{"id":942,"date":"2011-02-05T21:02:18","date_gmt":"2011-02-06T04:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joelkoop.com\/updates\/?p=942"},"modified":"2011-02-05T21:02:18","modified_gmt":"2011-02-06T04:02:18","slug":"abraham-lake-lazy-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joelkoop.com\/updates\/2011\/02\/05\/abraham-lake-lazy-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Abraham Lake: Lazy Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

After being blown around on Abraham Lake, I was looking forward to getting out of the wind. I was also interested in seeing Mistaya Canyon and Panther Falls in the winter, and both are fairly close. I had a cold but filling breakfast in the car and drove to Mistaya Canyon. I was really looking forward to it, but as I drove up the snowbank blocked my view out of the passenger window. This 4 foot deep snow dampened my enthusiasm a bit, and I was really enjoying the music, so I decided to go see if Panther Falls looked more accessible. <\/p>\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n

This may have been a mistake. Panther Falls did look much more accessible, but as I walked down the hill I started to have my doubts. I sunk down to my waist at the bottom of the hill, but I was determined. I decided to press on. It was an arduous process, but I made my way to the middle of the falls with no trail to follow. In summer, this would be a 5 minute walk, but I think it took me 45 minutes. I realized once I got there that the bottom would have been more interesting, but I was already pretty tired. So I relaxed on the ice by the falls, had a couple of energy bars, and then started the trek back up to the top.<\/p>\n

Don’t try this without crampons. I was nervous enough even with them on.
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Once I finally got to the top, I was tired of deep snow. And I was still tired of being blown over. So I drove leisurely back to Abraham Lake, enjoying the mule deer, whitetail deer, and elk. The burnt area from my previous post<\/a> is also in this stretch. This time, instead of going to the center of the lake, I stopped right at the west end at Preacher’s Point. This turned out to be a great decision. Lots of interesting ice here and beautiful weather. I spent the afternoon puttering about on the ice, thoroughly enjoying myself and taking lots of photos.<\/p>\n

Late in the afternoon I returned to the car, had some scrumptious chili, and emptied my memory card to my laptop. After another few small stops here and there along the lake, I headed home through winter rain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After being blown around on Abraham Lake, I was looking forward to getting out of the wind. I was also interested in seeing Mistaya Canyon and Panther Falls in the winter, and both are fairly close. I had a cold but filling breakfast in the car and drove to Mistaya Canyon. I was really looking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[732,3],"tags":[514,202,296,671,446,665,672,664,2881,666,667,308,670,196,673,669,674,668],"class_list":["post-942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-landscape-2","category-travel","tag-abraham-lake","tag-banff","tag-banff-national-park","tag-burnt-area","tag-deep-snow","tag-deer-and-elk","tag-energy-bars","tag-foot-deep-snow","tag-ice","tag-interesting-ice","tag-lazy-day","tag-mistaya-canyon","tag-mule-deer","tag-panther-falls","tag-snowbank","tag-whitetail-deer","tag-whitetailed-deer","tag-winter-rain"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t