Since I'm new here I'd like to share a trip report from a forest adventure I had back in September through the Pigeon Lake Wilderness to Queer Lake. I didn't get to the trailhead until about an hour before sunset because of working until 5 PM but night hikes are nothing new to me and I actually enjoy them so off I went into the dark forest...
It was quite warm and drizzling slightly so it was a nice equalizer where I didn't have to feel undesirably sweaty. The call of a barred owl kept me company on my journey. I make it to the Queer Lake lean-to a couple hours later and to my dismay I hear voices coming from within its confines. Naturally, the two guys there thought I was a bear (what they told me after we got to having a brief chat) which is understandable because most people don't roam the forest in the dead of night. I explored around and found a nice place under a conifer canopy on the shores of the lake and set up camp.
The next day the two guys at the lean-to left, and that would be the last of humans I'd see for the rest of the weekend. I brought a packraft which I took out onto the lake in order to explore it's nooks and crevices, to figure out just why it's called Queer Lake as that's a quite...unusual name. Sure enough, it lives up to it's name! There is essentially an isthmus (but technically is a penninsula) that divides the lake into two lakes, with a narrow strait through which you can get into the second part of the lake. I didn't go in there because it looked a bit too shallow for an inflatable raft with all the '95 microburst debris in the lake. A loon or two kept me company as I meandered around the lake for the next several hours.
This is one of my favorite places...and with not a soul around it was a feeling I can't put into words, for they will fail to capture the grandeur of the experience. I highly recommend hiking to Queer Lake and exploring it. It's got that wilderness feel to it and has interesting unusual terrain to traverse.
It was quite warm and drizzling slightly so it was a nice equalizer where I didn't have to feel undesirably sweaty. The call of a barred owl kept me company on my journey. I make it to the Queer Lake lean-to a couple hours later and to my dismay I hear voices coming from within its confines. Naturally, the two guys there thought I was a bear (what they told me after we got to having a brief chat) which is understandable because most people don't roam the forest in the dead of night. I explored around and found a nice place under a conifer canopy on the shores of the lake and set up camp.
The next day the two guys at the lean-to left, and that would be the last of humans I'd see for the rest of the weekend. I brought a packraft which I took out onto the lake in order to explore it's nooks and crevices, to figure out just why it's called Queer Lake as that's a quite...unusual name. Sure enough, it lives up to it's name! There is essentially an isthmus (but technically is a penninsula) that divides the lake into two lakes, with a narrow strait through which you can get into the second part of the lake. I didn't go in there because it looked a bit too shallow for an inflatable raft with all the '95 microburst debris in the lake. A loon or two kept me company as I meandered around the lake for the next several hours.
This is one of my favorite places...and with not a soul around it was a feeling I can't put into words, for they will fail to capture the grandeur of the experience. I highly recommend hiking to Queer Lake and exploring it. It's got that wilderness feel to it and has interesting unusual terrain to traverse.
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