Sheep Valley Mines

Fri. 21 September:  Sheep Valley Mines

The last day of summer – and possibly the best.

A huge high pressure system seemed to have anchored itself over Western Canada, giving clear skies over the Rockies and insanely warm temperatures for late September.

Three years ago, I had biked up the Sheep Valley, beyond the end of the road.  But I had started late, and so didn’t make it to the Burns Mine.  Now was my chance to try again and continue as far as the Denning cabin.

Thursday night I camped at Bluerock campsite at the far western end of the road.  It was almost deserted, but would fill up Friday night, given the amazing weather.  It stayed several degrees above freezing overnight.

My journey started from the campsite, turning west out of the campsite on my mountain bike, for the final kilometre to the end of the road.  Here a covered wagon was parked, and there were signs of horses having been here recently – it’s a popular horseback riding trail.  Beyond the closed gate, the track starts with an uphill section, then from there is easily bikeable, if a bit rough in places.

This trail runs the whole way up the Sheep River Valley, a steep-sided valley, running in a northwesterly direction, and overlooked by the soaring cliffs of Gibraltar Mountain.  This peak dominates the whole journey, changing shape as one travels up the valley.

It was a sensational day to be out in the mountains.  The deciduous trees were at their peak of colour, a bright yellow shining in the sun.  I felt in no hurry today, and ended up spending almost eight hours slowly biking fifteen kilometres to the far end of the Private Land, and back again, with an exciting exploration of the old coal mining sites along the way.

There is one bridge across the river.  After that, the road fords the river almost a dozen times.  However, at this time of year, many of the crossings were bone dry as the river had disappeared underground.  Higher up the valley, the fords were less than a foot deep, and were perfect candidates for my quick “dry sack” technique, perfected last year on the 64 creek crossings on our famous Chungo trip.

At the mine site, the valley opens up into attractive meadows, with two piles of coal, one each side of the trail.  The mine ceased operations way back in 1923, almost ninety years ago, and apparently the huge piles have gradually depleted to a couple of low mounds.  Back then, there was a bustling townsite here, with a number of buildings.  They were cleared away in 1960, and now it has disappeared altogether in the trees. 

I left my bike here, and followed various trails for several hundred vertical feet up the forested hillside to a couple of mine sites.  The first, up Sharp’s Creek, had a huge coal pile, and an impressive array of junk.  There were collapsed buildings, concrete foundations, large pipes, and other assorted junk.   The other mine, beside Rickert’s Creek, required a slightly more strenuous hike up the valley.  It was worth it, as there were still lengths of tramway rail buried in the coal pile.  There was no sign in either case of mineshafts, which was probably a good thing.  A century ago, this wilderness would have been swarming with tough, hard-working miners, risking their lives to extract coal from these remote hillsides.  The townsite would have been a lively place each evening no doubt.  Now it has reverted to nature.

I continued on up the Sheep Valley, through another attractive meadow, crossing the river easily a number of times.  Finally I reached the Denning cabin.  This rustic cabin was erected in 1947 for range riders, using bits and pieces from the old coal mine.  This whole section of the Sheep Valley is privately owned by the Burns Foundation (Pat Burns was a legendary figure in the history of ranching and of Calgary).  Sadly they recently closed the cabin to casual visitors and it is now locked up tight.  I peered into the windows and could make out a basic interior of table, stove, bunks.

It was a few more kilometres to the end of the private land, my goal for today. Beyond this point, the road climbs gently to a high point before arriving at the Elbow River near Tombstone campsite.  I would like to stay a few days here and explore the challenging side trails up Burns Creek, the Rae Hills, and other really remote mountain areas.

It was much easier returning down the valley , on this rocky road.  There were several large permanent puddles, each of which had bypasses around them.  Some stretches were quite rocky, but overall it made for the perfect mountain bike trip.

I saw no people all day, and only one white-tailed deer and a few ptarmigan.  The sun had moved behind Gibraltar Mountain giving grand views of the overhanging cliffs on the return journey.  I must have taken hundreds of “perfect pictures” of yellow leaves and mountainsides behind them.  The first wind will strip these trees bare in no time at all.

Back at the campsite, I sat on the bluffs overlooking the river, as the sun set behind the mountains, and a crescent moon came out.  The campsite filled up, as folks were making the best of the final weekend before Bluerock closes down for the season.  The following morning I was up early to catch a colorful sunrise as I headed east out of the mountains. 

Statistics
Sheep Valley Mines
Fri. 21 September
Total Dist.	3.0 km (hike) + 30.0 km (bike) = 33.0 km
Height Gain	1,525 ft.
Max. Elev.	6,400 ft.
Time	7 hrs. 44 mins.

Other Stats.
Dep. camp:    8.34 am Bridge:           9.26 am Arr. mine:    11.01 am Dep.mine:    12.13 pm Cabin:          12.48 pm W. end:          1.29 pm Mine:             2.11 pm Bridge:           3.32 pm Ret. to camp: 4.18 pm	Temp: + 6 C to around + 22 C Cloudless, warm, no wind, light breeze later.  Perfect weather. Height Gain: Bike:  985 ft. + Hike:  540 ft.