Fri. 24 September: Tent Ridge/Tryst Lake
At last! A good weather forecast. Six bright suns in a row on the weather channel’s weekly outlook should pretty well guarantee a perfect outing into the mountains, I thought. Wrong again!
Since I was planning a two day adventure, I met up with my hiking colleague J and we headed west in a two car convoy this morning. The red sky to the east should have warned us that once again the forecasters had their calculations wrong. There was plenty of cloud in the sky as we drove down the Kananaskis Valley and west onto the gravel Smith-Dorrien Highway.
We slowed for a coyote ambling along on the side of the road at the winter gate, and then admired a large bull moose strolling across the Chester Lake car park on its way up the trail. Soon we had turned off the road at Mt. Engadine Lodge and had found the grassy parking area beside the Shark Mountain helicopter base access road.
Today our goal was the challenging Tent Ridge horseshoe, tackled in a clockwise direction. The outward trail started a couple of hundred metres down the road, and we would return down a trail ending directly opposite our parking area – if we were to navigate the complete horse-shoe.
As we started down the road, we were stopped by a young couple in a car who asked if we had seen any wildlife. We were able to tell them about the coyote and the moose, and also about several other moose grazing in the meadows below Mt. Engadine Lodge. Now we turned up into the trees on a steep, grassy logging road. This might have been a tricky route to follow, but the trail was obvious, if narrow.
Soon we were above the snowline, with the snow-covered trail not so easy to detect in the forest. Turning left, we continued upwards, above an unseen Monica Brook. The trees started to thin out, giving early views of the horse-shoe ridge ahead of us. Crossing the upper section of Monica Brook, it was a little disconcerting to find fresh bear paw prints on the trail, heading towards us – somehow we had luckily missed a head-on encounter with what looked to be a mother black bear and cub.
Now the trees opened right up to reveal a wide, bare valley, ringed by our ridge, all covered in a good coating of new snow. There seemed to be no safe way up onto the ridge. Following the trail, we curved to the left and headed back into the trees at a well-blazed entry point. By climbing up to the left, it was a simple job to reach a lower part of the long bare ridge, by climbing a rocky scree slope dotted with colorful larches. Once on the ridge, we turned upwards for the long scramble to the summit. Already the views were fine, of the Spray Lakes below, and the horse-shoe ridge to west and north.
The snow made our journey upwards quite slippery, and in a couple of places we were climbing over steep rocky sections, which were easy enough going upwards, but a different proposition as a return route. Holding our nerve, we clambered upwards, finally making the wind-blown lower summit. Far from being a bright sunny day, this was turning out to be a bitterly cold winter’s day up here above 8000 feet. The clouds were dropping below the summits, and snow pellets were being driven into our faces by a gale force wind. Altogether not a pleasant place to linger. The views were limited today, but what we were able to see was spectacular enough.
At last! A good weather forecast. Six bright suns in a row on the weather channel’s weekly outlook should pretty well guarantee a perfect outing into the mountains, I thought. Wrong again!
Since I was planning a two day adventure, I met up with my hiking colleague J and we headed west in a two car convoy this morning. The red sky to the east should have warned us that once again the forecasters had their calculations wrong. There was plenty of cloud in the sky as we drove down the Kananaskis Valley and west onto the gravel Smith-Dorrien Highway.
We slowed for a coyote ambling along on the side of the road at the winter gate, and then admired a large bull moose strolling across the Chester Lake car park on its way up the trail. Soon we had turned off the road at Mt. Engadine Lodge and had found the grassy parking area beside the Shark Mountain helicopter base access road.
Today our goal was the challenging Tent Ridge horseshoe, tackled in a clockwise direction. The outward trail started a couple of hundred metres down the road, and we would return down a trail ending directly opposite our parking area – if we were to navigate the complete horse-shoe.
As we started down the road, we were stopped by a young couple in a car who asked if we had seen any wildlife. We were able to tell them about the coyote and the moose, and also about several other moose grazing in the meadows below Mt. Engadine Lodge. Now we turned up into the trees on a steep, grassy logging road. This might have been a tricky route to follow, but the trail was obvious, if narrow.
Soon we were above the snowline, with the snow-covered trail not so easy to detect in the forest. Turning left, we continued upwards, above an unseen Monica Brook. The trees started to thin out, giving early views of the horse-shoe ridge ahead of us. Crossing the upper section of Monica Brook, it was a little disconcerting to find fresh bear paw prints on the trail, heading towards us – somehow we had luckily missed a head-on encounter with what looked to be a mother black bear and cub.
Now the trees opened right up to reveal a wide, bare valley, ringed by our ridge, all covered in a good coating of new snow. There seemed to be no safe way up onto the ridge. Following the trail, we curved to the left and headed back into the trees at a well-blazed entry point. By climbing up to the left, it was a simple job to reach a lower part of the long bare ridge, by climbing a rocky scree slope dotted with colorful larches. Once on the ridge, we turned upwards for the long scramble to the summit. Already the views were fine, of the Spray Lakes below, and the horse-shoe ridge to west and north.
The snow made our journey upwards quite slippery, and in a couple of places we were climbing over steep rocky sections, which were easy enough going upwards, but a different proposition as a return route. Holding our nerve, we clambered upwards, finally making the wind-blown lower summit. Far from being a bright sunny day, this was turning out to be a bitterly cold winter’s day up here above 8000 feet. The clouds were dropping below the summits, and snow pellets were being driven into our faces by a gale force wind. Altogether not a pleasant place to linger. The views were limited today, but what we were able to see was spectacular enough.
By hiding behind the orange weather station on the summit, we were able to take a breather and also to take stock of our plans. Ahead of us was a drop to a col, followed by a long ascent to a higher summit, followed by the tricky navigation of the other half of the horse-shoe ridge. The guide book offered an “escape route” down off the ridge at the col below, and a return via Tryst Lake. We decided to take this offer.However, despite searching for a trail leading off the ridge at the col, there was no trail to be seen. So we plunged down though the trees at the very lowest section of the col – a logical starting point for any trail. We never found the trail. Instead we carefully descended over 800 vertical feet of tricky, slippery, steep forest, to the very upper end of the Tryst Lake valley.
Here in the valley we were standing below a bare mountain wall, with an impressive cliff face soaring up into the sky above us. The scattered larches made this a grand place to be. Turning down the valley, we soon came to the small lake, whose name apparently commemorates a pair of lovers who visited there one snowy June day.
This is definitely the right direction to reach Tryst Lake. The trail back down to the valley floor was long and often steep. We overtook two women from (I think) Quebec, who were carefully descending the trail. They were interested in my MICROSpikes. J too had brought along some yak-traks which were a different design but seemed to work quite well. They were a great help on these steep slippery trails.
Leaving the woods at a large cairn, we turned left onto a wide grassy fire road, leading to a parking area. Turning up onto the road to the helicopter base, we were soon back at the car, with a steady drizzle starting to take hold. There was no sign of the sunny skies we had been expecting. Nevertheless this had been yet another exciting and challenging day in the mountains. We vowed to return next summer to tackle the other half of this horse-shoe.
J headed back to Calgary in his car, while I turned left onto the Smith-Dorrien Highway and continued westwards for further adventures. At the far end of the Spray Lakes, I turned across the dam, and back along the other side of the reservoir to check out the West Spray Lakes campsite. It would be a good place to camp, I thought, with sites strung along beside the waters of this long lake. At the far end I saw two Kananaskis Country trucks blocking the road. Not thinking anything about it, I turned around and continued my journey west to Canmore. Later I saw on the Kananaskis Country website that they had just closed the campsite due to bears in the area!!!
Stopping in Canmore for some camping supplies, I then continued west along the Trans-Canada Highway to Banff. Tonight I would camp at Tunnel Mountain campsite. This turned out to be a very pleasant camping area, in the trees. It was surprising to me that the loop for tenters almost filled up during the evening. There are still a lot of tourists from all over the world visiting Banff National Park at this time of year. The forecast of “perfect weather” probably also attracted gullible Calgarians such as myself. By now a full gale was blowing through the campsite. The skies cleared later that evening to reveal a bright moon. The weather was finally improving.
Statistics
Tent Ridge/Tryst Lake
Fri. 24 September
Total Dist. 9 km (hike)
Height Gain 1870 ft.
Max. Elev. 8104 ft.
Time on trail 5 hrs. 0 mins.
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