The Bears of Bluerock

Fri./Sat. 17/18 September:
The Bears of Bluerock

It was bound to happen. Given all my hiking trips around the Canadian Rockies, it was just a matter of time until I would run into a bear on the trail – and so it happened today.

Yet, given the weather, one could forgive any bear for thinking it would have the place to itself this weekend. For this was yet another miserable week of rain and snow in the mountains, followed by a discouraging forecast for more rain all weekend. Then right at the last moment, on Friday, the forecast was changed to suggest a brief weather window on Friday night through Saturday morning – it would be cold but sunny.

This was enough to get me moving quickly after work on Friday to pack the car and head out to the Sheep River. It had been a wet day, and there was plenty of cloud, but by 5.30 pm I was driving west out of the city with the expectation of an overnight camp followed by a good hike on the Saturday.

What a contrast between the eastern entrance to the Sheep valley and the western end at the mountain wall. At one end, gentle rolling ranching country, with a display of Fall colors in the trees. At the other end, a wintry scene of snow-capped peaks and forested hillsides covered by a coating of icing sugar-snow. Over the past few hours, up to four inches of snow had fallen around the Bluerock campsite, and the temperatures were dropping as the skies started to clear.

Not surprisingly, apart from a couple of large camping trailers, I had the entire campsite to choose from. I was soon sitting in front of a warm fire enjoying my Somerset Maugham short stories – and a packet of double-cream Oreo cookies! The campsite attendant, a friendly middle-aged lady called Judy, dropped by to check things out. She was despondent about the weather as it was bad for business. Small family companies often run these campsites, and they rely on busy weekends to make money. There would be no money made this weekend, and the campsite closes after the October long weekend. She told me that a black bear and three cubs had been seen on Indian Oils trail - later she returned to say that it was in fact at Bighorn picnic site, much further east. We had a good chat about my planned hike the next morning. She seemed anxious to be sure she knew where I was going in case help was needed.

It was a cold night, under clear skies. Inside the tent I was warm and cosy and slept well.

The morning light turned bright pink for a few minutes. My plan today was to drive a few hundred yards west to the equestrian campsite, to leave my car there and bike east down the Sheep River Road to the start of the Indian Oils trail. I would then hike a long twenty kilometer loop into a mountain wilderness, ending up back at the car.

The first part worked as planned. I biked down the road, wearing winter gear – two wooly hats on my head. Leaving the bike at the start of the trail, opposite Sheep River Falls, I set out by foot on the Indian Oils Trail. In a short while, this trail joins an eastern branch, and the combined trail heads northwards up a fairly steep side creek. I was soon up into the snow level. The trees here were covered with snow, although the trail itself was bare, but muddy. Snowy peaks rose up above the ridge-line.

Taking my usual precautions, as I climbed the trail, I shook my pebble-tin noise maker and generally gave warning to any wildlife in the area. After about a kilometer climbing up the trail, I heard a sudden noise in the bushes about fifty yards ahead of me. I half saw and half sensed the movement of one or two bear cubs as they made sudden scratching noises as they climbed up into nearby trees. The mother bear came into sight, looking down the trail towards me.

I spoke in normal tones to the bear so it could recognize I was a human. Usually this is enough for bears – particularly black bears - to slip away. But this mother bear had no intention of going anywhere. She had her cubs with her, and nobody was going to get any closer than they were now. I tried to explain to her that she was being a “bloody nuisance” as I wanted to travel up the trail and she was in my way and would she mind getting the hell out of the way – and so on. She started to come down the trail towards me making a very quiet chuntering noise. There was no choice. Reluctantly I turned around and quietly exited back down the trail. She seemed satisfied with my decision and did not try to hurry me along.

Back down at the trail junction, I tied some red blaze tape between two trees across the trail and scrawled the word “BEAR” on the signpost with a small rock – not having a pen handy. The bears had looked as if they were heading down in this direction, and although it was unlikely today that any other foolhardy hiker would be traveling this remote trail, I thought it best to leave the warning sign anyway.

So now, with my day’s plan so rudely disrupted, I had to decide on an alternate scheme. Trudging east, I followed the other leg of Indian Oils trail to the Sheep River road, through some pretty woods, and then walked back westwards along the road to my bike.

Returning on my bike to the car, I decided to hike part way along my planned trail, starting from the opposite end. I knew that I would not now have time to hike the whole way around – nor did I want to go anywhere near Indian Oils trail again. But I knew I could get some of the way along Bluerock Creek trail and up onto the ridge. So it turned out.

Bluerock Creek trail starts in the equestrian campsite behind the corral. Today it was empty, but this is a very popular place for horse riders. The trail for the first two kilometers or so is a slightly “pedestrian” plod up a fire road through the trees. However, it was made more interesting today by a good fall of snow - four to six inches - on the trail and on the trees.

Eventually I came out into a clearing, with stunning mountains rising up all around, and a mist hanging around halfway up the snow-clad mountain slopes. It was a spectacular scene. I might have stopped for a while at the lone picnic table, except that it had a six inch covering of new snow!

Leaving the clearing, I made my way through a dense snowy forest – another entrance to Narnia I thought. Then the trail took a turn to the right, and dived down a steep forested slope to the creek below.

Luckily the trail sensibly zig-zagged down the hillside, but it was wretchedly muddy and snow-covered. At the creek below was a footbridge – or the remnants of one. This bridge had collapsed in a past flood, and now lay in the creek, a jumbled ruin of wood and nails. Luckily the creek was easily forded, using my rapid-solution dry-bag technique!

But of course, having descended to the creek, the trail now had to climb up the other side, on equally trying steep and slippery slopes. My MicroSpikes once again proved their worth. After some hard uphill work, I reached a more open area of ridge, being the lower slopes of Bluerock Mountain. Here the views across the Bluerock Valley were superb. The skies were mostly clear to the west, with little arms of mist drifting along halfway up the mountains. It was altogether a magical place made even more so by the new fall of snow. But this was only a very temporary weather window. Already a new mist was rising up the valley from the east. In a very short space of time, it had started to swallow up the sky.

I decided that I had done enough today. I had reached a logical turning point, although still perhaps a kilometer from the top of the ridge. I told myself that I would return next year to complete this challenging circuit. But given that we were due at J and C’s for dinner at 6pm, it was time to think of my stomach and turn around.

As the mist swirled around, it caused an instant rise in temperatures and a melting of the snow. The snow and ice dropped from the trees above me almost like a rain. As usual, the return journey took no time at all, and I was soon back at the car. I had noticed new paw prints on the trail, and also hoof prints. In the car park was a horse-box, so I had probably just missed seeing a rider and their dog. I saw nobody else all day.

Returning to the campsite, I bumped into Judy and her husband, and shared with them details of my encounter with the bear. After packing up the tent, I headed east, stopping at Indian Oils trailhead to add a warning note on the sign.

The Sheep River valley is a spectacular place to visit at this time of year. It was a strange feeling so easily to ascend into winter, then simply to drop down again into a gentle world of green and gold.

But now it was time to put bears behind me and consider a large dinner with our friends!


Statistics
Indian Oils/Bluerock Ck.
Sat. 18 September

Total Dist. 11 km (hike) + 5 km (bike) = 16 km
Height Gain 1500 ft.
Max. Elev. 6320 ft.
Time on trail 5 hrs. 0 mins.