BOU AVENUE
Invincible Lake
On 27 July 2003, Dan Millar, Kelly Wood and I hiked to Invincible Lake in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park.  I had been bagging peaks for several weekends, and after my brush with dehydration on Mount Aylmer, I decided it would be nice to visit a lake for a change especially with no let-up in the hot weather.  Getting to the lake proved to be tougher than I had anticipated though.  We started out along the trail to Three Isle Lake and turned up an overgrown fireroad at the Invincible Creek crossing.  Scrambling over, under and around deadfall on this road was only half as annoying as fighting off the relentless swarms of mosquitoes and horseflies which plagued us all day.  Upon reaching a large cairn in the road, we followed a beaten path heading straight up the steep hillside.  Our nice hike soon deteriorated into a gruelling bash up through an old burn to the ridge crest some 500 metres above the fireroad.  Deadwood strewn all over the hillside made progress miserable.  After gaining the ridge crest, we essentially plunged down the other side to a rocky creek bed before climbing over a small rise to reach the lake.
Not fun.
Getting through the old burn is the most difficult part of the whole trip.
Where's the bloody lake?!
From the ridge crest, Invincible Lake is hidden behind the grassy rise at centre.  To the right is Mount Nomad.
Worth a lot of blood, sweat and tears.
Invincible Lake sits at the bottom of Mount Nomad's west slopes.  The peak partially in shadow is Mount Warspite.
East of Invincible Lake is a small hump known as Mount Nomad, named after one of the ships sunk in the Battle of Jutland.  While Dan and Kelly were content to relax by the lakeshore, I found the lure of an easy ascent too hard to resist.  It took me only a lazy hour to traverse Mount Nomad from south to north.  I even had to backtrack a bit during the descent when I realized that my small camera tripod had slipped quietly out of my pocket (luckily I found it).
Easy.
The top of Mount Nomad is merely a ridge walk.
Invincible Lake
Here is Invincible Lake as seen from the top of Mount Nomad.
So what else is new?
Sonny stands atop the 2544-metre summit of Mount Nomad.
Hidden paradise?
The cirque to the north invites further exploration.  Mount Warspite is on the right.
Looking into the abyss.
East of Mount Nomad is the impressive west face of Mount Invincible.  Also visible just below Sonny's knee is the north peak of Mount Indefatigable.
One more of the lake...
This is the view of Invincible Lake from the north.
After I regrouped with Dan and Kelly at the lake, we retraced our steps back up the ridge before descending through the old burn which was only marginally easier going down than going up.  The remainder of the trip was marked by sore feet, tormenting bugs and oppressive heat from the late afternoon sun.
Ugh.
Kelly and Dan take a mental breather before plunging down the hillside full of dead trees and fireweed.