A Drive up the Valley

Monday was the only day during my recent visit to Nordegg, that the sun came out.  There was a mostly blue sky, with just a few puffy clouds.  At this time of year the days are very short and the sun is quite low in the sky.  I provides a beautiful clear side light all day long.  

I finished up working on my security system about 1:00 in the afternoon and decided to take a break and go for a drive with my camera.  I headed west up the North Saskatchewan Valley on the David Thompson Highway.  Although there is pretty much no snow left at Nordegg, the further up the valley I got, the more snow there was.  

It was very windy, which made photography difficult.  The lower reaches of Abraham Lake were open and there were large waves crashing onto the shore.  I stopped in a few places and took some snapshots.  I also managed to set the big camera up twice... right on the side of the road... using the truck as a windbreak.

The upper reaches of Abraham Lake, near Preachers Point, has a crust of ice on it.  It is more sheltered here and the wind doesn't keep breaking it up.  With these current mild temperatures it will probably be quite a while before the lake fully freezes over.  In recent years that has usually taken place in early to mid January.  Hopefully it is relatively calm when it freezes over and we get some good ice bubbles this year.   Abraham Lake is renowned for the Ice Bubbles that accumulate every winter.  This happens on many lakes, when methane gas escapes from the lakebed.  But here it is so windy that the lake ice remains mostly snow free and the bubbles remain visible.  We'll see what conditions are like later this winter.

I got back to the cottage at around 3:00, as the light was beginning to fade a little.  Much of the valley falls into shade by this time in the afternoon, as the sun drops behind the peaks.  I worked for another three hours or so and managed to get some more of my aspen paneling finished with lacquer, and cut and installed some of it.  It was getting too dark in the guest cottage, and my little worklight was not good enough to see properly.  I didn't want to make a mess of the installation, so I shut things down a little earlier than last night.