowshoe Trip

Ric shows us the way!

Despite the clouds and new snow coming down, it was another great day to spend on my snowshoes.  We hiked to Livingston Springs, which is located in the Crooked River Provincial Park, near Bear Lake.  It's about 1/2 hour north of Prince George.

We snowshoed near Bear Lake

There are many trails around the Crooked River Provincial Park

Nowell, our trusty leader (again)  He has hybrid old style snowshoes.

Me and Melanie.  I soon took hood off as it was too warm outside

There was over 12 that came which isn't surprising considering how much warmer it was then last week.  They all had different type of snowshoes.  You'd be amazed how many types are out there.  I will do another post just showing the different types of snowshoes available.

 We hiked through a lot of dead Pine Forest.  The dreaded Pine Beetle has killed a lot of pine trees in British Columbia.  You'd see red everywhere it was so bad!  Now you see just dead trees as all the needles have fallen off.  You wouldn't want to be walking in it during a bad windstorm as the trees break like matchsticks.

Dead Pine Forest

Dead Pine- killed by Pine Beetle

 This is the first time that I've been to the Springs and they were amazing.  Even though they are not Hot Springs, they are still quite warm, 10c.  I wonder what kinds of life live in it year round as there was no ice on this water.

Livingston Springs- full of life!

Lunch Break at Springs- there was this old decrepit cabin there.

Sign reads:  Cabin was built in 1945 by some Trappers

Trusty Leader having lunch.  Notice the gin bottles in background?

 (Gin Bottles make good drinking containers- easy to stuff in pants pocket!)

Love the snow layers on the fallen logs.  These are where the springs come from..

Love those snow layers.

BC Parks sign and barricade which keeps the cars out when closed in the Summer.

It sure was a fun day to be out and about.  We even met up with the local Naturalists Club and I recognized some of them, many are hikers too. 

I wore my lighter Sierra Designs jacket and just one layer of socks, my merino wool ones.  I also used my scarf.  By the end of the day, I had less layers as it got quite warm outside!  It started snowing near the end of the trip, so we had a slower drive home as it was snowing quite hard on the highway and the visibility wasn't that great.  I love snow, keep it coming!  ;)