Sunday November 12th was forecast to be the best day of the weekend and that proved to be accurate. The snow of the evening before continued through the night and when we got up there was four to six inches of fresh stuff. But the skies cleared and sun came out and it was a very pleasant day. It did not get quite as warm as it did on Remembrance Day, but the temperature peaked at just a degree or two above the freezing mark.
We took a drive up the Maligne Road and spent most of the day photographing at Medicine Lake. This lake was formed in ancient times when a rock slide from the adjacent Colin Range blocked the path of the Maligne River. The dam of rubble is rather porous, and the river drains through it. In the summer months when the snowmelt into the valley is substantial, Medicine Lake forms behind the dam. But then in the fall when the water flow decreases, the lake drains away just leaving river channels in the flats of the valley. It is a very interesting natural phenomenon to witness and we come up to photograph here pretty much every time we visit.
Along the banks of the lake it is very sheltered from the wind, and in direct sun, so the conditions were very pleasant. Despite all the snow, and the cool temperatures, gloves were not necessary. We spent most of the day photographing here, and we all managed to expose quite a bit of film. Before heading back down the valley we made a stop along one of the lakeside overviews and photographed the water channels in the snow. Here we were out of the sun, and the breeze picked up, and it was not nearly as pleasant.
To wrap up the days shooting we made a couple more stops on the way back to town. One was along the Maligne River, below Medicine Lake. A second was down in the Athabasca Valley where there is a nice evening view of Pyramid Mountain.
Once again, after the days shooting we headed back to the hotel and visited for a while. We were all feeling rather exhausted after the late night the evening before, and after being outside in the fresh mountain air all day. Later we walked downtown and had dinner at the Fiddle River restaurant. It was exceptional, and we all really enjoyed our meals.
We ended up back in the room visiting after dinner and one by one everyone began to fade and started turning in for the night. I expected to be nodding off, and in fact I was... But I knew if I went to bed too early I would only wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to get back to sleep. Steve felt the same way, so we toughed it out and tried to stay up a bit later. The others all turned in and Steve and I got a second wind and ended up spending another night visiting, eventually turning in at midnight.
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