Signs of Spring?

Fri. 6 May:  The Sheep Valley Road

Winter was still alive at the far end of the Sheep Valley road.   Luckily, further east down the valley, there were some early signs of Spring.  The most obvious sign was that the road was now bikeable beyond the winter gate.  This was good news, since the gate, closed since last December, is due to open in just over a week from today, and I really enjoy having the valley to myself before it is invaded by vehicles.

I set out up the road on my mountain bike, but carrying my snow-shoes, as I knew there would very likely be a lot more snow further west.  It was a leisurely journey up the Sheep Valley, on a cool morning.  The forecast was for showers in the afternoon, but some sunshine and cloud in the morning. 

It felt like a cold March day in the Scottish Highlands, with very little hint of Spring.  There were sections of road which were still partly snow covered, and the trees were still entirely bare.  Not far from the start, near the Foran Grade Ridge trail, I spotted a moose, lurking in the trees beside the road.  He was standing still and silent, trying to look invisible I suppose.  My photos came out blurry because of the trees and branches half hiding him.

Passing the foot of Windy Point Ridge, I negotiated several fallen rocks on the road.  Since the snow must have only just melted off the road surface, nobody had had a chance yet to come and clear the road.  Later, as I was biking back down the valley, a grader was making its way westwards most likely to take care of these rocks.  It is at this point where the Sheep River runs through a deep canyon.  There are some very dangerous slopes here which drop away steeply down to the river.

As one travels west along the valley, the views of the Front Ranges dominate the western horizon.  There are several good viewpoints along the road.  After about nine kilometers, I reached the abandoned ranger’s cabin and the two barns across the road.  It is sad that they are letting these buildings fall into disrepair.  In a few years they will be ruins. 

Just past the junction of the Gorge Creek Trail, the road drops steeply down to Gorge Creek, and then just as steeply up the other side.  I was surprised to see a white van parked below the University of Calgary buildings.  Just up the hill I came upon two warmly dressed women sitting in a meadow on two high wooden seats, facing each other, recording the habits of the ground squirrels!    A little further up the road was another van with a man scouting other ground squirrel sites.  The vans were from the University of Sherbrooke, Quebec.  These researchers have keys to the winter gate.

Continuing westwards along the valley, I found more snow on the road, with one set of vehicle tracks through the snow.  Later, around Indian Oils, the tracks stopped and the snow completely covered the surface.  Here I left my bike behind and continued up the road on my snow-shoes.

For the next couple of kilometers I was taking off and then putting on my ’shoes as the surface was alternately snow covered then bare.  Nobody had been along here for several months, I guessed, and I was alert to the presence of bears.  It was here last year, just up the Indian Oils trail, that I came upon a mother black bear with cubs.  But apart from some white-tailed deer I saw no signs of other animals.  

But I enjoyed the antics of a woodpecker with a very bright red plumage.  He was sitting on a post which carried a diamond shaped metal road sign, and was bashing away with his beak on the sign, making quite a racket.  It seemed he was communicating with a distant woodpecker, and given the volume, he deserved to find a good mate this year!

Finally as the spectacular peaks of Gibraltar Mountain (8,743 ft.) and Mt. Burns (9,633 ft.) came into view, just past the Bluerock campsite, I turned around.  The road ended a few hundred metres ahead, but this seemed a good place to stop.  To my left, the waters of the Sheep River were flowing freely between snowy banks.  I stopped at the gate to the campsite.  The snow still lay deep around here, and it would be several weeks yet until anyone could camp up here, even though the camping season officially opens next weekend.

The final three kilometers had been accomplished with a mixture of MICROspikes and snow-shoes, or just hiking boots on the bare sections.  There will need to be a couple more weeks of warm sunshine to allow anyone to drive to the end of the road.

By now, some clouds were starting to build up, and I kept an eye on the weather, knowing that showers were forecast for the afternoon.  The return journey was, not surprisingly, quicker, as I headed back down the valley in an easterly direction.  This road gives one a good workout as there are uphill and downhill stretches in both directions.  By the time that I had returned to the viewpoint below Windy Point Ridge, high above the river, showers were sweeping across the mountains and heading up the valley.  But I stayed dry, whizzing down the final straight stretch to the winter gate.

There is still a lot of construction activity at the Sandy McNabb campsite although it is meant to open next week.  Whatever they have been doing in there must have been spectacular, as they have been working on it for the past year.

As I drove back into the city, the rain showers were rapidly obscuring the mountains.  I had made a good decision to make an early start.  But would this be my very last snow-shoe trip of the long winter?

Statistics
Sheep Valley Road
Fri. 6 May
Total Dist.	30 km (bike)   +   4 km (hike)   +   2 km (‘shoe)  = 36 km
Height Gain	560 ft.
Max. Elev.	5,250 ft.
Time	4 hrs. 55 mins.

Other Stats.
Start bike:       7.14 am Gorge Ck Jn:   8.29 am Park bike:       9.24 am End of road:  10.02 am Back at bike: 10.32 am Gorge Ck Jn: 11.10 am Ret. to car:    12.09 pm Up:       2 hrs. 48 mins. Back:     2 hrs. 7 mins.	Temp. 0 to + 9 deg. C Cloudy, plenty of sunshine => clouds building up (showers looked certain for later in afternoon).  Cool start to trip.

Snow-shoeing into May

Sun. 1 May:  Snow-shoeing into May

At this rate, I’ll be snow-shoeing all the way into summer!  

Even in the eastern foothills, the snow is still lying, often feet deep, in shaded areas and on the forested hillsides.  As I found out last weekend, it is many feet deep up on the higher slopes of the foothills.

Today I discovered a magical corner of the world.  And the entry to this secret world was just at the top of the hill from the kennels where, over many years we had taken our dogs when heading out of town. This is the Cross Conservation Area, a huge area of eastern foothills just south of Calgary, donated to the Province of Alberta by Ann and Sandy Cross, wealthy Albertans, back in 1987.  For some reason, this area, so close to town, had escaped my notice, up until now.

It was a perfect morning for a hike.  The sun was already climbing in a cloudless blue sky, and the mountain wall, under a deep snow cover, was spectacular along the western horizon.  It took me just a few minutes to head south on 37th Street then west on Highway 22X, then south up the hill to a small parking area.  There are no signs on the highway, so you have to know it’s here to find it.

I registered in a book, paid a two dollar fee, then simply strolled up the lane and onto the rolling, grassy hillside.  They have laid out a number of trails over the hills and down into the valleys, making several kilometers of trail.  My route took me about ten kilometers, first to the most westerly end of the park, where there is a spectacular viewpoint, then back down a pretty valley called Pine Creek, before climbing again to more viewpoints on my way back to the start.

It was quite cool when I started out, and I was glad of some gloves.  By the end, it was warm and sunny.  Heading west from the car park, I soon came to the first viewpoint, on an open grassy hill, where an inviting bench sat facing the mountain wall to the west.  From here I dropped down into a snow-covered valley.  I put on my snow shoes here, to cross the valley floor and to head up a long forested hillside, where someone had slogged up through the snow without the benefit of ‘shoes. 

At the top of the hillside I came out onto an open meadow with superb views down to the top end of the wide valley carrying the road south to Turner Valley.  Moose Mountain and all the Front Ranges were spread out to the west, and directly below me were the shining domes of the Rothney Observatory.  I was reluctant to leave this viewpoint.  It would make a great picnic stop in summer.  Today the trees were all bare.  The open hilltop was snow-free.  I thought this might be the best viewpoint of the day, but there were several more to come.

Turning east, I walked across the hilltop before putting my snow shoes back on for the descent southwards down into Pine Creek.  In some ways this slightly resembled Upper Marston Creek, the difficult route from last weekend.  But this was easy going, as I turned eastwards along the valley.  I could hear a woodpecker somewhere in the woods, saw a herd of deer bounding away over the hillside, and watched two birds – maybe hawks – as they circled over the trees.

Up to my left was an inviting gentle ridge.  I hoped the trail might find a way up there, and I was not disappointed.  I was soon up above Pine Creek, where the mountains once again came into view behind the valley.  Here was another perfect viewpoint complete with bench.  I saw my first humans of the day, a young couple strolling up the path.  This was Fescue Trail.  I followed it in a northerly direction before turning east down Rancher’s Trail, once more using my ‘shoes until the snow ran out halfway down into the valley below. 

Ranchers trail swung north and up the final open hillside to the start of my hike.  I passed two groups of hikers enjoying the perfect weather.  One group was curious to know if I had needed my ‘shoes and I told them I had indeed used them.  The most exciting thing about this final hillside was my discovery of the first sign of Spring - some purple crocuses starting to open up under the warm sunshine.  At last!

At the top of this final hill was a good view northwards down onto the prairie and across to the skyscrapers of downtown Calgary.

This had been a good workout.  I was already looking forward to returning to this magical place when the grass would be green, and the leaves would be out on the trees.  For it would then represent all that is best about the Alberta foothills.  By that time, I might also be able to leave my snow shoes behind!

Statistics
Cross Conservation Area
Sun. 1 May
Total Dist.	7.5 km (hike)  + 2.0 km (‘shoe) = 9.5 km
Height Gain	600 ft.
Max. Elev.	4,270 ft.
Time	3 hrs. 12 mins.

Other Stats.
Start hike:       7.49 am West Side:       8.43 am Pine Ck view:10.01 am Ret. to car:    11.01 pm	Temp:  +1 to +8 deg.C Cloudless and clear, good visibility

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.

The Winter that wouldn't end

Sat. 9 April:  The Winter that wouldn’t end

 

Well into April and still no sign of the hiking season.  So today I went on two separate winter trips, one on skis and the other on snow-shoes.

The sun now rises before 7 a.m., and it needs an early start to get the best out of the cross-country ski trails at this time of year.  As soon as the sun comes up, the snow gets all sticky.  Waxless skis apparently work quite well in these conditions, so I went out and rented a pair to try them out.

Not surprisingly, the roads were quiet so early in the morning before dawn.  The weather had been cloudless the day before, but this morning there was a fair amount of thin cloud over the mountains.  The road surface was dry all the way down the Kananaskis Valley.  

I was on the trail before seven o’clock, setting out from Pocaterra hut.  I quickly found that waxless skis don’t have much of a grip, and I was herring-boning up any tiny slope that was not completely flat.  The grooming machine had been up here only two days ago, but it had snowed almost every night for the past few weeks, so I relied on skier tracks, where I made good progress.  The double set of tracks soon reduced to one.

I turned around at Lynx junction.  There was still deep snow all around, and the snow-covered mountains were a little hazy today.  It was a silent and grand setting so early in the morning.  Earlier this week someone had seen bear paw prints on the Tyrwhitt trail, at the south end of the Peter Lougheed Park.  I had bear spray ready but saw no wildlife at all.

The return journey down the icy and crusted tracks was an interesting experience.  The skis made a sort of humming sound like a little motor, as I glided effortlessly back down the trail.  This is where the waxless skis have the advantage.  I had very little control, except in patches where the snow was still soft.  Most of the trail was glazed ice.  I made it back to the Pocaterra hut safely, enjoying a sandwich in the warmth and comfort of the cabin.  A couple of middle-aged snow-shoers were walking towards the hut as I returned to the car.  We exchanged greetings.  Theirs was the only other car in the car park.  The temperature had risen from minus 5 to minus 2 while I was on the trail, and it would continue to rise steadily during the day.

Statistics
Pocaterra Trail to Lynx Jn.
Sat. 9 April
Total Dist.	7.2 km (XC ski)
Height Gain	200 ft.
Max. Elev.	5,545 ft.
Time	1 hr. 45 mins.

]

Since it was still not yet nine o’clock on a pleasant Saturday morning, I decided to try another challenge.  I would drive up the Smith-Dorrien Highway to Burstall Lakes parking lot, and would snow shoe up towards the lakes.

Smith-Dorrien runs the Icefields parkway a close second for scenic beauty: a high valley lined by spectacular peaks (and some glaciers), side valleys leading up to hidden lakes, and the best snow conditions in Alberta.  At Chester Lake car park, snow depth was reported today at 160 cm (over five feet).  Right across the highway from there is Burstall Lakes car park.  It did not surprise me to find a half dozen vehicles there, and the Park Ranger in her truck.  This is a very popular backcountry skiing trail, with superb powder up at the Pass.  It is also a very dangerous place up there.  Two men died on the Pass earlier this season, caught by an avalanche.

I wasn’t planning to go all the way (over 8 km) to the Pass, but was content to snow shoe out into this wintry scene as far as I had the energy to do so.  The Spray Valley floor is wide and flat here, with the trail heading quite steeply up Burstall Creek, towards the distant Pass.  

I veered away from the main trail, following a set of very large snow shoes which headed out across the open landscape of scattered trees and rolling meadows buried under deep snow.  Whoever this person was, he must have been a giant.  I am tall, but my long stride could not keep up with the large prints made by those snow shoes.  

After wandering across the valley floor, the ‘shoe prints headed up onto the forested mountainside, making a haphazard route up through the trees.  I had no idea where I was going!  But it was an interesting challenge following those tracks.  The general direction was up, and the person seemed to know where they were going, as the tracks intersected some forestry trails.  I heard some voices in the trees far above me.  Eventually after a long steep ascent, I came out – miraculously – on the main trail up Burstall Creek.  The giant snow shoe tracks continued to head straight up the forested slopes, but I turned onto the narrow trail, and set off up towards the Pass. 

The skiers and snowshoers ahead of me had beaten down a nice path, about a foot deep in the surrounding snow, and now the angle eased off, so it was easier going.  Down below me to the right was a deep creek, which further up the trail led to the Burstall Lakes, mostly hidden in the trees below me.  The trail crossed a dangerous looking avalanche path running down the huge mountainside above me.  A little further along the trail I squeezed past a very large boulder, result of an earlier avalanche.  

In summer this is a wide forestry trail, and you can push or ride your bike up here for the first three and a half kilometers.  At that point, the trail dives into the trees, and then reaches the wide flats below Burstall Pass.

By this time, at the point where I had my first good view ahead of the flats and the Pass, I decided that this would be a good place to turn around.   Almost immediately I met a handful of snow shoers coming up the trail, asking whether I had been up to the Pass.  I smiled and said that I had not.  A little later I passed a single snow shoer who wondered whether there was a loop back down across the lakes and I told him I thought that there was no such route.  That was all the people I saw on the trail today.

On the return journey I stuck to the main trail, which angled nicely down to the valley floor.  The spectacular peaks were half hidden in the haze, with a weak sun shining through the cloud.  It had been breezy higher up, but by now it was above freezing.  I made good time back to the car, where a backcountry skier was preparing to set out up the trail. 

I drove home via the Spray Lakes and Canmore.  The surface of the Smith-Dorrien along the Spray Lakes was varied.  In places it was smooth and snow packed, but especially closer to Goat Creek, it was wretchedly muddy with small and large potholes.  There were lots of people out in the middle of the wide lake, ice fishing and playing.  There were also single vehicles parked alongside the road in random places, where, I suppose, skiers or snow-shoers had headed out onto their favorite trails.  The steep road down to Canmore still had deep drifts along its precipitous sides.

This had been an active day, which I hope will mark the official end to my winter season adventures.  But with all that snow still out there, I’m not guaranteeing it.     

Statistics
Burstall Creek
Sat. 9 April
Total Dist.	7 km (‘shoe)
Height Gain	330 ft.
Max. Elev.	6,560 ft.
Time	3 hrs. 03 mins.

Statistics
Total 2 trips
Sat. 9 April
Total Dist.	14.2 km
Height Gain	530 ft.
Max. Elev.	6,560 ft.
Time	4 hrs. 48 mins.

Other Stats.
Start ski:         6.56 am Lynx Jn.:        7.57 am Ret. to hut:     8.41 am Temp. -5 to -2 deg. C Sun behind mtns, mostly cloudy	Start ‘shoe:     9.24 am Open flats:    11.12 am Ret. to car:    12.27 pm Temp. 0 to +3 deg. C Hazy sun, breeze higher up