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Pam Asheton - August, 2010: |
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End August 2010, and what a month!Actually it's been one heck of a year; by my wildlife journals and notes on plants, the spring/summer season's been running consistently 14-17 days behind (and why the fabulous flowers high on sub-alpine hit peak performance more towards the end of July and not mid-month).
What happens for the next two months of possible foothills and backcountry riding, well - ??! - at least those overwhelming mosquitoes have gone walkabout!
So, here's general update and information for the 'summer' so far:
Not an area I've personally visited but an adventurous family local to me legged south to the Oldman River, just off the #22, where it appears there's a rough version of 'random camping'. They took three horses, eight kids and a stack of fishing rods and gear and despite Saturday pissing down with rain, had a real old fashioned camping weekend.
If you drive the #22, where the road turns off is marked by THE only gas station and convenience store in miles, and then just meander up to road's end. Rigs apparently were camped more towards a cluster at the end, tents, whatever! Nice grass for grazing. The river's about 10' wide there, 15' where the boys went fishing further down, and shallow.
It's mostly private land around there, so your trails are going to be limited unless you've seriously bribed or negotiated beforehand with local ranchers. Smile.
Oldman River, which sounds a bit dull, is actually something way more interesting, in fact it originally was a very bad translation for local native language – 'Old Man' referred with some reverence to Creator or however your band or nation feel comfortable with describing - so this river really is God's River. Between here and the Livingstone Gap to me has always been what I think of as landscape with a deep spiritual meaning – and stunningly beautiful. Conservationist, photographer and storyteller Andy Russell rode, wrote and campaigned on many issues for future generations of Albertans here – if you ever see his photographic books up for sale, they're breathtaking – Men of the Saddle, The Rockies and Alpine Canada are timeless.
Gem-Trek maps cover this area up to the Highwood – many trails are not designated (you need either GPS or know how to read a map AND a compass) but it's stunning, the best riding right on our doorstep!
Another alternative is to stay at SIERRA WEST (Randy and Ginny Donahue's operation/telephone 403-628-2431) further south at Lundbreck and perhaps negotiate a guide, or the LUCASIA RANCH (Wayne and Judy Lucas/telephone 1-877-477-2295) more around the Claresholm area. Ranching people at their best.
KANANASKIS' EAGLE HILL: A girfriend poured over maps and groused over about one of my absolute favourite day rides, up to Eagle Hill where the lookout atop (with a handy hitching rail) faces straight across the end of the Morley Flats towards the slab-faced Yamnuska mountain that grabs my soul everytime.
“Clear-cut everywhere,” she complained, so I saddled up a few days later with The Fox.
You turn off the TransCanada and oh bliss! The #68 until you officially cross the threshold boundary of Kananaskis Country is now paved.
The gravel starts after that. Spray Lake Sawmills are logging up eastways of roughly where the Jumping Pound Demonstration Forest is, so be mindful of lumber trucks. My windshield from one fully loaded lumber truck – and where I hastily pulled over as far as I could to the right-hand side doing 60 kph and decreasing as fast as I could! as he approached wasn't too thrilled. The approaching truck had an interesting speed on, and so too has my windshield with pea gravel sprayed really impressive cracks now. Grr. SLS's office was telephoned later on, and they're getting back to me.. Think positive, Asheton, think positive – well, the thick-as-a-Sahara dust cloud for the next 500 metres after our vehicles passed each other was, er, positively impressive, let's put it that way........"
As for drivers with horse trailers and rigs, well, I'll let you know feedback and good working solutions soonest!
From the TransCanada if you go 21.3 kilometres and then take the little winding tarmac track to Sibbald Lake, and park by Moose Pond (page 51 in the guidebook) on the lay-by there, the ride from there is .........perfection. Shannon mentioned the trail was boggy (she'd ridden two weeks before, after thunderstorm and rainstorms) and yes, there ARE two springs that run across the trail about half-way up the route, but those two critical weeks inbetween of drying weather made it easy walkover with not a squelch.
Alternatively, park down on Sibbald Flats themselves where there are two gravel pullovers – that way you climb up towards the trail marked by an easily seen triangular equestrian on-a-pole sign and towards either Eagle Hill, or combine with the Deer Ridge Trail. Do this option and the ride down through the old growth forest is stunning, like walking in a natural cathedral.
If you do ride from Dawson Equestrian Campground to Eagle Hill, the clearcut there now is a bit of a slog and if you love trees, those extra first miles may dishearten. To ride that way, when driving TO Dawson from the #68, notice the yellow triangular road sign about 400 metres before the campground entrance. If you glance right – there's the beginning of the equestrian route that's take you up and over the clear-cutted hill to Sibbald Flats and onwards.
LUSK TRAIL: This is feedback information in part from last fall and yes, this is not one of my favourite trails but I will go and do it for research purposes in the next few weeks to clarify.
Lusk area has in part been clear-cut, and last October apparently full of dead-fall; an experienced backcountry rider abandoned her ride with her companions after two miles. Might it be an idea to post terrain conditions due to logging/related at the beginning of trailhead markers???
Two riders this spring have told me there's definitely erosion happening there – man, I hope that endless winter of 2009/2010 zapped pine beetles forever! Meanwhile, from my own #68 highway drive end-August, there are two big logging roads into that area on the south side of the road, that cut through old-growth spruce, I am guessing up into the higher areas where lodgepole and jack pine certainly used to exist in 2006. Lumber trucks were loaded up and still exiting, although my conversation with a Spray Lake Sawmills' (and a recommendation I look at their website to download maps of areas being cut or programmed to be, for which they apparently get at least 20 requests a week for a map) spokesperson indicates the cutting in this area is nearing completion.
It's Sunday 29th now, and I have just spent an hour on the Spray Lake Sawmills (and SRD related links) websites and cannot find a map of where current and projected logging areas are.
SLS's representative last week remarked they get 20 or so requests a week for such maps – surely it might be an idea to have an easy-to-find link? AMENDMENT: Lana Ellis from SLS has just emailed August 30th a.m., with 'how-to-find-directions': - "On our website, www.spraylakesawmills.com under the Woodlands heading,
choose Forest Management Planning, then General Development Plans, and
you will see the 5 Year Harvest Sequence Map."
TOM SNOW TRAIL: I'm totally a view chick, the high mountain addict with viewpoints that take your breath away but occasionally, yep, there are other options. Tom Snow Trail to me always rides best if you have the luxury of two trailers so you can ride straight from one end to the other. It's also a ride that's critical of weather conditions – there can be badly poached and muskeg areas, lethal ice in winter, but again, right now, after two weeks of relatively dry weather, it's prime time here. It's not a high use trail either which means you can blend into the landscape. Hawks and eagles are everywhere; magical birdlife, period.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Bear and elk had a rough ride last winter as it dragged on and on and on. Both came down from the higher areas when breeding seasons started, and had young in areas further outwards from their usual haunts of the foothills. Berries right now are plentiful, the weather seasons are still all over the place, and personally I'm riding with bear spray – Mrs Bears have had cubs, found their territory and may be in areas way further eastwards than their usual high wild places. Not cool for them and I hope the ones I know of decide they've had enough of humans and end up winter denning back in the mountains and foothills.
The 'Bear Aware' information brochures at Kananaskis Information centres are excellent, and their staff - who rate in the super league – are always in the know as to what and who is where. Their office telephone numbers are also in the 'Appendix' section in the guidebook's final pages for wildlife whereabouts information. |
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July 2010
Alberta's seasons are running 14-17 days late right now, so you may think you're about to hit August 1st but nope, you want to re-wind the tape backwards a tad.
On top of that there's been tornadoes, rainstorms, hailstorms and very serious muskeg in some foothill regions right up to max, particularly further south in Waterton and Crowsnest areas right up to the Livingstone Gap, as well as in Kananaskis country (best to look at the Gem-Trek maps and 'read' the landscape – personally I'd head for the SW facing slopes and high, in the main. The big rivers are, well, generally running fast and deep right now too).
Mosquitoes this year are akin to the populations you get up in the Yukon and North-West Territories – ferocious. Their squadrons are sending out advance scouts (deer flies) and they're not much fun either. I've used ULTRASHIELD (horses apparently aren't good with DEET, if anyone wants to comment?) for years but this year, instead of lasting a day including sweat work-ups on hill climbs, it's lasting say two hours max.
The SANDY McNABB EQUESTRIAN CAMPGROUND's closed this year, and some trails around there are in the process of either being constructed or un-designated (many originally followed the old logging trails, fine for logs, kinda boggy for four-leggeds. Throw in the grazing lease cattle bogging up creek crossings - so this move really is constructive thinking).
Here's a report sent to me earlier this year in April, from a real backcountry couple who've packed and just about done everything, real experienced horse handlers: “Yesterday we rode the Moose Loop Trail starting out along the Mountain Road Trail. On the way back, where the junction meets the Tom Snow Trail, there is a creek crossing with a snow bridge which we were able to cross. However, this snow bridge is very slushy and will not be safe (perhaps even today) because of the warm temperatures that will cause the bridge to start cracking. There is a foot bridge (with no rails or sides) for hikers which is not recommended for horses.”
(I'm going to re-ride the TOM SNOW TRAIL end August and photograph and take notes, which'll be posted – plus the Jumping Pound Ridge Trail accessing from the Jumping Pound Summit Trail. From the old Gem-Trek map that's getting ragged now (note to everyone else! - always use the latest maps in publication as details/terrain/trails open or closed may have changed, OK?) the last descent on the southern downward area onto the gravel Powderface Road, at the Mount McDougall Memorial looks, er, as if the possibility of slog-through-bog could be a big deal – anyone ridden this one in the last year or so?) |
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Pam Asheton - 2009 Trail Updates |
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JULY, 2009
Good friends asked me to ride along this Civic Monday long weekend from Mesa Butte.
Oh, I thought, Monday....civic holiday.........the trailhead parking will be JAMMED.
I've also now heard four different stories concerning the NORTH FORK trail, as of last week and a few months back, which apparently has been seriously compromised by huge deadfall.....some people have scrambled around, two people last week ended up in ER trauma and emerg at Foothills after their horses panicked.....mega wreck.
Deadfall like this, by the way, happens in weird ways in the foothills and particularly Kananaskis Country, where you get huge storm/wind downdrafts that flatten, literally, some hillsides and then leave the next four completely intact. So, I'm guessing the North Fork trail caught and flattened - if anyone has a progress report there, email me, please!
Alternatively, Three Point Creek going west is lovely, stony though sometimes, and hard on the horses.....particularly in top heat conditions I've found. Sometimes we've done two trailers, one at the Little Elbow and one at Mesa, and ridden Three Point and connected to the Wild Horse Trail as a one-way ticket......this is a really good year to do this, at the valley between the two can be muskeg and bog but with these dry conditions, it's probably a dream......early mornings, cool, dynamite views and if you're careful, I've seen lynx, wild horses and elk up here.
Back at Mesa, I'm interested to see what the trail improvements on the 999 have resulted in, again I have heard mega mixed reports, but with such dry weather at the moment it will be fine. I do, though, intend to ride it September or October and see then what the deal is (preferably with a horse with big feet!).
And, also at Curly Sands - which when I rode after it being re-surfaced (after ten days of early fall frosts two years back), we cannoned down faster than a toboggan and ended up bushwhacking down for safety reasons, pure tendon tweak material.
Again, anyone else's feedback and opinions, please email and we'll post your comments - !" |
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Pam Asheton - 2008 Trail Updates |
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YAMNUSKA
• When I wrote the book, I'd forgotten that most riders don't hike (I do). Yamnuska is a very popular hike at weekends, climbers get there early in the car park from 6 a.m. onwards, and most hikers slide in late after 11 a.m. The car park can be FULL by mid-afternoon. I like my space - on horseback or on foot - and personally I would recommend only mid-week excursions here during summer and early fall, and not during peak afternoon hours either, and take it from there. By late fall, because these slopes are largely SW facing, you can usually swing up safely on ground that tends to hold minimal frost, and a simply brilliant place to watch the eagle and hawk migrations, and the local ravens.
• August heat right now and why it's so important to choose your trails where there are streams and creeks and rivers for horses to gulp down great mouthfuls, and to ride earlier and later in the day and not in the midday extremes. The Yamnuska ride is one such example, and the local Alberta Parks ranger has telephoned to mention that a few riders with my equestrian backcountry guidebook have been taking the early part of the hiker's trail, which is steep and narrow and rocky.
So, with my apologies to those hard-working backcountry wardens, they are putting up 'walkers and hikers only' signs on that early part of the trail. In the guidebook, I say to go from the trail-head car-park and FOLLOW THE GRAVEL ROAD that takes you to the bottom of the rock quarry.
You then go left handed clockwise, and safely up and around most of the quarry, before you see an initially stony little trail (on your left upwards through the young poplars) that heads towards the ridgeline high above of the east side of Yamnuska's cliffs.
That's the equestrian trail, and as it's the one you return on, it's softer kinder inclines are way way easier on your horse's legs and knees back homewards. Also in the guidebook is a photograph of showing where the equestrian trail is marked for when you come back down (so you don't go down that finishing section and steep hiker's trail by accident); the equestrian route is a lovely ride through the trees, often on earth, and with wonderful flowers right now too. Much much the best; one couple who inadvertently did come down the hiker's last steep segment also apparently encountered a few loose dogs running around with families on their way up, and ended up speed sliding through rock, shale and close-set aspen trees. They haven't emailed me yet with their comments but I suspect they might.
• At Mesa Butte, there's been an oil road put in which alters the description of the way out of camp to the ThreePointCreek and the North Fork trails. From where the day trailhead parking is within the camp, you can go out through the usual gate westwards and splash through the creek and up the other side (the gravel road's iron bridge will be immediately to your right as you splash and climb out). Go along for about 200 metres, then turn left onto the (new) oil road for about another 200 metres, then turn right and follow the old established gravel/hard road. Go along this way (the old trails that ran alongside are now full of uncleared debris and deadfall from storms in late 2006) for a good 5-15 minutes depending on what speed you are travelling...for the North Fork trail keep an eye out for a wired fenced in oil pumping station, wiggle around that anti-clockwise and you're on your trail. The ThreePointCreek trail is marked now straight off the gravel/hard road and initially begins along a higher, less boggier route than of previous years, that Friends of Kananaskis and the AEF's Trail Supporters put together in 2007 - much better!
• LITTLE ELBOW/PARADISE VALLEY: A regular backcountry rider sent me this report of a trail I personally haven't ridden (yet) but which sounds terrific, beginning from the Little Elbow day trailhead or overnight equestrian campgrounds:
'Submitted by SWall: I spent the most wonderful 4 days in the backcountry near Mt. Romulus last week. We packed in / wagoned in supplies and set up at the backcountry site. The following day we took a trail to Paradise Valley. A challenging ride not for the faint of heart. As we rose into the valley the scenery which was already breathtaking blew me away. The backside of Mt. Evan-Thomas was incredible - it was bigger than big and so close to us and the sky. Picture perfection - yet the photos I took could never do it justice. The flowers in the meadow and along the way were in full bloom and even saw the odd strawberry here and there which was worth the dismount!
The trail's in great shape though. Would love to do it again but to go right up and over the pass and over the other side. Next week I'm off to Peppers Lake near Rocky Mountain House to partake in the 4 day Ya-Ya trip with the wonderful ladies from Wild Deuce - you should meet them! www.wildduece.com '
***(Wild Deuce, by the way, have their annual end of September mountain horse competitions and auction sales, a special occasion well worth legging northwards to.) |
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