Part 3: Canada Lynx Trilogy Finale
It has been such a privilege to get lost in the deep woods with lynx over the last three weeks. Every animal has a unique beauty, but there’s something special about stumbling upon a big cat in a field of untouched snow that sticks with you.
Collectively, between our first, second and most recent trip we’ve travelled over 6300 km in pursuit of the elusive Canada Lynx, otherwise coined the “Shadow of the Forest.” With the amount of miles we’ve driven, we could have made it to Disneyland and back! We have been rewarded for our efforts on each of our visits thankfully, with a total face-time of roughly 45 minutes with two different lynx families. We hope you’ve been enjoying the images!
With a few work and travel obligations coming down the pipes for us, we made time for another two night adventure this past week to catch our final glimpse of lynx before Spring closes in. Not unlike our previous trips, we hit the road painfully early and stayed glued to the tree-lines on our travels, scouring the landscape for fresh lynx and hare prints to pinpoint areas of interest. We are completely at a loss for words, because once again — we found lynxes, only this time we were able to snowshoe with a family of five for extended periods!
With another 1600 km behind us, we rolled into town on our first day by 1 p.m. We made a quick pitstop to unload some gear and moved on to our first location. After two passes on our regular route, we were seriously contemplating an early dinner. We turned our third corner and immediately had to do a double take. Reversing at a glacial pace, we discovered an adult female sitting just within the trees — her silvered face camouflaged with the surrounding branches. She sat for a minute, stoic and undisturbed before turning her back to us and stalking off further into the trees. We put our ‘lynx caps’ on and read the terrain for what her next move might be. Next to us was an open stretch of rolling hills, which provided easy access for her hunt. We looked at each other and made the mutual decision to strap on our snowshoes and attempt to pursue the family on foot.
Five minutes into our encounter, our feet hit the sticky snow. We saw another four lynx weave into a clear patch of the landscape— walking in complete unison. Excited, we pushed on. We made it several meters into the scene, but were stopped several times by the deep snow. The snow was swallowing us whole — scaling up to our waist at times. It was a terrible feeling, watching images escape us as we sunk deeper and deeper into soft pockets of quick sand. Once you’re cocooned, you feel paralyzed because you can barely wiggle yourself out without either filling your lens with snow or face planting into a new snow-coffin of your own making. We edged closer to the lynx family as best as we could, but they ultimately won the race. We managed to snap a few environmental portraits as they glided across the snow’s surface, but they kept pace and stayed well ahead of us. We retraced our steps back towards the car, hoping we could drive further up the road to meet them at the next clearing.
Within 10 minutes, the lynxes appeared, only they were much further in the distance than before. We drove further again, strapped on our snowshoes and crossed our fingers that we could race deep into the bush ahead of them. This was a particularly difficult hike. Unlike the previous field, our new haphazard route was completely shaded, which meant more sinking and physical work from us. Huffing and puffing, we soldiered on— travelling about 30 minutes from the road. As we approached a large clearing, we could distinctly make out two lynxes sitting in the snow ahead. Bingo!
They allowed us to get within 15 metres before they stood up and dispersed. Three lynxes were visibly hunting along a distant tree line, while the other two adjacent to us shuffled through sparsely strain shrubs, glancing at us periodically to ensure we weren’t spoiling their chance to snag a hare. They gave us a good show for about 15 minutes, before they disappeared into the next section of dense bush. We trudged through our footprints back from where we came.
Timing wasn’t on our side now, with the sun starting to dip below the horizon line. We made one final leap of faith and journeyed down a cross country ski trail, about two kms from their last appearance. We were hoping they would appear in the gap between the forests edge. We waited for a beat, but called it quickly. We knew our chances of getting a clean shot amongst the shadowed trees would be a challenge and instead turned our attention to the beautiful sunset that was unfolding in front of us. Flashes of orange, pink and purple floated overhead and we made it just in time to capture the moment. To our surprise, a lone lynx waltzed out of the forest at that exact moment and sat atop a snowbank, not 50 feet away, to appreciate the sunset alongside us! The vibrant orange hues were reflecting off of her whiskers and she sat with her head turned, soaking it all in. She met our gaze for a brief moment, before moving on to meet her kin.
Somewhere between saying goodbye to the lynxes and grabbing dinner we discovered we had a flat tire! We made it about five minutes from our restaurant to drop our car off at a local mechanic, but we were nervous the small town shop wouldn’t get our car back in time for us to explore the following morning. We had travelled nearly 8 hours from home, could this trip really be a bust? We were thankful, because the mechanic must have taken pity on us after reading a heartfelt note about lynx and “snow quick-sand.” He had us up and running by 9:30 the next morning, which left us with plenty of time to cruise.
I kid you not, our first pass down our route revealed three lynx kits running on the road. Can you believe our luck?! They playfully dashed into thick bushes as we edged closer and once again, we strapped on our snowshoes. We were determined to hike as far as needed to capture iconic Canadian images. My enthusiasm remained for the first 50 minutes. After dodging in and out of thorny trees; sinking into deep snow with every step, getting trapped under the roots of a bush and missing dozens of photographic opportunities due to my limited mobility — I hit my emotional threshold. With tears running down my cheeks, I lay in my snow coffin of shame — trapped, defeated and frustrated. Jesse back pedalled to dig me out of my tomb and I did my best penguin waddle onward — still sobbing from frustration.
We made it quite a distance into an open meadow before the lynx revealed themselves in the tiniest sliver of a clearing. We watched as they came up to our old tracks shoulder-to-shoulder, pawed at the imprinted snow and took a whiff — ensuring a large predator wasn’t in their midst. With one final glance, they bridged the gap between a section of forest too thick and treacherous for us to follow. We waited, thinking they would loop back to the meadow further out from us.
Contrary to popular belief, the cat’s did not come back that night, nor the very next day! However, we were once again left in awe of their presence, tenacity and jaw-dropping good looks.
We hope you enjoyed this Canada lynx trilogy as our Winter adventure comes to a close. We’re looking forward to attempting the impossible again this Spring — fingers crossed we can bring images of young kits to you.
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