nature, Photography

Walking at Skaha Lake

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As I’ve noted here before, Penticton is situated between two lakes – one at the south end and the other at the north – and is one of only two communities in the world that is so established. The other is Interlaken, Switzerland. For a change of pace I recently decided to take a walk along Skaha which is at the south end.

There was some serious wind coming out of the south causing choppy waters and lots of scudding cloud …

No swimming today!

… but then I realised that we now officially have winter!

The solstice doesn’t just mean that we’re headed in the right (springy!) direction again, it also means that we first have to get through winter.

Skaha Lake marina awaits spring.

And then I remind myself that I’m no longer in Yellowknife where today’s high will be -31C (-24F). I don’t have to wear a parka, shovel snow, slog through snow banks, walk to work in the dark, dark, dark of winter or defrost my eyelashes when I step inside. We have about four to eight more weeks of very mild winter before we will again begin to see the first signs of spring, so what is there to complain about?

Really, not very much!

Happy Monday.

26 thoughts on “Walking at Skaha Lake”

  2. That looks like a winter lake now, Lynette. Not as many walks here these days as the deep freeze hangs on, but bad weather is really no more than the choice of appropriate clothing. Right now, we have 4 coats in our front closet, but we are only wearing our parkas. As Maggie says, rain filled winters are not for everyone. So many 4 season people move to B.C. but some come back after just one winter. It is good to have the choices we do in this country. Happy Monday before Christmas. Allan

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    1. Thank you, Allan. I agree that it looks very winterish and the wind coming off it was very cold. Definitely that bad weather is more of a choice of appropriate clothes. I really was never cold in NWT because I dressed properly. As to the rain, yup, it sure can get to people. Not my first choice but I like it more than the dark, snowy cold! It is great to have choices, though. Cheers.

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    1. Thank you very much, Anneli and to you and yours, too. 🎄I remember very well how cold -31 is and really, when it’s that cold there’s not much difference between that and -40. All the same precautions are taken but you’re right, I’m glad I don’t have to deal with them at all!

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    1. Happy holidays to you, too! 🎄Oh yes, Yellowknife and points further north can get very, very cold. I always walked to work since getting a vehicle going – they were plugged in to keep the engines nominally warm – always took a lot of prep. My own breath usually caused frost to form on my eyelashes by the time I covered the 2 km to work; at those low temps wind isn’t usually a thing. After 6.5 winters there though I’m very happy to be where winter is very benign. Cheers.

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    1. The wind was definitely cold – the temperature according to my vehicle was 5 – but at the other end of town it was 8 and I couldn’t feel the wind much at all! The way the wind was coming out of the south and sweeping across the lake made a huge difference. Oh yes, much colder in YK!

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    1. Thank you very much, Thomas. Yes, I was surprised by that, too. I would have thought that there would be more, but apparently not. Penticton sits on the site of a very ancient and massive landslide, so the two lakes are the result of a bifurcation.

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