Whiteshell Provincial Park: Hunt Lake Trail

Last night I packed up the car and drove up north through Fort Frances and Kenora, Ontario and across the border into Manitoba and Whiteshell Provincial Park. I witnessed a beautiful sunset for the last half hour of the drive, pulled into the West Hawk Lake Campground and set up camp for the night. This morning I set out early for the short drive to the Hunt Lake Trailhead for what is one of the most popular hikes at Whiteshell.

Almost immediately after hitting the trail,

I heard and saw something large run through thick brush. I was almost certain I had just seen a bear. I wasn't able to get photographic evidence though. Pretty quickly the trail arrived at its namesake: Hunt Lake. There were sporadic views of the lake through the trees.

At one point a short side trail led to a small set of cascades.

Then the trail climbed a high ridge, passed an obvious wolf kill site,

and eventually led away from Hunt Lake. The forest in Manitoba is just starting to awaken from its winter rest and the leaves are budding out like crazy.

Soon enough, the trail climbed to a high overlook of West Hawk Lake,

the same lake whose shore I was camped near. The trail followed the shore of West Hawk Lake for a bit with many views through the trees that lined its shore.

Eventually I passed by a wetland

and soon after found myself at the end of the trail and a shelter.

The shelter looked heavily used, and a bit abused with quite a bit of graffiti. I rested near the shelter for a short break and then started to make my way back the way I had come. At one point I nearly walked right into a white tailed deer.

It seemed to have no fear of me!

When I arrived back at the trailhead parking area, I noticed a large black figure, moving around in a large tree nearby. It was a bear!

Probably the same bear that I had scared earlier in the morning. I observed the bear for about 15 minutes as it climbed up and down the tree. It seemed to be looking for newly emerged foliage to eat. After that I drove back to the campground to register, since I had arrived too late to do so last night.