Beyond the Locked Gate

Sat. 5 October:  Highwood Road and Cat Creek

Message received!

I just couldn’t stay away from the Highwood.  Last week I was exploring the northern sections of the road just south of the Highwood Pass.  Today I biked a long way up the road from the southern end at Highwood Junction.  I also visited a magical corner of the Highwood, at Cat Creek.

The forecast was for sunshine today, so I imagined a sunny, warm late summer’s day.  Instead, arriving at the winter gate, I found a cool, cloudy Fall morning with a biting north wind.  I was not put off.  There was a lot of activity around the gate.  Large gravel trucks were arriving and the gate was swung open to let them through.  Large signs warned of construction work, and the road was closed to public traffic.  I spoke to the guy who was manning the gate and he said I could ride my bike up the highway towards the Pass.

Well protected against the cold wind, I set out up the road on my bike, with a large pack on my back.  Some time ago I had perfected the best way to travel up the long hills on the Highwood road, by zig-zagging back and forth, which of course is much easier when you don’t have to worry about traffic coming in the other direction.

I soon saw why this road was closed to traffic.  Just before Fitzsimmons Creek, a portion of the road had been washed away by a rampant Highwood River in the June floods.  The road ran high above the river here, so the task to repair the highway required major earthworks in the valley below.  They were hard at work building the new river banks.

I had expected to see more road damage, but most of the surface was in good shape.  During the floods, every creek had flowed across the road, leaving great piles of debris, rocks, and branches on the pavement, but these had already been cleared away.  However, at Lineham Creek, I saw the true power of nature.  An entire bridge had been wiped out, leaving a wide gap, with the guard rails suspended across the chasm, still attached to the posts.  The construction crews had built a temporary low bridge to get their equipment through, but it will be a major task to replace the bridge.

I continued slowly up the road towards the Pass.  Cattle watched curiously as I biked past.  I saw no wildlife, which were wisely hiding from the hunters.  Just before Fitzsimmons Creek, I had passed two hunters walking along the road.  Later on, near Lineham Creek, two hunters came down the road on bikes, with small trailers attached.  

I saw nobody else all day, except for two abandoned bikes, presumably owned by hunters.  Soon after, I heard two loud rifle cracks ring out on the hillsides above the road.  I found it incredible that I was the only non-hunter on the entire Highwood Pass highway, on a pleasant Saturday in Fall, but the place was entirely mine. That is, apart from a few construction workers here and there, and a truck that I think was patrolling the road.

There was plenty of snow on the mountains, which were already enveloped in winter.  Higher up the road, past Mist Creek, there was a light snow cover beside the highway.  The river at Mist Creek had spared the highway but had removed a large part of the trail which connected Mist Creek picnic area with the main highway.  A little further south, Picklejar Creek picnic area had been abandoned, and the sign removed, presumably since the access road had filled with rubble and branches during the floods.  

The road swung west as I approached Nameless Ridge.  Here, at a high point, I turned around.  It was here that I had come down off Nameless Ridge on a June day, just a week before the terrible floods.  The road has been silent all summer, apart from the busy road crews trying to work on the repairs.  It will not reopen until later in 2014.

My return journey down the highway was, of course, worth all the uphill effort.  I had climbed over a thousand vertical feet over twenty two kilometres from the winter gate, so most of the return leg only required me to hang onto the handlebars.

I raced into Cat Creek picnic area, and pulled up at the picnic shelter, being careful not to tumble into the river where the access road had been washed away.  I changed into my hiking gear and was soon setting out across the road and up into Cat Creek.  The main highway once ran up the creek, so there is a good trail to the old highway bridge, long since removed.  The waters were low enough for me to hop across and follow the trail east to the Falls.  The trail had been badly damaged in the floods and I had to cross the creek twice before coming to the enchanting corner where a small double waterfall dropped into a green pool of water.  Someone had been up here since the floods and had built a little inukshuk which perfectly fitted the setting. 

I was soon back at the highway.  The main Cat Creek bridge had been spared destruction, but had been lucky.  The construction crews had already rebuilt the creek upstream. During my walk, the valley had been magically transformed.  The sun came out from under the heavy Chinook Arch, bathing everything in bright sunshine, and raising the temperatures.  

I took my time to bike back to the winter gate, enjoying the solitude and the magic of the Highwood Valley.  On the final hill I raced down to the winter gate faster than the construction truck behind me – although, as is the case every time I enter the world beyond the locked gate, I was in no hurry to end this adventure.

Statistics:

Total Distance: 47.0 km (44.0 bike + 3.0 hike)

Height Gain:       1,090 ft.

Max. Elev.:        5,990 ft.

Time on Trail:    5 hrs. 52 mins.

Dep. car:           8.54 am

Cat Creek:         9.35 am

Lineham Ck:   10.24 am

Lantern Ck:     11.15 am

Furthest Pt:     12.06 pm

Lineham Ck:   12.41 pm

Cat Creek:         1.05 pm

Start hike:         1.27 pm

End hike:          2.22 pm

Ret. to car:        2.46 pm

Temp:               +6 to +10 deg.C

Weather:           Mostly cloudy, chinook sun later, strong N wind

Busy scene at Highwood Junction gate

A great winged messenger welcoming me beyond the gate

Immediate signs of flood damage at Fitzsimmons Creek

Winter has already arrived on the Elk Range

Bridge washed away at Lineham Creek

Lineham Creek

Temporary bridge allows construction traffic through

Mist Mountain and Nameless Ridge,
where I had stood just before the June floods

Picklejar Creek road flood damage

Sun just about to appear from behind the Chinook Arch

A magical place:  Cat Creek Falls

In the Cat Creek Hills

Highwood River damage at Cat Creek picnic area

The spectacular beauty of the Highwood

A classic Chinook Arch over the Rockies