So last weekend I decided to jump on a bus down to London and meet up with my long time friend Marc for (first time attempted) winter camping expedition. Originally, the trip was supposed to last from Saturday-Monday but weather conditions forced us to bail early and only spend on night at the park. Even though we were expecting some snow squalls in the area and with a fair amount of winter gear to keep us warm, we still were outdone by mother nature who threw -22 degree winds at 75km/hr. Even some of the waves were capping at 4-6 feet in height, so you knew there was a good wind coming off Georgian Bay.
But even in the midst of a 1/2 successful weekend, I dragged my camera, lenses and tripod out on the trip. Might as well attempt to get a few shots in while trying to forget the early stages of hypothermia (haha just kidding). So the first stop on the trail was Long Marsh Lake. The entire top layer of the water was frozen over and gave a great reflection and texture to to the lake! Plus, I am always a sucker for fresh snow on trees. Gives you that serenity kind of feeling.
The end of the trail meets us with a rather edgy/steep hill which we had to climb down to reach. The nice thing about Parks Canada is their efforts to make sure campers have some resources such as an outhouse, a rope for climbing down to the park, and a permanent bear bag line.
Had to stop for a few moments to snap a couple shots on the way down.
And finally made camp after the 8km hike through the frozen park!
Even though there was a strict "NO FIRE" policy in the park (shhhhhhhh!) we found ourselves in a position where it was either no fire and freeze or keep ourselves warm and deal with the consequences. Being that the entire ground was covered in snow I felt we posed no real danger to the campsite and/or the park.
Here are a few photo shop edits I did to these photos. Just basically altering some colours, contrast and saturation.
