Commonwealth Lake Snowshoe

Where:

• Commonwealth Lake

 

When:

• November 12, 2022

 

Who:

• Ed, Craig, Dave, Rod

 

Trailhead:

• 40 km from Canmore on the Spray Lakes Road
• park on the road 2.2 km past (south) of the Engadine Lodge/Mt. Shark turnoff
• the trail is on the right (west) side of the road, and you start by going over the guardrail and down a steep but short embankment and then across the Engadine meadow
• hopefully, the creek is frozen over, and otherwise, you have to access the trail from the Mt. Shark Road parking lot, which is a longer stroll
• once you get into the trees, veer to the right, and you should be able to see the trail markings that lead (left) up into the valley
• at the first junction, turn left
• after about another km, take the left-hand turn that takes you uphill through the forest to Commonwealth Lake as the right-hand turn leads up Commonwealth Creek

 

 

Degree of difficulty:

• 275 meters elevation to the lake
• 4.7 km out and back

• the hike took us three hours
• the trail starts gently across a meadow, gradually up thru the cut block, and then gains a bit more elevation along the south side of the creek
• it moves steeply uphill after you start moving away from the creek
• it was very challenging moving up through a valley of deep snow with tree roots and rocks hampering our progress
• we followed some back-country skiers and ended up taking a route on the left side of the hill when the actual trail is on the right-hand side of Commonwealth Creek

 

 

Interesting notes:

• we were lucky that the creek in the meadow was just frozen enough for us to make the three crossings

• there are some amazing views of Commonwealth Peak, Pig’s Tail, Mount Birdwood, The Fist, and Mount Smuts
• this was a mostly overcast day, so we didn’t get to enjoy the spectacular mountain peaks that surround the valley
• we would like to go back in the summer and make a loop around the mountains behind Commonwealth lake