Signs of Spring?

Fri. 6 May:  The Sheep Valley Road

Winter was still alive at the far end of the Sheep Valley road.   Luckily, further east down the valley, there were some early signs of Spring.  The most obvious sign was that the road was now bikeable beyond the winter gate.  This was good news, since the gate, closed since last December, is due to open in just over a week from today, and I really enjoy having the valley to myself before it is invaded by vehicles.

I set out up the road on my mountain bike, but carrying my snow-shoes, as I knew there would very likely be a lot more snow further west.  It was a leisurely journey up the Sheep Valley, on a cool morning.  The forecast was for showers in the afternoon, but some sunshine and cloud in the morning. 

It felt like a cold March day in the Scottish Highlands, with very little hint of Spring.  There were sections of road which were still partly snow covered, and the trees were still entirely bare.  Not far from the start, near the Foran Grade Ridge trail, I spotted a moose, lurking in the trees beside the road.  He was standing still and silent, trying to look invisible I suppose.  My photos came out blurry because of the trees and branches half hiding him.

Passing the foot of Windy Point Ridge, I negotiated several fallen rocks on the road.  Since the snow must have only just melted off the road surface, nobody had had a chance yet to come and clear the road.  Later, as I was biking back down the valley, a grader was making its way westwards most likely to take care of these rocks.  It is at this point where the Sheep River runs through a deep canyon.  There are some very dangerous slopes here which drop away steeply down to the river.

As one travels west along the valley, the views of the Front Ranges dominate the western horizon.  There are several good viewpoints along the road.  After about nine kilometers, I reached the abandoned ranger’s cabin and the two barns across the road.  It is sad that they are letting these buildings fall into disrepair.  In a few years they will be ruins. 

Just past the junction of the Gorge Creek Trail, the road drops steeply down to Gorge Creek, and then just as steeply up the other side.  I was surprised to see a white van parked below the University of Calgary buildings.  Just up the hill I came upon two warmly dressed women sitting in a meadow on two high wooden seats, facing each other, recording the habits of the ground squirrels!    A little further up the road was another van with a man scouting other ground squirrel sites.  The vans were from the University of Sherbrooke, Quebec.  These researchers have keys to the winter gate.

Continuing westwards along the valley, I found more snow on the road, with one set of vehicle tracks through the snow.  Later, around Indian Oils, the tracks stopped and the snow completely covered the surface.  Here I left my bike behind and continued up the road on my snow-shoes.

For the next couple of kilometers I was taking off and then putting on my ’shoes as the surface was alternately snow covered then bare.  Nobody had been along here for several months, I guessed, and I was alert to the presence of bears.  It was here last year, just up the Indian Oils trail, that I came upon a mother black bear with cubs.  But apart from some white-tailed deer I saw no signs of other animals.  

But I enjoyed the antics of a woodpecker with a very bright red plumage.  He was sitting on a post which carried a diamond shaped metal road sign, and was bashing away with his beak on the sign, making quite a racket.  It seemed he was communicating with a distant woodpecker, and given the volume, he deserved to find a good mate this year!

Finally as the spectacular peaks of Gibraltar Mountain (8,743 ft.) and Mt. Burns (9,633 ft.) came into view, just past the Bluerock campsite, I turned around.  The road ended a few hundred metres ahead, but this seemed a good place to stop.  To my left, the waters of the Sheep River were flowing freely between snowy banks.  I stopped at the gate to the campsite.  The snow still lay deep around here, and it would be several weeks yet until anyone could camp up here, even though the camping season officially opens next weekend.

The final three kilometers had been accomplished with a mixture of MICROspikes and snow-shoes, or just hiking boots on the bare sections.  There will need to be a couple more weeks of warm sunshine to allow anyone to drive to the end of the road.

By now, some clouds were starting to build up, and I kept an eye on the weather, knowing that showers were forecast for the afternoon.  The return journey was, not surprisingly, quicker, as I headed back down the valley in an easterly direction.  This road gives one a good workout as there are uphill and downhill stretches in both directions.  By the time that I had returned to the viewpoint below Windy Point Ridge, high above the river, showers were sweeping across the mountains and heading up the valley.  But I stayed dry, whizzing down the final straight stretch to the winter gate.

There is still a lot of construction activity at the Sandy McNabb campsite although it is meant to open next week.  Whatever they have been doing in there must have been spectacular, as they have been working on it for the past year.

As I drove back into the city, the rain showers were rapidly obscuring the mountains.  I had made a good decision to make an early start.  But would this be my very last snow-shoe trip of the long winter?

Statistics
Sheep Valley Road
Fri. 6 May
Total Dist.	30 km (bike)   +   4 km (hike)   +   2 km (‘shoe)  = 36 km
Height Gain	560 ft.
Max. Elev.	5,250 ft.
Time	4 hrs. 55 mins.

Other Stats.
Start bike:       7.14 am Gorge Ck Jn:   8.29 am Park bike:       9.24 am End of road:  10.02 am Back at bike: 10.32 am Gorge Ck Jn: 11.10 am Ret. to car:    12.09 pm Up:       2 hrs. 48 mins. Back:     2 hrs. 7 mins.	Temp. 0 to + 9 deg. C Cloudy, plenty of sunshine => clouds building up (showers looked certain for later in afternoon).  Cool start to trip.