The Highwood Valley

Sat. 14 May:  The Highwood Valley

Imagine having, on a sunny Spring Saturday, to yourself, an entire valley, complete with a modern highway closed to traffic, a swiftly flowing river running through the valley, snow-free foothills rising enticingly above it, and framed all around by jagged snowy mountain peaks – to say nothing of the wildlife running about all over the place.  Too good to be true?  Not if you come to the Highwood Valley in the Eastern Slopes of Alberta in May.  Today was such a day for me - yet another in a long line of memorable experiences.

Thursday May 12th marked the opening of the camping season in Alberta, with a couple of campsites opening up.  One of these was Etherington Creek, on the forestry road south of the Highwood Junction.  I was surprised it was open so early, given all the snow still lying around.  But I took a chance, and after work on the Friday I drove south to Longview, where I turned west into the Highwood Valley.  The road was almost empty.  The mix of fields full of cattle, with a backdrop of dramatic snowy mountains, was spectacular.  

Arriving at Etherington Creek I found the campsite was indeed open, although empty apart from a couple of other campers.  When I met the custodian later, a friendly middle aged Quebecer, he told me that they had a bob-cat in there a few days ago, to clear all the sites.  As a result, each campsite, although useable, was ringed by snow drifts.

I set up the tent and settled for an early night.  As the light faded, the temperatures dropped quickly under clearing skies, and I was glad of my warm sleeping bag and extra blanket.

Up early the next morning, I drove the short distance back down the forestry road and parked at the winter gate on the Highwood Road.  All the snow had melted on the road, and on the lower slopes of Junction Hill – quite a contrast from only three weeks ago when I tackled the wintry Bull Creek Hills just down the road from here.  

I had chosen my hybrid road bike for this trip, which proved to be a good choice.  My plan was to bike northwards up the road towards the distant Highwood Pass – highest point on a paved road in Canada – and then perhaps to go hiking in the Cat Creek Hills.  I knew that snow would still be lying on the road higher up the Pass, and I was curious to see how far I could get today.

As it turned out, I was able to bike just over fifteen kilometers up the valley until, at a high point between Lineham and Lantern Creeks, I was faced by total snow cover.  It was a pleasant ride, with plenty of deer grazing by, or on, the road, and early morning clouds clearing away from the mountain peaks.  It was a photographer’s paradise.  And I had it to myself.  The silence was broken only by the distant sound of the woodpecker and the wind in the treetops.

Turning around at the point where the snow still lay on the road, I whizzed back as far as Cat Creek, where I parked my bike in the picnic shelter, changed from biking to hiking gear, and set out onto one of my favourite trails in Alberta.  Crossing over Cat Creek, I headed east along the old roadway, now a grassy trail, into the Cat Creek Hills.  At the point where the road used to cross Cat Creek, I turned up onto the hillside, onto a long disused mine/logging trail.  

From here the views were more and more spectacular, as I rose up above the forests, onto the open hillsides.  The bare trees still allowed the ideal views.  The main feature was the Elk Range of jagged peaks to the west, and the Highwood Range to the east.  After negotiating a snowy section in the forest, the snow now soft and melting rapidly, I turned directly up onto the open slopes of the Cat Creek Hills. 

These are the perfect hiking hills, not only for the views they give, but for the interesting outcrops and ridges, as well as all the deer which winter here – and leave their droppings all over the hillsides.  I did not try to reach the highest point in the range, but was happy to make the high viewpoint which is visible from the road below.  From here the views were fabulous, down into the valley, across to the Elk Range, and north to the spectacular jagged outline of Mist Mountain (10,302 ft.) – which I climbed many years ago!

The return down the steep slopes and back through the forests was a pure delight.  This would be the perfect trip for a newcomer to the Rockies.

Back at Cat Creek, I saw the occasional bikers speed by, as I relaxed by the edge of the Highwood River, already racing past, and probably too dangerous to try and cross.

By now a strong southeasterly wind was blowing.  It had tried to catch my baseball cap on the ridge top, but I had it anchored to a length of string so instead it just flew behind me like a kite!

It didn’t take me long to bike back down the road to the car, where it surprised me to learn that I had been out in this magical countryside for almost seven hours.  I could have stayed much longer.  After packing up my campsite, and relaxing in the warm sunshine, I returned on peaceful roads to the city.  Finally the fields are showing some green, and the country is coming alive as if someone has suddenly switched the land from black and white to colour.  And I didn’t need either my long underwear or my snow shoes today!

 

Statistics
The Highwood Valley
Sat. 14 May
Total Dist.	31 km (bike)   +   6 km (hike)   = 37 km
Height Gain	1,630 ft.
Max. Elev.	6,230 ft.
Time	6 hrs. 54 mins.

Other Stats.
Start bike:       7.32 am Cat Creek:       8.06 am Turn around:  9.18 am Cat Creek:     10.16 am Start hike:     10.30 am Top:              12.12 pm Cat Creek:      1.29 pm Ret. to car:      2.26 pm	Temp.+5 to + 16 deg. C Cloudless all day, with a south-easterly wind Ht. gain (bike):  600 ft. Ht. gain (hike):1030 ft.

Bull Creek Hills Challenge

Sat. 23 April:  Bull Creek Hills Challenge

  I almost overdid it today.  But in the end, I made it down safely off the high, snowy ridges of the Bull Creek Hills. 

Just by looking at the time it took me to cover the route (nine kilometres in seven and a half hours) is enough to indicate that this was no ordinary hike.  To reach the summit of these hills, I had to negotiate wave after wave of steep hillsides and ridges, becoming ever more steep and snowy.  Somewhere just below the summit, my legs started to cramp up and for a minute I thought I was going to have to use my emergency beacon – but I reached the summit safely.  However, as the story will tell, that was not the end of the Bull Creek Hills Challenge.

Today, for a change, was cloudless, with no prospect of any change in the weather, except that it would warm up to double digits in the afternoon.  A perfect day to be in the outdoors.  I loaded my mountain bike into the back of the car, figuring I could bike at least a short way up the Kananaskis Highway beyond the winter gate at Highwood Junction.  I was wrong.  The snow still covered the road as it rose up the hill beyond the gate.  

Plan “B” was a hike up the Bull Creek Hills.  So I drove back along the Highwood Valley for a few kilometers to the Kananaskis Country border, where I parked in the snowed-in Highwood picnic area.  The Highwood Valley had looked stunning as I had driven in from Longview, with the large herds of cattle grazing in the open fields, with the mountain wall behind.

It is more or less a direct route up from the road to the eastern ridge of the Bull Creek Hills, except that, after a few hundred vertical feet of climbing, one enters the forest and heads back down again into a hidden valley, Marston Creek.  Then the climbing starts to get serious.  To start with, I had my MICROspikes on, but at the top of this first hill, I switched to snow shoes.  There was deep snow down through the forest, and I simply could not have travelled any further without the ‘shoes.

Once in Marston Creek, I turned west for a few hundred yards then started climbing up the wide ridge, once more swapping ‘shoes for MICROspikes.  I negotiated an easy cliff-band, then climbed up to a low pass, before heading directly up a steep slope overlooked by more cliffs.  It was already hard work, and luckily at that point, I had no idea what was ahead of me.  

Once up over the second cliff-band, where I stopped for a rest and a panoramic view of the valley far below, I struck deep snow, and sank to my thighs.  I quickly reverted to snow shoes, which I needed for the rest of the trip until returning to Marston Creek.

Now I was up on a wide, snow-covered ridge, part of the eastern arm of the Bull Creek Hills.  But I was nowhere near the top yet. Ahead of me soared the snowy hillsides to the summit, far above me.  To reach the summit I first had to gain the next, higher level of this eastern ridge.  From there, the ridge swung westwards and then steeply upwards to the summit.  This final climb took all the skill and energy I had, for the snow was deep, and some of the slopes were very steep, passing over some steep rocky sections.  It did strike me that some of this high country might be avalanche prone, but by now I was fully committed, and so I kept close to the very top of the ridge and close to the trees.

There is one particularly steep piece which passes an interesting rock formation, a single pillar of rock below a leaning cliff.  Here I started to get some cramp in my leg, and had to rest a short while before struggling up the snowy slopes.  But I made it, and soon the summit was ahead of me.  Needless to say, there was no sign of anyone else having been up here recently.  

The summit consists of a narrow ridge with a simple metal pole stuck in the ground.  The views all round were of course breathtaking.  To the west Holy Cross Mountain and all the Front Ranges, and to the east, the slightly hazy foothills and prairie with Calgary only just vaguely visible in the haze.

I did not stay long.  My return route will not be found in any guide book, and now I know why.  Continuing westwards I dropped down a wide ridge to a col.  From there I dropped directly down off the mountain into an open, narrow steep-sided valley.  To reach the valley floor I enjoyed a short controlled bum-slide down the slopes.  

By now, the sun was melting the snow, and my snow shoes sank more deeply into the snow.  The surface was looking glazed, and would ice up overnight to form an impossibly dangerous slope.  Once down into this valley, or “chute”, it was an easy snow-shoe stride down into upper Marston Creek.  For a minute I relaxed, thinking I was now safely off the mountain.  But I had overlooked the fact that I had about a kilometer of very difficult bush-whacking in front of me.  

There was no obvious trail, and once again I had to stop to allow my legs to recover.  I plodded down through the snowy valley bottom, which in summer would be a wet, boggy creek.  Bushes and trees made the going tricky.  Soon the creek became impenetrable, so I climbed up onto the steep valley side, steadily finding a way through forested and open sections, in snow which no longer held my weight.  I knew where I was going, and roughly how far it was, so I just kept to my task and slowly and steadily forged a way through the nightmare.  Eventually I came back down into the meadow where I had turned up onto the ridge, and now knew I would be safe.

But I still had to struggle back up the final hillside through the trees, before the final descent to the car.  High above the road, I stopped and relaxed in the now warm sunshine.  All the way up the ridges I had been treated to spectacular mountain views.  By now, the sun had swung over to the west, and a warm wind was blowing.  The final descent passed by several very scenic limber pines, clinging to the  hillsides, and several large stumps, the remnants of those not-so-lucky pines hit by summer lightning.  

Back at the car, I checked the time to find out that I had been up on that hill for over seven and a half hours.  I felt lucky to have returned in one piece.  Today had truly been a challenge.

Statistics
Bull Creek Hills
Sat. 23 April
Total Dist.	2 km (hike)   + 7 km (‘shoe)  = 9 km
Height Gain	2,550 ft.
Max. Elev.	7,150 ft.
Time	7 hrs. 26 mins.

Other Stats.
Start hike:       8.43 am Summit:         1.29 pm Ret. to car:      4.09 pm Up:       4 hrs. 46 mins. Down:  2 hrs. 40 mins.	Temp. -3 to +10 deg. C Cloudless, with warm westerly wind higher up.  Deep snow.

Ahead of the Storm

Fri. 1 April:  Back to the Highwood

Winter storm warning!  But reading between the lines, the snow would not really fly until Friday night.  So as soon as I could, just around lunchtime, I left the city heading south through Turner Valley to Longview.  The clouds were low and there was still a lot of snow lying alongside the road in large drifts.  It started to snow as I turned west onto the Highwood Valley road, and for a minute I hesitated.  But then I decided to press on up the valley to the hidden mountain wall.  Soon the snow stopped.

I had this glorious highway to myself.  It was clear that Spring had started to make inroads, with large bare patches on the hillsides where the snow had already started to melt.  Apart from one truck turning east off the forestry road, I saw no other vehicle or person all afternoon.  Parking at the winter gate, I decided to head up the familiar lower slopes of Junction Hill, up to the col about halfway to the summit.  It was fun finding a snow-free route to the top and, except for a few short sections, I succeeded. 

The huge snowy wall of Mt. Armstrong was half hidden in the cloud to the west, but there were some good views back down to the winter gate and Highwood Junction, with the forestry road winding up the forested hillsides to the south, and the ridges stretching away into the distance.

The great feature of this particular hillside is the number of majestic limber pines silhouetted against the skyline.  Several of them have been hit by lightning and now stand (or lie) as bare skeletons.

Coming up to the top of the ridge I startled a small herd of elk, which kindly ran along the skyline as I took a few snaps with my camera.  Now up here I could see northwards up the Highwood Valley.  The river and road, far below, were both snow-covered.  It was a silent wintry scene.  An occasional light gust of wind reminded me that a winter storm was blowing in.  But in the meantime a hazy sun was managing to shine through the cloud, and it was warm enough that I didn’t need hat or gloves.  It was two or three degrees above freezing.

Would this be the last time I would need my long underwear this season?  Would a shower sweep in from the mountains to the west? Did my lunch get squashed inside my backpack?  Such were the weighty questions that I pondered as I sat on this high hillside looking down across to the lonely, wide forested valley below, and the wild, snowy mountains behind.    

I crafted a leisurely route down off the mountainside to the highway below.  This time I could not avoid putting on my snow shoes to navigate the snow-filled hillsides.  The snow would no longer hold the weight of a snowshoe, so I ploughed my way slowly downwards through the snow until I came to the road.

 Here the Kananaskis Highway makes a sweeping turn northwards above the Highwood Valley, giving a grand viewpoint which I always stop at when biking up this road in summer.  Today there were bare sections of road, but plenty of drifts still lying across the road.  The winter gate would not be opening for another two and a half months, and it would take that long (or longer) this year for the snow to melt, all the way up to the remote Highwood Pass.

I ambled happily down the road back to the winter gate, looking out for wildlife.  A few white tailed deer ran across the road ahead of me. The Highwood River was starting flow again here, between the banks of snow.

There were no other vehicles at the winter gate.  The forecast had been enough to keep people away.   As I returned to the city, a snow flurry swept across the road, but by now I was almost home.  Later that night, the storm hit the city, and as I write this, snow continues to fall.

Statistics
Col below Junction Hill
Fri. 1 April
Total Dist.	4.5 km (hike)  + 0.5 km (‘shoe) = 5.0 km
Height Gain	1,150 ft.
Max. Elev.	6,150 ft.
Time	2 hrs. 55 mins.

Other Stats.
Start hike:    12.48 pm First top:        1.55 pm Second top:    2.11 pm Ret. to car:     3.43 pm	Temp:  +2 to +4 deg.C Mostly cloudy with some hazy sun.  Forecast for major winter storm later