November on the coast... a dark stretch of non-stop rain that sits between us and ski season. This isn't the best month to be out exploring the mountains, but with the right gear, it just might surprise you.

I headed to the south end of Whistler with my dog and head to toe HellyTech, Helly's version of Gore-Tex, waterproof boots, mittens and camera. I needed to clear my head of a long morning on the computer, and was happily surprised to find some incredible lighting and that beautiful mist that seems to hang all over the forest this time of year. 

We were at my favorite dog walking area, the Cheakamus Community Forest. There are endless trails and paths here, and on rainy days they are virtually deserted. This is from just above Loggers Lake. I didn't want to go back to my computer so I was dawdling, playing around with the self timer.

Just when I thought we would definitely not see another person, a man with his dog and camera/tripod walked out of the fog. The forest treated us with an awesome West Coast bag of tricks.. mist winding through the trees, and little breaks in the weather revealing the mountains speckled in yellow aspen + birch in the distance. 

While we wait for winter, this is a pretty great place to explore November.