The Foggiest Idea

Sat. 6 April:  Death’s Head

Sometimes my ideas for a pleasant day in the outdoors, with bright sunshine and grand views, don’t work out as hoped.  Today was such a day. Not that I didn’t enjoy my trip – quite the opposite.  But there was not much to see beyond half-hidden trees in a swirling cloud. 

Often, when it is foggy in the city, all one has to do, to escape into the sunshine, is to drive west towards the mountains.  So on a miserable morning, with the city shrouded in mist, I headed west in a blank canvas towards the foothills.  I don’t often visit the Threepoint Creek valley west of Millarville.  It’s farming and ranching country, although the unexpectedly good road was built to serve the large Quirk Creek gas plant, thankfully invisible today.

Parking at the closed winter gate at the Threepoint Creek bridge, I hiked up the Ware Creek road.  At one time, I recall, it was possible to drive southwards to the Sheep River Valley, but the road has long since been closed to traffic a few kilometres west of here.  This first four kilometre section from the bridge is a steep climb to a forested summit.  It is snow-packed and icy, but of course an easy stroll with MICROspikes.  Someone had walked up here in recent days.  There’s not much to see, even on a sunny day, but today it had a grand wintry Canadian loneliness to it.

At the snowy summit of the road, I turned north on a track which rose gently through the trees towards my destination, Mesa Butte, or (more dramatically) “Death’s Head”.  The trail was a little hard to follow in places, so I added some red flagging.  There was one jog – left then right – which might fool a few people, but there was some flagging already there in key places.  The ridge was tree covered almost the whole way.  It flattened out then became quite narrow with a sudden drop-off on the east side, making it feel more exposed than it really was. 

I had hoped that, up here above 5,600 feet, I might have escaped above the mist, but there were no signs of the sky through the swirling cloud.  An open meadow led to an unspectacular summit, with a couple of low stone seats and a fire pit.  The trees along the ridge were coated in a thin layer of ice, making them very photogenic.

I had considered a long loop, continuing northwards into Threepoint Creek, but the forecast was for rain after midday, so instead I retraced my uphill route back to the car.  Along the road I noticed the carcass of a sheep, picked clean.  Bears would by now be coming out of hibernation, but I saw no signs of them today.  I had the wilderness to myself.  Perhaps the animals, as well as the humans, had decided that this dull, misty day was best spent inside.

Statistics:

Total Distance: 11.5 km (hike)

Height Gain:      1,190 ft.

Max. Elev.:       5,650 ft.

Time on Trail:    3 hrs. 17 mins.

Start hike:             8.14 am

Trailhead:             9.16 am

Top:                   10.01 am

Road:                 10.42 am

Ret. to car:         11.31 am

Temp:                minus 2 deg.C

Weather:           Foggy, E. breeze lower down