Mon. 24 May: Telephone LoopNo hanging about the house on the long weekend, L. told me! So it was another early start today. Not wanting to risk the major highways on Holiday Monday, I decided that today’s trip must be somewhere in the Bragg Creek or Elbow Valley area – a short drive west of Calgary. Bragg Creek won the contest. A few kilometers west of the village are some excellent cross-country ski trails – when the snow is good. At this time of year, they are popular with bikers, hikers and equestrians. I chose the longest of the loops, romantically called Telephone Loop.
First car at the car park, I was quickly on the trail, on a cool but cloudless morning. The good thing about these trails is that they wind lazily around the wooded hillsides with only a few sudden drops and climbs mostly at creeks and streams. And they are well sign-posted. My particular trail was nicely regaled with signs on trees and on wooden stands, dotted around the 16 km route, with all the necessary warnings for a safe journey, starting with “Do you really know what you are letting yourself in for?” (or similar words) - below which someone had scribbled: "Bring it on!!" - followed by several “Caution Ice Flow” signs, and so on.
First car at the car park, I was quickly on the trail, on a cool but cloudless morning. The good thing about these trails is that they wind lazily around the wooded hillsides with only a few sudden drops and climbs mostly at creeks and streams. And they are well sign-posted. My particular trail was nicely regaled with signs on trees and on wooden stands, dotted around the 16 km route, with all the necessary warnings for a safe journey, starting with “Do you really know what you are letting yourself in for?” (or similar words) - below which someone had scribbled: "Bring it on!!" - followed by several “Caution Ice Flow” signs, and so on.
The trail has four sides to its roughly rectangular shape, each having its own character. The first long eastern leg is a delightful stroll climbing up around a hillside with mostly deciduous trees, shining with that bright green that you only get in early Spring. Occasional glimpses of valleys and hillsides to the east, perhaps not unlike hikes I have done in New Brunswick or North Carolina.
The short northern leg was apparently once a pretty trail, remote and narrow. But in the early 1990’s the logging companies bulldozed a wide road along its path, creating a fairly unattractive route and making a lot of skiers very upset! The long third leg runs almost entirely through coniferous forest, often wet and boggy, or muddy, under foot, but easy enough to hike. One might easily go astray along here, except for a very helpful sign sitting in the middle of the trail advising one to “turn right here”.
At the bottom of this long third leg, one meets the Moose Loop ski trail, and finally there are views west over a wide open meadow to snow-capped Moose Mountain in the background.
Breaking out of the trees, the trail drops down to Bragg creek on a wide well-engineered grassy road, which looked as if it had been designed for major traffic. Perhaps at one time there were thoughts of building a road northwest past the shooting range to the Powderface Trail road and on into Kananaskis Country. It would have made sense. Luckily for the hiker and skier, it was never built, keeping this area a quiet backwater.
The final leg crosses Bragg creek on a hidden bridge, then onto the ski trails which wander through the woods on the other side of the valley. Perfect mountain biking and equestrian trails – and I met a couple of bikers and one person on horseback. Returning to the car park, I could see a growing number of cars and people arriving to enjoy the day – it was not yet noon. Three huge horse-trailers stood empty, their occupants already out on the trails.
The mountain trails can quickly become unhikeable, due to fallen trees. Every trail I have hiked along has had fallen tree trunks across their path. On some routes, nobody comes along with a chainsaw to clear the trees, so people either make little detours around the fallen trunks, or for the lesser used trails, the path disappears altogether.
The Telephone Loop still had several patches of snow in some of the shaded creeks. But over the past week, the Front Ranges had noticeably lost much of their snow cover, and finally Spring seemed to have tightened her grip.
Returning through Bragg Creek, I could see that the long weekend traffic was building up. I hurried home. Later in the day, there were reports of a 30 km traffic tail-back on the Trans-Canada Highway west of Banff!!
Statistics
Telephone Loop
Mon. 24 May
Total Dist. 16.5 km (hike)
Height Gain 520 ft.
Max. Elev. 5180 ft.
Time on trail 3 hr. 53 mins.
The short northern leg was apparently once a pretty trail, remote and narrow. But in the early 1990’s the logging companies bulldozed a wide road along its path, creating a fairly unattractive route and making a lot of skiers very upset! The long third leg runs almost entirely through coniferous forest, often wet and boggy, or muddy, under foot, but easy enough to hike. One might easily go astray along here, except for a very helpful sign sitting in the middle of the trail advising one to “turn right here”.
At the bottom of this long third leg, one meets the Moose Loop ski trail, and finally there are views west over a wide open meadow to snow-capped Moose Mountain in the background.
Breaking out of the trees, the trail drops down to Bragg creek on a wide well-engineered grassy road, which looked as if it had been designed for major traffic. Perhaps at one time there were thoughts of building a road northwest past the shooting range to the Powderface Trail road and on into Kananaskis Country. It would have made sense. Luckily for the hiker and skier, it was never built, keeping this area a quiet backwater.
The final leg crosses Bragg creek on a hidden bridge, then onto the ski trails which wander through the woods on the other side of the valley. Perfect mountain biking and equestrian trails – and I met a couple of bikers and one person on horseback. Returning to the car park, I could see a growing number of cars and people arriving to enjoy the day – it was not yet noon. Three huge horse-trailers stood empty, their occupants already out on the trails.
The mountain trails can quickly become unhikeable, due to fallen trees. Every trail I have hiked along has had fallen tree trunks across their path. On some routes, nobody comes along with a chainsaw to clear the trees, so people either make little detours around the fallen trunks, or for the lesser used trails, the path disappears altogether.
The Telephone Loop still had several patches of snow in some of the shaded creeks. But over the past week, the Front Ranges had noticeably lost much of their snow cover, and finally Spring seemed to have tightened her grip.
Returning through Bragg Creek, I could see that the long weekend traffic was building up. I hurried home. Later in the day, there were reports of a 30 km traffic tail-back on the Trans-Canada Highway west of Banff!!
Statistics
Telephone Loop
Mon. 24 May
Total Dist. 16.5 km (hike)
Height Gain 520 ft.
Max. Elev. 5180 ft.
Time on trail 3 hr. 53 mins.
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