Boom Lake

I always love visiting new places, and even though Boom Lake is a very popular and well-known spot for cross country skiers and snowshoers, it had always escaped my attention ... until now.

We had a mixed group of backcountry and cross country skiers, so it seemed like a good day for mellow exploration. In hindsight, backcountry gear was not the most appropriate for this trail, as it rolls quite a bit (as opposed to having distinct uphill and downhill halves).

Trail head for Boom Lake

Boom Lake is situated between Chickadee Valley and Taylor Lake, both areas familiar to me. It is even possible to connect the Boom Lake valley to Taylor Lake, although the trail is unmaintained. We saw the trail marker on the way in, and it looks like a potential future exploration day.

Boom Lake with Mount Quadra (3173m) in the background

Boom Lake is surprisingly large. I can see why it's a popular day hike in the summer. But skiing on the frozen surface beats mosquitoes any day.

Frozen tree

The temperature on the lake was much cooler than along the trail, perhaps due to being in the shade and a light breeze blowing in from the south. We could see that the sun was shining on the head of the valley, so we made our way there for a light lunch.

Rare photo of me, with Boom Mountain (2760m) on the left

There was about 10C of difference between the sun and the shade, and we had a very comfortable lunch next to the frozen waterfall (pictured later).

Shared warmth

On the way out, we ran into about half a dozen groups who were either on the way in or had not come in as far as us and were heading back as well.

Frozen waterfall

As is always the case, the ski out felt very long on the rolling parts and way too short on the downhills. We were back at the car around 5 hours after starting.

My GPS ran out of batteries along the way so the route is not complete.
endomondo