The Passionate Hiker: Mount Ware

Fri. 17 May: Mount Ware

Today we chased a large grizzly bear up Gorge Creek – or so a fellow hiker advised us.

This was one of those rare weekends when the forecast appeared to guarantee rain, and lots of it. So when JM and I started out from Calgary early on Friday morning under clear skies, it seemed that somebody had got it completely wrong.

However, all day we watched the clouds appear out of thin air until they filled the sky. By early afternoon, isolated rain showers were sweeping the foothills, but we stayed dry.

It was unclear exactly what our plan was, as we had expected bad weather. We made a last minute decision to do a more strenuous trip to Mount Ware, which J had not climbed before. To get there you park at the end of the Gorge Creek Trail road, which starts in the Sheep River Valley. You then follow the Gorge Creek hiking trail westwards, before heading up the mountainside. There is a nice loop up over the mountain and back down into Gorge Creek. It all worked out as planned.

It’s very rare for me to meet many people on the trails, especially at the start of my journeys, as I start so early. Today, a guy with his dog were just a couple of minutes behind us as we left our car. They soon caught up with us, and so we stopped at the little bridge over the creek for a brief chat. He looked like a hunter or a rancher, and he had a large camera strung around his neck. He continued ahead of us up the trail.

A little later, as we strode along Gorge Creek trail, we were surprised to see our hiker friend heading back down the path towards us. He told us that he had seen clear signs of a large male grizzly bear and he reckoned it was only about an hour or so ahead of us and travelling up the same route as we planned to take. He showed us a photo which he had just taken of a large grizzly bear paw print, and told us that this was the resident grizzly and there were always bears up this valley. He also said that his dog had saved him a few times in the backcountry by warning of bears, and so if we heard barking, we should quickly reverse direction!

So we followed him up the trail and he was soon well ahead of us again. We found the junction for Mount Ware (marked by a tree with branches cut off on one side) and headed up the forested hillsides to the open ridge, and from there up to the steep summit ridge. The trail was exactly as I had recalled it, which I hope impressed J who I think was wondering if I really knew where I was heading. The last steep scramble on loose rock brought us to the narrow summit, with spectacular all-round views.

Already the clear skies had given way to banks of clouds, some of them looking a little threatening. But there was also quite a bit of sunshine to bathe the summit with a bright light. The cairn has grown since my last visit here a year ago. This is a nice change from all those hills where some unknown forces have flattened many summit cairns.

We stayed only a short time before dropping down the steep rocky north-eastern face and contouring round the mountain where we picked up the trail back down to the valley below. As we dropped down the mountainside we could see our earlier hiking companion up on the high ridge, also making his way down. He would stay ahead of us all the way.

The wild flowers were just starting to come out, mostly crocuses, and some of the trees were only just budding out. Spring was a little behind up here in the high foothills.

The double creek crossing allowed us to demonstrate our own methods – my double dry sack and J’s bare feet and sandals. He told me the water would freeze your feet solid in less than two minutes.

We saw no signs of our grizzly, but made some noise just to let him know we were around. As the hiker said, the bears don’t recognize that May 15 meant the winter gate was now open and humans would be flooding into bear country. So it’s always good to let the bears know you are around. We did, however, catch a tick trying to sneak up J's back on its way to a free meal. This particular area is tick heaven (or hell), especially at this time of year. It's a good idea to be on the lookout for them.

The uphill sections on the return journey seemed a little cruel after such a fine trip, but we made good progress back to the car. On the final stage we passed four teenagers, three girls and a boy, happily heading up the valley in hiking shorts. We forgot to mention the bear. That was the extent of travelers on the Gorge Creek trail today. Given that this is the May long weekend, our grizzly must expect some company over the holiday.

Statistics:

Total Distance: 15.2 km (hike)

Height Gain: 1,800 ft.

Max. Elev.: 6,980 ft.

Time on Trail: 6 hrs. 04 mins.

Start hike: 7.44 am

Jn. Mt. Ware Tr.: 9.20 am

Top: 10.37 am

Ret.to Jn.: 12.15 pm

Ret. to car: 1.48 pm

Temp: +3 to +14 deg.C

Weather: Started cloudless. Clouds building up all morning. One spit of rain. Cool breeze.