Where Winter Rules

Fri. 30 March:  Kananaskis Day Trip

It might surprise some Calgarians, but as the crow flies, it’s only about 50 miles from our front door to the edge of the Upper Kananaskis Lake, beneath the Great Divide.  A greater contrast in scenery could hardly be imagined.  Especially today.  It might be snow-free and Spring-like in the City, but just over there, Winter Rules.

Wanting to see how much snow there was in the mountains, I set out on a day trip to the bottom end of the Kananaskis Valley.  I found a lot of snow!

The sun was just catching the top of Mt. Kidd (9,702 ft.) as I drove south down the Valley past the ski slopes at Nakiska.  Road conditions quickly deteriorated, but I felt safe on my new winter tires.  My plan today was to explore the snow shoe trails from Chester Lake trailhead, on the Smith-Dorrien Highway.  There had been new snowfall last night, on top of the already deep snow.  It was stacked high along the sides of the road as I drove up the first section of Smith-Dorrien.  It was snowing lightly and the trees were plastered with new snow.

I soon caught up with the massive snow-plough, which was clearing a good foot of snow off my side of the road.  At the turn-off to the Chester Lake parking area he kept going up the highway.  Perhaps rashly I headed up the unploughed side road and into the large car park, immediately realizing this might not be a good place to be.  It was now snowing more heavily.  The deserted parking area was covered by about a foot of new snow, and the morning did not look encouraging for any sort of expedition.  It was not hard to conclude that I would be better off turning around and finding a less hostile environment for my adventures.  The snow report recorded 180 cm of snow depth here at Chester Lake parking area.  That’s over six foot and it was being added to rapidly.

I had to drive back down the highway on the wrong side of the road as my side hadn’t been ploughed yet.  Luckily I only came across one slow moving vehicle coming my way, so I returned safely to the Kananaskis Valley.

The Canyon parking area was also piled high with snow, but luckily another plough had just been in there a minute before I arrived, so I parked below a drift and headed out on my snow shoes to explore the Penstock Trail.

This pretty trail skirts the bottom edge of the Lower Kananaskis Lake, crossing a penstock where the water levels of the lake can be adjusted.  Snow was deep here too, and the skies were overcast with a glimpse of mountains rising up from the lake.  This roughly four and a half kilometre circuit follows the edge of the lake, across Pocaterra Dam then crosses the Smith-Dorrien Highway before following an interesting old roadbed.  Beside this trail I noticed an old snow-covered wooden spillway.  The road ended in Kent Creek where there was a picturesque hillside of blue-ish icicles half hidden under the snow.

The trail then headed into the woods, crossed back over the road, and meandered through deep forests, finally returning to the lake.  This was an ideal snow shoe trip for leisurely travelers such as myself.

Not being totally idle, I decided that I would also like to check up on the cross-country skiing conditions although it was already a few degrees above freezing – ideal for waxless skis.  First, however, I stopped at the Kananaskis visitor centre which was open, and the busy lady was directing a few first-time visitors to the best trails. I always enjoy relaxing on the comfy couches in front of the huge windows looking out to the Opal Range.

At the cosy Pocaterra Hut, there was nobody inside, and only a couple of people returning from a short trip on the trails.  I met a couple of other small parties of two or three and soon found myself breaking trail on what is perhaps the most popular cross-country ski trail in Kananaskis Country.  There had been three or four inches of new snow last night and my waxless skis gripped the snow well.  Soon I was at the Lynx Trail junction and relaxing under a warm sunshine at the handily placed picnic table.  Nobody had been this way today.  It was a peaceful scene, although there was a wind in the trees, and high up in the mountains above me, the snow was swirling around.

On my return journey I took Stroil and Come Along trails for my first time ever, and found the moderate and “most difficult” sections easily manageable.  But the bent “most difficult” sign suggested a few dramas in past times.  I came across no other skiers on the trail.  The thermometer on the outside wall of Pocaterra Hut told me it was plus 8 C and a puddle below it suggested that this might be the beginning of the end of this year’s skiing season here - although it will take months before all this snow melts.

Still curious about the snow depth closer to the Great Divide, I drove along to the end of the road at the Upper Kananaskis Lake.  It was snowing here, and the snow was far too deep to venture out onto any trail.  At the Upper Lake, a narrow corridor had been ploughed out of the snow, but there was no way of getting onto the trails to the lake. There must have been a ten foot drift enveloping the pubic loo – no help to a desperate visitor!  The wind was blowing the snow around, and so I abandoned a half-idea to snow shoe across the dam to the viewpoint beside the lake.

By now my curiosity had been satisfied- there was LOTS of snow here!  On my way back up the Valley, I stopped in at the Kananaskis Village to have a look around.  It was snowing here too.  Things were half-closed up, although the posh Delta Hotel was lively enough.

To make a change I turned west on the Trans-Canada Highway and returned to the city along Highway 1A.  I had not travelled this road for decades and was surprised how narrow and twisting it was. Here there was no snow.  At one stage the road runs alongside the wide Bow River, which was flowing freely between ice-covered banks.  Winter may be over here, but down the bottom of the Kananaskis Valley, it was still supreme ruler.

Statistics
Penstock Snowshoe Trail
Fri. 30 March
Total Dist.	4.8 km (‘shoe)
Height Gain	100ft.
Max. Elev.	5,600 ft.
Time	2 hrs. 1 min.

Statistics
Pocaterra Ski Trail
Fri. 30 March
Total Dist.	7.5 km (XC ski)
Height Gain	260ft.
Max. Elev.	5,545 ft.
Time	1 hr. 50 mins.

Other Stats.
Start ‘shoe:    9.16 am Creek:          10.02 am Ret. to car:   11.17 am Temp: +3 to +5 C Few flurries, o’cast	Start ski:      11.57 am Jn Lynx:      12.48 pm Ret. to hut:    1.47 pm Temp: +7 to +8 C Sunny breaks

Ranger Hill

Sat. 24 March:  Ranger Hill

If you want some good tips on great hikes, then turn to this website:

http://kananaskisblog.com/

This “Kananaskis Trails” website always has some interesting options for hiker or snow-shoer or cross-country skier, depending on the time of year.  Check it out.

So today I tried out their latest suggestion, a ten kilometre circuit of the hills south of the West Bragg Creek ski trails, to the summit of Ranger Hill.  I was not disappointed.

It had snowed the previous day and so the road into the parking area was unploughed and slippery.  Apart from one van, I was first here, despite this being a cloudless Saturday morning.  The weather might have fooled some city folk today.  At home it was dull and overcast.  Halfway to Bragg Creek, the clouds parted to reveal the most beautiful cloudless day with new snow on the mountains and foothills.

I started off on the ski trails but soon branched off on a trail of my own – a new route devised for mountain bikers. Hence the odd name given to some trails.  My circuit took me up Boundary Ridge trail, then onto Strange Brew, and finally onto Ranger Summit trail for the rest of the trip.

The first thing I did was to drop my camera in the snow, which made some of my pictures a bit blurry and then I couldn’t get the date stamp to disappear!  But it was all uphill from there - literally.  Almost immediately I had a grand view of a snow-caked Moose Mountain rising high above the forests, under a blue sky.  Most of the trail was in the trees, but the route was interesting, and never too steep.  It had been designed for non-hard-core bikers and so it wound all across the hillsides in an almost random way.  The good thing about these new trails is that they allow access into country which before was completely impregnable due to deadfall.  It must have taken a huge effort to carve out the route and clear the debris under foot.

Eventually the trail climbed up to the summit of Ranger Hill, forested right to its almost flat summit ridge.  Here was my next grand view of the day, west to the snowy summits of Banded Peak, Mt. Cornwall and Mt. Glasgow.  Now the trail marched through the snow-covered trees along the ridge before turning sharply right to traverse the even snowier northern side of the ridge. 

I was breaking trail all the way, and keeping an eye out for the plentiful orange trail signs on the trees to make sure I was not straying – which is easy in snow-covered country.  Finally I came to the most open viewpoint of the day, with a handy tree branch to sit on for a snack.  Here I had views west and north, to Moose Mountain and the Bragg Creek valley. Soon much of this will be logged, which is causing much opposition as logging always seems to do.

A very pleasant descent of the ridge took me all the way back to the start, above a creek, and beside snow-filled meadows.  Here I met a young family of four making good progress up the trail on their snow shoes.

In no time at all I was back at the car park where there were now quite a few cars parked, but people must have been out on the trail as it was fairly quiet.  What better day to be out in the snow, under cloudless skies.  It was still a few degrees below zero and early on I needed two pairs of gloves.  But it was warming up quickly, with snow starting to fall in crystal showers from the trees.

Back in the city, the sun was still trying to fight the cloud – and nobody was any wiser about the magical morning that they too might have discovered a few miles west of here.   

Statistics
Ranger Summit Trail
Sat. 24 March
Total Dist.	10.0 km (‘shoe)
Height Gain	1,200ft.
Max. Elev.	5,650 ft.
Time	3 hrs. 15 mins.

Other Stats.
Start hike:      8.33 am Summit:       10.26 am Viewpoint:    10.58 am Ret. to car:   11.48 am	Temp: minus 6 to minus 2 deg.C Cloudless, windless

The Cypress Hills

Fri. 16 March:  The Cypress Hills

I have just travelled across over 350 km of ocean to reach a mysterious island.  Or so it seemed!

In fact, what I really did was drive east across the bare, snow-free prairies, as far as the very southeastern corner of Alberta.  Here the Cypress Hills rise up out of the flat land.  These hills are actually a forested plateau, sitting over 1000 feet higher than Calgary, and they are the highest point in Canada between the Rocky Mountains and Labrador!

They are well hidden.  You have to travel east of Medicine Hat on the Trans-Canada Highway, and then you turn south along a rolling, empty prairie road.  Only after about 40 kilometres of travel along this lonely road do you get a good view of this high plateau, dark against the wide open skies.  Perhaps surprisingly, by the time you reach the foot of the Cypress Hills you have climbed about 1700 foot from Medicine Hat.  Up here, there were still traces of snowdrifts along the edges of the rolling prairie hillsides.

Below the plateau sits a pretty lake, and on the far side of the lake is the only community of any size in this whole vast corner of Alberta.  Elkwater is a collection of holiday homes and condos, scattered in the trees above the lake.  This place is built for the crowds which invade the Cypress Hills on those few long summer weeks of the season:  playgrounds, campsites, boat docks.   There is just one general store and restaurant, next to the modern visitor centre.  The Elkwater Lodge is a resort hotel at the eastern end of the lake.

Today the place was almost deserted.  I looked into the Visitor Centre, which was open today.  A very helpful Information Officer, a lady of about my own age or a bit older, provided me with information about the two open campsites and the hiking trails.  When I told her I was planning to hike up onto the plateau, she showed concern for this lone hiker and gave me a number to call in case the Centre closed before I got back.  Next I dropped into the store and a friendly lady with an English accent told me that she hoped I wasn’t planning to camp out in a tent – which I was.  Apparently the weather can be very unpredictable in these parts.

The Elkwater campsite was not surprisingly deserted and partially snow covered.  Two sites had been cleared just enough for use, and I chose – after great deliberation!- site number A-1, where I pitched my tent.

It was overcast and a gusty wind was blowing.  My plan was to do an anti-clockwise circuit of about ten kilometers, up onto the high plateau and back down to the campsite.  Just in case there was more snow higher up, I carried my snowshoes on my pack - I would need them.  I felt a little like an explorer in a new land as I set out from my base.

Although the height gain to the plateau was less than 800 feet, it seemed a lot more than that.  The wide trail climbed steadily up the ridgeline, in the trees, with good views, early on, back towards Elkwater Lake and the gentle hills above the campsite.  There was intermittent snow cover on the trail, and eventually it was easier to put on the snowshoes for better traction.  At the first trail junction a yellow notice waned of “cougar in area”.  There may not be bears out here but that doesn’t mean there are no dangers to the hiker.

Once up on the plateau, the meadows opened out and I had my first spectacular sight of the bare, brown prairies far below, stretching to the horizon, framed by the trees. The edges of the plateau dropped away steeply to the land below.  The best view was at the Horseshoe Canyon, where the high ground has slipped away, leaving a curving line of cliffs.  Here the snowdrifts were several feet deep.

How odd it felt to have struggled up a long hillside to find a car park at the top of the plateau.  The road is closed in winter, so I had this lonely viewpoint to myself.  I turned east and followed the top of the plateau in the trees.  Here the snow had accumulated and I was glad of my snowshoes.  I stopped to look around a small outdoor museum which included a red and white fire lookout cupola on a short base.  Not sure I can count this on my list of fire lookouts visited – but then why not?

My return journey took me down a pretty creek, Mitchell Creek, which finally came back out at the campsite far below.  About halfway down, the snow started to give way to icy puddles so I swapped my snowshoes for MICROspikes.

It was still only mid-afternoon, so after checking in with Marion at the Visitor Centre (admiring the model of the Cypress Hills plateau and the stuffed animals) I took a drive eastwards through the Cypress Hills to the end of the open road at Reesor Lake.  The journey took me up through the hills past Hidden Valley ski resort – a tiny ski hill but still open and obviously popular as a day trip for schools. The road then ran along the open plateau, between the trees, before dropping steeply down to Reesor Lake. 

The views from the high point, looking down to the lake, were slightly reminiscent of the hills of Eastern Canada, but with a character of their own.  The lake was still frozen over.  It would make a perfect place for a “walk in the car” as we used to call our family picnic trips in the Derbyshire hills.

I saw no other cars along this road.  After a trip to the store for some supplies, and wood, I returned to my campsite and got a fire going.  The wind gusts were swirling through the trees, and so as darkness fell, I was ready for an early night.

I slept well and was on my way promptly the next morning, heading west across that vast ocean of empty brown prairie lands. This trip may not strictly fit the description of this blog (“My adventures in and around the Canadian Rockies”) but somehow there feels a strong connection between these two landscapes separated by five hundred kilometres of flat prairie. 

And the very next day, the Trans-Canada Highway was closed between Brooks and the Saskatchewan border by a wild blizzard that would no doubt have covered the Cypress Hills in a new deep coating of snow.

Statistics
Horseshoe/Mitchell Ck.
Fri. 16 March
Total Dist.	6.0  km (hike) +   4.0 km(‘shoe)  = 10.0 km
Height Gain	750 ft.
Max. Elev.	4,760 ft.
Time	3 hrs. 19 mins.

Other Stats.
Start hike:    11.22 am Arr Hshoe:   12.51 pm Dep Hshoe:    1.17 pm Mitchell Ck:   2.01 pm Ret. to camp: 2.41 pm	Temp: +11 deg.C Mix of sun, cloud, warm breeze Home-Elkwtr: 376 km (4 hrs 15 mins) TCH-Elkwtr: 38 km (25 mins)

Across the Sheep River

Sun. 11 March:  Across the Sheep River

There’s another world across the Sheep River.  In spring and summer, high waters make access very difficult. But come here in winter and you can simply stroll across the ice, and enter this magical world.

Today, “simply strolling across the ice” was an adventure in itself.  The top three or four inches of ice had formed a crystalline structure which crackled loudly as we stepped through it.  But the surface was solid underneath.  This has been a mild winter, and soon the ice will be melting.  It turned out that the skating pond at Sandy McNabb, where my colleague J and I started today’s walk, would be closed for the season tomorrow.

Our trail is called Price Camp, and it heads west above the south bank of the Sheep River, crosses over into March Creek, swings north over a low hillside, before swinging east again to join Sheep Trail and recross the river in a deep canyon.

At the western end of the trail is a huge open meadow, hidden in the folds of the forested hills.  Here many years ago Mr. Price had a large logging camp.  There was very little snow in the meadow, and in crossing March Creek we had managed to get our feet wet – we agreed that it should be renamed MarSh Creek.

Here we noticed a set of very large cat paw prints in the snow heading in the same direction as we were, down the hillside.  There had been reports of a large cat (cougar?) in these parts not many years ago.  If I was a cougar, I’d pick the south side of the Sheep River for my prowling ground – away from 99% of the tourists – apart, that is, from Passionate Hikers!

The trail finally drops steeply down to the dramatic steep-sided canyon where once again we strolled across the ice.  Here in a few weeks a raging river will be sweeping round the wide curves.  It’s quite a slog up to the Sheep Trail and the closed road high above on the opposite bank.  Stopping for a snack, we were surprised to see a guy striding up the trail just a few minutes behind us.  He wore shorts and seemed dressed more for summer than winter.  But he clearly knew the area well, and described an interesting route he had taken up onto Mt.McNabb, the high ridge on the southern skyline opposite.

Our final leg took us along the pretty Sheep Trail, the first part of which hugs the edge of a precipitous cliff high above the river canyon.  Soon we were strolling along the Sandy McNabb ski trails – mostly now melted – and back to the car.

This was a good warm-up trip for J, whose next hike will be in Amazon country.  As for me, what can I do to match today’s exciting stroll into another world?

Statistics
Price Camp/Sheep Trails
Sun. 11 March
Total Dist.	10.0  km (hike) +   2.0 km(‘shoe)  = 12.0 km
Height Gain	200 ft.
Max. Elev.	4,951 ft.
Time	4 hrs. 5 mins.

Other Stats.
Start hike:      8.36 am Mt. McN Jn:   9.41 am Price Camp: 10.20 am Sheep R:      11.10 am Ret. to car:   12.41 pm	Temp: +3 to +9 deg.C Blue skies, a few clouds.  Breeze picks up later.