Windy Point Ridge

Sat. 26 November:  Windy Point Ridge

Windy Point Ridge - perhaps not the best place to go when there is a weather warning for high winds in the mountains!  As it turned out, the wind arrived the next day –and it caused havoc across the city.

Last week I was skiing in minus twenty degrees.  This week, I was once again hiking on mostly bare, or lightly snow-covered, hillsides in the Sheep River valley.

My first ascent of this hill was almost thirty years ago, in April 1982, and I have hiked this area many times since then.  But my route today was new.  Parking at the Foran Grade trailhead, I followed the well-graded path as it looped its way up onto the ridge, and then gradually upwards to the high point.  This is a perfect vantage point for Windy Point Ridge and the whole Sheep Valley and Front Ranges behind.  There are ideal viewpoints along the way, where the trees have thinned out enough for a good view westwards.

However spectacular the sight of the wall of snowy mountains to the west, today it was the skies which captured the attention.  Right from the start of the day, when the eastern horizon glowed bright red, there was always something interesting happening overhead.  The red turned to orange and yellow, as I drove south to Turner Valley.  Now, on Foran Grade Ridge, I could see the clouds piled up over the peaks surrounding Flat Creek, and the high winds overhead were pushing the clouds away from the Front Ranges.  Up there the Chinook winds were already blowing strongly.  Luckily they didn’t make it down to ground level until the following morning – and then they blew with a force not often seen even in windy Alberta.

I came down off Foran Grade Ridge to the col below Windy Point Ridge.  Here I crafted my own contour through the trees and tangled deadfall up onto the open sides of the mountain.  By now it felt positively warm under the sunshine.  Above me I could hear the faint sounds of a woman’s voice.  As I climbed the steep hillside I could see a small group of people standing next to a bighorn sheep.  They waved at me.  Later I passed a parked truck from Sherbrooke University.  These people were studying the wildlife.  I knew this as I had seen perhaps this same truck parked below Ram Lookout trail, where this University has a mountain sheep observatory.

I was first on top today, making tracks in the light snowfall.  It was a short climb up to the highest point on the ridge, mostly covered by trees, but with good views westwards.  The trail was covered with paw prints from a cougar or coyote. I saw neither today.

After a brief lunch stop, in a very slight, but cool, breeze, I made my way down to the cliffs below.  Here was a grand place to stop and enjoy the exposure and the views.  There were equally good vistas west and east.  The downtown skyscrapers of Calgary were clearly visible across about sixty kilometers of foothills and western prairie.  The buildings were shining in the sun.  Of course, to the west were lines of snowy mountains.

I carefully dropped down the ridgeline, with the steep cliffs directly below me to the left.  Passing a small group of hikers heading up the trail, I made quick time down the bare hillsides to the Sheep Valley road below.  There were good views of the Sheep River in its deep gorge.

Back down on the road, I turned east to make my way back to the car.  A photographer was setting up his equipment, but there were few people around today, perhaps a few hunters passing by in their trucks.

The Sheep Trail closely follows the road all the way back to the winter gate.  Although it parallels the road, the trail is actually a little lower down the steep hillsides, and has a very good view of the river in its gorge, directly below, down the dangerously steep hillside.  I had not hiked the actual trail along here before, and it was quite impressive and exposed.

Soon I was back at the car, and was driving east past the winter gate – which would slam shut in just four days time.  I had enjoyed some good adventures up the Sheep River valley this year, and this had been the perfect way to declare the hiking season – in this valley, at least – closed for another year, by returning to the scene of my earliest hikes in the Alberta foothills.

 

Statistics
Windy Point Ridge
Sat. 26 November
Total Dist.	8.6 km (hike)
Height Gain	1,050 ft.
Max. Elev.	5,748 ft.
Time	3 hrs. 22 mins.

Other Stats.
Start hike:       8.26 am Foran Gr top:  9.23 am Windy Pt rdg:10.12 am Road:            10.55 am Ret. to car:    11.48 am	Temp: minus 2 to plus 3 C Sunny, v. light breeze (high wind warning!)