Travel

Winter night walks in Canmore Kananaskis, Alta.

Making the most of Canadian winters with an evening adventure under a sea of stars 

  • Jan 13, 2025
  • 741 words
  • 3 minutes
(Photo: Alberta Tourism/Jaime Vedres)
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Other than the crunch of our snowshoes, the night is silent. It has been a balmy 10 degrees for the past few days, the chinook winds turning the once powdery snow into a packed-down crystalline path that sparkles in our headlamps as we traverse the Hogarth Lake Trail, a family-friendly and flattish forest walk around a string of fishing lakes in Kananaskis Country, Alta. During the day, the parking lot can get crowded, the four-kilometre loop busy with chatting families and gregarious Canada jays looking to cadge a handout of nuts or dried fruit. But on a crisp, clear night, it’s all ours.

Tonight’s tour is run by Canadian Rockies Experience and co-owner Darrell Menduk, concerned about the state of the trail after this unseasonably mild spell, has scouted it earlier in the afternoon, noting soft spots (you can sink up to mid-thigh if you step off the trail), wet spots above the swampy areas, and small creeks that just might pose a problem now that the snow bridges over them have thinned. He’s joined by fellow guide Andrew Leighfield, a sociable expat Brit who arrived a decade ago and never left, drawn to the big skies and bigger peaks of Kananaskis Country. Spikes are quieter, snowshoes noisier, so we mostly opt for the former, switching over to snowshoes only when Menduk stops to announce we risk “sinking deep” in a swampy section.

Canadian Rockies Experience guide Andrew Leighfield pours a thermos of hot tea while the group stops for a break. (Photo: Sarah Brown/Can Geo)
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There are two ways to go when it comes to embracing a Canadian winter — snuggle into hygge-style hibernation or embrace the chill. We’re definitely leaning into the after-dinner-with-a-book-by-the-fire side of things when the two guides make their way through the lodge doors, bringing a frosty breeze with them. Adjust your mindset, I tell myself. And trust in the layers. Goodbye fire; hello evening adventure.

Devotees of the nighttime stroll refer to it as star walking, a pastime that merges hiking and stargazing. Here in the Rockies there is no light pollution, which means, once we stop and turn off our headlamps, we’re perfectly positioned to see all that the night skies might have to offer on any given night, from meteor showers to green and pink auroras dancing above the mountain peaks. And, just like that, Menduk stops. “Here’s our spot,” he says, pointing to a fallen log that he obviously scouted earlier in the day. He quickly stamps down the snow to create a clearing, beckons us to sit, then opens his backpack and pulls out two thermoses of tea and some cake. It’s breaktime. We extinguish our headlamps and gaze upwards, hands around cups of steaming tea, as Leighfield, the natural raconteur, describes the constellations. This is a night wispy with cloud so the stars are intermittent. No matter. We close our eyes and imagine as he describes his idea of the perfect conditions — a clear winter’s night with a full moon. When the two sync up, you can star hike without headlamps, the moon reflecting off the snow at ground level while at the same time rendering the mountains a series of shimmering peaks.  

As we make our way around the second half of the loop, the talk naturally turns to what creatures we might run into in the night (though we have been out for an hour at this point, there has been nary a rustle of leaves or even the hoot of an owl). Leighfield jumps in with a story he has obviously told before but which he has great fun sharing — the first time he took his girlfriend out for a night walk and heard something behind them. Turning, his headlamp caught the flash of eyes. Grizzly? Cougar? As he backed up, terrified, wilderness training temporarily forgotten, the animal launched itself toward them. It was… a fox. This was a well-travelled trail and the bold fox was a nighttime regular, used to humans and looking to see if they might have a handout. Crisis averted.

Canadian Rockies Experience specializes in private tours for couples and small groups. It’s a niche that lets the company’s guides customize each experience to suit the client, but it’s also perfect for guides like Menduk and Leighfield who obviously love the landscape and can let their respect and awe shine through on these very personal tours. As the saying goes, slow down and enjoy the journey. Amen to that.

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