Pine Point Rapids, Whiteshell Provincial Park, Manitoba, Canada, December 2011

 As I had mentioned in an earlier post, my brothers and I got for a hike every winter. Normally we do the Pine Point Rapids trail, in Whiteshell Provincial Park.On this particular occasion it had been snowing (not fun on the remote roads, we had only seen 2 other people that day), so the trails had been covered in a fresh blanket of fluffy powder. What also made this difficult is that nobody had been down the trail in at least 2 days, so nothing was packed down and we had to break our own trail. By then end of the 8 kms our legs felt like jelly. Normally I would consider this a short hike, but considering the snow was about 2 feet deep in most places, this made the hike quite vigorous.

One great thing about winter and fresh snow is it makes it easier to spot animal activity. The snow having just stopped, it didn't take long for us to spot some interesting tracks, in this case a set of tracks from a wolf pack that had just used the trail before us. It was thrilling, the were probably there just moments before!

 We reached the Whiteshell River after about 45 minutes. The clear water appeared black against the pure white snow, and the river was so low it wasn't flowing over the rapids.

 At the bottom of the rapids the water was open, and I spotted this Mink playing in the snow. Mink love winter, this one was no exception, we watched him roll around in the snow for a good 10 minutes. 

 The next stop was Acorn Falls, which was also barely a trickle. Once again the water offered a stark contrast against the white snow and grey sky.

Viburnum Falls had some interesting  views, icicles forming from the spray of the falls. 

This was yet another great hike, the remoteness and quiet can be very relaxing, yet the trail offers a bit of a challenge. Certainly an interesting combination!