Crystal Line

Sun. 17 April:  Crystal Line

Fresh powder on the West Bragg Creek ski trails in the second half of April?  You must be kidding! 

Not this year.  In fact, this short trip was one of the most enjoyable of a long winter season.  My newly acquired waxless skis worked perfectly, and the four to six inches of new snow, still falling, made the few downhill sections smooth and controlled.

Imagine breaking trail along the Mountain Road trail from the West Bragg Creek parking area on a Sunday morning.  Usually there would already be people and their dogs pouring out of their cars and onto the trail.  But today the roads were treacherous, and the snow had been falling steadily all weekend.  So there was only one other car in the car park as I set off.  The occupant of that vehicle and his two golden retrievers ended up doing the exact reverse route as I did.  We met again half way round, and arrived back at about the same time.  

The snow was falling lightly as I ski’d along the road.  A hazy sun was doing its best to break through the cloud cover, but it had no warmth, and the temperature was around six degrees below freezing.

Mountain Road runs alongside Bragg creek, which was still buried under the snow.  It didn’t take me long to reach the junction with Moose Connector trail.  I herring-boned up a short hill before turning left into the forest.  This was a pretty trail between the snow-covered trees, gently undulating around the hillsides.  I passed a single skier, and a little later, met the skier with the two dogs, which were having a grand time lolloping along through the snow.

Crystal Line is a dead straight two kilometer-long cut-line through the trees, rising to a high point before dropping gently down to the valley floor.  Snow conditions were excellent, and I was under complete control dropping down the hillside, the waxless skis running smoothly through the six inches of fresh snow.  It was not at all icy.

In no time I was back at the car, feeling that I could have done more, but just not inclined to do so.  “Quit while you’re ahead” won the day.

The road from Bragg Creek to the start of the ski trails had been tricky in the morning, but as I left the car park, the snow plough was just clearing the road ahead, so it was much easier on the return.

At the Elbow River bridge in Bragg Creek I noticed some young deer down by the edge of the river, in the snow.  I took some good pictures from the bridge.

By this time, the snow was easing off, and the roads were in much better shape as I returned to the city.  One of these days, it will warm up – I suppose.  In the meantime, I’m still making use of my winter gear – and my long underwear!

Statistics
Crystal Line, W. Bragg Ck.
Sun. 17 April
Total Dist.	4.6 km (XC ski)
Height Gain	100 ft.
Max. Elev.	4,800 ft.
Time	1 hr. 24 mins.

Other Stats.
Start ski:         9.19 am Moose Conn.:  9.53 am Ret. to car:    10.43 am	Temp. -6 deg. C Hazy sun, snowing lightly

Telephone Connection

Sat. 4 December: West Bragg Creek Trails

Off the beaten track – on a beaten track. Today I explored a trail which no longer shows in any guidebook. So I had no idea what to expect. As it turned out, someone had been there ahead of me, creating a helpful pathway across the snowy, forested hillsides.

Not far west of the city, in the foothills west of Bragg Creek village, lie some very popular cross-country ski trails. On a sunny weekend in winter, these trails will fill up with skiers (and hikers with dogs running free) and bedlam will reign.

Looking through my various guidebooks, I noticed an intriguing trail which runs across some remote ridges, connecting the eastern and western legs of the Telephone Trail. Telephone is the longest and toughest of the Bragg Creek trails. A full circuit is over 15 km, into remote forested valleys. This short-cut would take me up to some viewpoints, and would cut off the long northern section of this trail.

Another cloudless morning, with an orange glow along the eastern horizon. As I set out from the car park, the sunlight was just starting to catch the tops of the trees. It was a cold morning, at around minus 16 degrees C, and so I was not surprised to be first on the trail today. I had my snow shoes on for this first leg, and carried my skis, strapped to my backpack.

Telephone Trail’s east leg starts at the car park. Climbing the hillside I soon turned left up the Hostel trail, on a long climb. Somewhere in the trees there used to be a Youth Hostel, but it burned down in 1984 and was never rebuilt. At the top of the hill the ski trail turned right, while I continued straight on, up the hill. This is where my unmarked route started. For some reason it has disappeared from all the trail signs. But somebody must know about it, as the path was beaten down by at least one pair of snow shoes and one set of skis.

The lower part of the trail, which used to be called “Ridge Trail”, was identified by some snow shoe signs nailed to the trees, but that trail soon veered down to the right. My trail, an old logging road, continued at a gradual angle up the forested hillsides, curving round to the right to a nice viewpoint. From here I could see part of the city of Calgary and the lower foothills to the east of Bragg Creek. This pleasant trail continued to climb, until I came to a high point, with good views west, to the bare, snowy ridges of Moose Mountain, 7995 ft.

The older guide books describe this trail as running through open cut-blocks. But over the years, the trees have started to grow back, and it is now mostly enclosed. Nevertheless, there are still some fine views to the west. I was glad to be able to follow the snow-shoer and the skier, as the route from here was not obvious. The trail started to angle downwards, swinging to the right. The scale of my map was a little misleading. Once again it reminded me how easy it is to get disoriented in the foothills, especially when the snow hides any sign of a trail.

In the end, I was on the right path, but I turned off it earlier than planned, and quickly joined the western leg of Telephone Trail just south of its high point, instead of about a kilometre or so further north. Here I swapped my snowshoes for my skis. Telephone Trail runs through a narrow valley. Several skiers had passed through here, but the trail had not been track-set. My light skis were not ideal for semi-off-trail conditions, but I stayed upright and soon came to the junction with Moose Loop.

Turning west, I immediately came out of the forest into a wide, sunny valley, below the high ridges of Moose Mountain. I ski’d along this open valley for a short while, until I reached a junction with a more tricky ski trail heading up into the trees. Here I turned around and returned to the junction. The wind had blown the snow around, leaving bare sections, and exposed rocks and stones. I negotiated that section, then ski’d and walked down a slippery steep road to the creek (Bragg creek). Crossing over, I was now on the final section of road back to the car. Here were plenty of skiers out already, as well as some snow-shoers and hikers with their dogs. It was a pleasant glide back down the road to the car.

In the short time I had been on the trail, the car park had filled up, and weekend bedlam was well under way. It was still cold, perhaps around minus 14 degrees C, and people were well wrapped up. But the sun shone out of a cloudless sky.

I had found this Telephone connector trail quite fascinating, and look forward to returning in the summer to explore its northern section. In the meantime, it was time to leave Bragg Creek to the weekend crowd.


Statistics
West Bragg Creek Trails
Sat. 4 December

Total Dist. 4.0 km (’shoe) + 4.5 km (ski) = 8.5 km
Height Gain 660 ft.
Max. Elev. 5350 ft.
Time on trail 2 hrs. 37 mins.
Temperature Minus 16 degrees C

Bragg Creek Trails: Telephone Loop

Mon. 24 May: Telephone Loop

No hanging about the house on the long weekend, L. told me! So it was another early start today. Not wanting to risk the major highways on Holiday Monday, I decided that today’s trip must be somewhere in the Bragg Creek or Elbow Valley area – a short drive west of Calgary. Bragg Creek won the contest. A few kilometers west of the village are some excellent cross-country ski trails – when the snow is good. At this time of year, they are popular with bikers, hikers and equestrians. I chose the longest of the loops, romantically called Telephone Loop.

First car at the car park, I was quickly on the trail, on a cool but cloudless morning. The good thing about these trails is that they wind lazily around the wooded hillsides with only a few sudden drops and climbs mostly at creeks and streams. And they are well sign-posted. My particular trail was nicely regaled with signs on trees and on wooden stands, dotted around the 16 km route, with all the necessary warnings for a safe journey, starting with “Do you really know what you are letting yourself in for?” (or similar words) - below which someone had scribbled: "Bring it on!!" - followed by several “Caution Ice Flow” signs, and so on.

The trail has four sides to its roughly rectangular shape, each having its own character. The first long eastern leg is a delightful stroll climbing up around a hillside with mostly deciduous trees, shining with that bright green that you only get in early Spring. Occasional glimpses of valleys and hillsides to the east, perhaps not unlike hikes I have done in New Brunswick or North Carolina.

The short northern leg was apparently once a pretty trail, remote and narrow. But in the early 1990’s the logging companies bulldozed a wide road along its path, creating a fairly unattractive route and making a lot of skiers very upset! The long third leg runs almost entirely through coniferous forest, often wet and boggy, or muddy, under foot, but easy enough to hike. One might easily go astray along here, except for a very helpful sign sitting in the middle of the trail advising one to “turn right here”.

At the bottom of this long third leg, one meets the Moose Loop ski trail, and finally there are views west over a wide open meadow to snow-capped Moose Mountain in the background.

Breaking out of the trees, the trail drops down to Bragg creek on a wide well-engineered grassy road, which looked as if it had been designed for major traffic. Perhaps at one time there were thoughts of building a road northwest past the shooting range to the Powderface Trail road and on into Kananaskis Country. It would have made sense. Luckily for the hiker and skier, it was never built, keeping this area a quiet backwater.

The final leg crosses Bragg creek on a hidden bridge, then onto the ski trails which wander through the woods on the other side of the valley. Perfect mountain biking and equestrian trails – and I met a couple of bikers and one person on horseback. Returning to the car park, I could see a growing number of cars and people arriving to enjoy the day – it was not yet noon. Three huge horse-trailers stood empty, their occupants already out on the trails.

The mountain trails can quickly become unhikeable, due to fallen trees. Every trail I have hiked along has had fallen tree trunks across their path. On some routes, nobody comes along with a chainsaw to clear the trees, so people either make little detours around the fallen trunks, or for the lesser used trails, the path disappears altogether.

The Telephone Loop still had several patches of snow in some of the shaded creeks. But over the past week, the Front Ranges had noticeably lost much of their snow cover, and finally Spring seemed to have tightened her grip.

Returning through Bragg Creek, I could see that the long weekend traffic was building up. I hurried home. Later in the day, there were reports of a 30 km traffic tail-back on the Trans-Canada Highway west of Banff!!


Statistics
Telephone Loop
Mon. 24 May

Total Dist. 16.5 km (hike)
Height Gain 520 ft.
Max. Elev. 5180 ft.
Time on trail 3 hr. 53 mins.