Top Canadian Moments 2012 - #4 - Ice Age

Every fishing season brings something new. If you fish a water regularly or are a keen observer in fishing it only once or twice a year, you'll notice little things change. Sometimes they are big things. I recall logs moving, new log jams forming, the massive amounts of gravel moved after the 2005 flood on the Red Deer, new channels open, islands form, or subtle things like an undercut that forms after high water. Lots of little or major things can change in a river.

You don't think much changes in a lake that doesn't have a big inflowing water. Sure, some trees can fall in, or dead heads can move around, but, really, it's status-quo.

Every year at Fortress Lake, we arrive and the same sequence of hatches occur. We're very thankful for the opportunity to own & operate the Fortress Lake Retreat, especially in years like 2012 where Alberta rivers were in high, generally unfishable condition for much of the prime summer months. Fortress Lake has some excellent chironomid hatches about the time high water kicks in back home.

Add the above, and it's consistent. Reliable. Gorgeous. Somewhat static but in a valley that compares to any other valley for beauty, even after 7 years of owning the Retreat, you can't help but see something different at every turn, be it time of day, angle on the lake or to the lake from a hiking vantage. There's always something different to see in a manner you hadn't.

This year, upon arrival, the differences were pretty obvious. It had clearly been a heavy avalanche year before we arrived. Along the two rock faces that come to the lake (well away from our location - we're more than safe where we are), massive avalanches had come right to the lake. In fact, one such avy covered the outlet in about 30 feet of ice and snow. The Wood R cut its way through the avalanche, but it was a winter wonderland as we drove through the ice slice, then got out to walk about the top of the avy pile. It was one of the coolest things we've experienced.

 

To go along with that pile, new avalanche chutes had come into the lake, dropping piles of trees (3 foot diameter) into the lake. New, great structure (not that the lake isn't full of wood!). It was awesome to see the sizes of trees simply snapped like twigs and either pushed aside or dumped into the lake.

To go along with all the above, it was one of the most impressive years for avalanches coming off the two shaded peaks to the south of the Retreat. Off Chisel and Sadlier peaks, avalanches rumbled and roared down the cliffs and into the spruce forests. June was perpetually alive with avalanche viewing.

And if that weren't enough, the spin-off of the cool weather, this little ice-age effect, the hummingbirds were amazing! It took time for the vegetation to get going. So, for the month of June, the hummingbird feeders were electric.

While not any one specific moment, the entire series of scenes and moments of Fortress Lake this June were spectacular. Add in the amazing chironommid hatches and a stunning rainbow event, and it was stunning. Here's a couple of videos from this June.