Our 2016 trip to the Canadian Rockies got off with a wild start. Packing on the final day before departure had gone well, but at 7 pm I got an email and a call from Capital One. There was an unusual charge that had been made -- was it mine? No it wasn't. The card had been hacked. And it was my one card that doesn't charge a fee for each international transaction.
We were leaving early in the morning for the airport, and we'd be in multiple locations where a replacement card couldn't be delivered. I didn't want the card chasing me across Canada, so I said to just mail the replacement to my home. Fortunately Joan's Capital One card had not been compromised, so we wouldn't get socked with fees. This time my wife would pay for everything!
There was enough time at the Minneapolis airport for us to enjoy a sit-down meal and do some wandering. We met a therapy dog, who had been working there since August 2015. It was shy of being leaned over, from too many laptops and other bags crashing into it, but eager to meet you when you come down to its level.
Our plane to Calgary pulled away from the gate on time but then stopped. An air-conditioning valve was stuck, and to access it the maintenance crew had to unload much of the luggage, and then the proper paperwork had to be filled out. Our plane resumed its flight after a 75 minute delay.
In Calgary our rental car was ready to pick up, for once, but we hit a traffic jam on the Bow Trail (the outerbelt or periphery freeway). There had been an accident on the Trans-Canada highway and we were caught in the end stage of its cleanup. Further down the Trans-Canada we saw a house burning.
Joan and I arrived at Canmore and the wonderful Canadian Artisans Bed and Breakfast at 5:30 local time, 7:30 Eastern time, after having risen at 3:30am. Our travel pigs, Rita and Margie, center and right, bonded instantly with Mr. Bear and Dr Little.
We took a brief stroll along the Bow River, five minutes behind Canadian Artisans. Joan spotted two osprey.
We also inspected the repair work on the abutments for the old railroad bridge, damaged by the floods of 2013.
Then we staggered back to Canadian Artisans for some sleep!
It took a while to hit the trail the next morning. First was the big breakfast that should not be missed, and catching up with Bob and Val, our hosts. Next was sandwich shopping for a trail lunch, and then purchasing bear spray at the Barrier Lake Visitors Center. After parking at Barrier Dam we started up the Prairie View trail at 10:45 when it was already sunny and hot.
Barrier Lake was low. In this panoramic shot, the two dots near the shore at center are people (click on the image to enlarge.)
Joan and I had taken this trail once before, five years ago. After having tackled the East End of Rundle two years running, we had opted for this, a less strenuous first-day hike.
Most of the trail as far as Prairie View is an old fire road. It passes the lakeshore trails and begins to switchback up the ridge.
It gets steeper.
Hikers share this route with mountain bikers; we met one woman pedaling up who, due to lack of time, soon had to turn around and head down.
There is an open bench before reaching Prairie View. The road across the lake is Highway 40, running down the Kananaskis valley.
Shortly after the bench there's a steep lurch up to the Prairie View, the rocky outcrop in the center of the photo.
A panorama from Prairie View.
A short distance from the edge -- we passed it coming up -- is an old radio reflector.
From the viewpoint we took a spur trail up the edge of the ridge to the Barrier Lake Lookout. The trail is braided in spots, but it's hard to get lost ... just head uphill.
This station is still in service, and we weren't supposed to pester the person who lives up here.
He or she could decide to chat with you, however, which happened on our earlier visit.
We enjoyed our sandwiches from a perch overlooking the Trans-Canada Highway and Exshaw, between us and Canmore. Exshaw hosts several resource processors, including a cement plant and a magnesium oxide plant.
Joan and I plunged downhill to the viewpoint, but rather than retracing our steps, we chose to continue further south, extending our hike into a loop, along the trail to Jewell Pass.
The rocky trail from the viewpoint dipped into the woods.
This section is a popular route with mountain bikers. The maps designate it as such, but it was still unnerving to discover that we often couldn't hear them coming unless they called out. No wonder mountain bikers can easily blunder into a surprised grizzly!
The path seemed to go on for a long time, perhaps because we were traversing a long green tunnel through the forest. Fortunately there were many more wildflowers to divert us than on the uphill slog.
Lower down, picking up Jewell Creek, we began to see the effects of the 2013 flood, such as this new bridge.
A few short switchbacks later we were looking up at the bridge.
The flood damage along the lower levels of Jewell Creek was so extensive that rather than move boulders to restore the original route, the trail had been relocated higher on the shoulder of the valley.
Joan and I began to hear the occasional rumble of thunder as we drew nearer to the lakeshore, quickening our steps. The trail back to the dam was not along the shore itself, but between it and the woods, dipping in and out of every fold and tributary ravine. The tramp grew tiresome, but the thunder moved on to the east, leaving us dry when we reached our car. It was a good first-day workout but it will be a while before we visit Jewell Pass again.
Tomorrow will be a transit day wherein we'll pick up a hike to Sherbrooke Lake.
In late August we took our annual trip to the Canadian Rockies. This entry will cover our hikes in the Canmore area, ones we had not walked before.
It was an auspicious beginning at the Calgary Airport. Hertz gave us the ideal car for this trip, something we had not received in eight prior visits to Calgary and three rental agencies. The Ford Taurus had a trunk large enough to hold all our luggage, but was not a huge grandfather's land yacht, and best of all, it was not an SUV, which is a battle we've had to fight before. When you are taking a day hike while traveling from lodge A to lodge B, you do not want your luggage exposed to view in the back of an SUV!
We took a long route to Canmore, heading south from Calgary and passing through the small town of Black Diamond to stop at Marv's Classic Soda Shop. Joan and I both had a chocolate malt, and the young man behind the counter chatted with Joan about a trip to Italy he had taken. Then he charged us $5 for the two malts, which listed for $6 each!
We came up towards Canmore through Highwood Pass, which at 7238' is the highest point in Canada on paved highway. South of the pass we passed two young grizzly bears moseying north on the shoulder of the road. These were the first grizzlies we had ever seen in person during our Canadian trips. We had been following the bear situation before our departure, and we knew that it was an active wildlife year. The previous summer was an exceptionally good berry season, so the bear moms had a bumper crop of cubs over the winter. Now, this year, the foraging was not so good, causing the bears and other wildlife to roam widely in search of food.
As before, we stayed at the Canadian Artisans Bed and Breakfast. The guest parking there is flanked by pine trees and the house, as you can see in this photo. Squirrels loved to drop sap-soaked pine cones onto the car from these arboreal perches.
Our Taurus had a rear view camera whose image was displayed in a tiny square on the rear view mirror, and a proximity warning that beeped faster and faster the closer the back of the car came to an obstacle. By the time I parked it as seen above, with the help of Joan's hand signals, the warning was screaming loud enough to make me wince.
Before hiking, we stopped in town to buy bear spray. Good to have in any case, bear spray had also been required to hike some of the Barrier Lake trails, part of our second hike, at different times in the summer. No bear spray, and you got a ticket. Sometimes that trail had been closed entirely because too many hikers and bikers were ignoring the precautions. Fortunately for us, that trail opened before we arrived.
But our first hike was the Grotto Creek Trail in Grotto Canyon. This section remains a fuzzy, low-resolution image on Google Earth, or I'd show it to you. After passing behind a magnesium oxide processing plant, the trail begins to rise and then turns northerly into a gorge. At this point the trail breaks up; it has become just an intermittent alternative to walking the creek bed when the creek is high, and the primary route is up the creek. This is a popular rock climbing location, and it's easy to spot metal hoops hammered into the rock faces. After a while, you arrive at a 'T'.
The right hand of the 'T' is brief, steep, and polished by the boots of many hikers, ending in a waterfall.
Those stone ledges look like an inviting path to the waterfall, but they're treacherous. I took a picture of the waterfall, but the photo was tilted because of my precarious perch on the stones, and I needed the computer to set it right.
We continued up the canyon, to the left.
Shortly there was a broader spot where the remains of a fire ring or two could be seen, and the creek turned north again. The walls of the canyon sank lower and further apart as we climbed. After lunch we decided to start back, and passed again a huge hoodoo-like formation, made of more easily eroded soft aggregates, but with a cave entrance partway up.
A family had climbed up to the cave entrance, and discovered that going up was easier than going back down. Getting the kids down took some coaching and coaxing.
The Grotto Canyon was an interesting warmup, with plenty of stony footing.
The next day, a Saturday, we hiked to the Barrier Lake Fire Lookout. Having arrived as early as we could to claim a parking spot, there was a chill morning breeze, and we were glad for our jackets, even on August 27th. We hustled quickly across the earthen dam to stay warm, and then the wide Prairie View Trail began to climb. At the first intersection, where the Stoney Trail, paralleling the lake, crossed ours, we were greeted by an ashen-faced mountain biker. He asked, "Which way are you going?" He had just seen a mountain lion, a kilometer back on his trail. Two young mountain lions, a brother and sister, had been killed earlier in the summer due to their lack of fear of humans. Fortunately we were headed straight ahead.
The first leg of the hike winds up and up the side of the ridge, almost broad enough to be a road, with frequent switchbacks. Several mountain bike riders passed us; this leg is part of a popular loop for them. Eventually you reach the ridge line, and a grassy area provides the first viewpoint.
From here you can look up along the ridge line to the Prairie View Viewpoint. The last climb up to the viewpoint is much narrower and rockier, not hospitable to a casual mountain biker.
On reaching the Prairie View Viewpoint we were not alone. Groups of people were savoring the bright sunshine, the warming day, and the view to the east.
The trail we had just come up is visible on the lower ridge, and just beyond several small lakes the Trans-Canada highway winds towards Calgary. Behind us, the top of the ridge beckoned.
I neglected to take a photo of the large reflector that is part of this viewpoint. It was used to bounce radio signals around corners and mountains, and might still be active. However, in researching links for this post, I ran across the blog Hiking with Barry, which has a good picture of the structure in his post on this very hike. Barry did a great job with his photos.
It wasn't clear at first how to proceed towards the Fire Lookout, but we had just to continue west on the rocky promontory until the way starts to climb up the ridge again. This walk was turning into a good training exercise for our lungs, which are accustomed to an altitude of 1,000 feet. The fire lookout is at about 6,600 feet, and 2,000 feet above the lake.
The Barrier Lake Fire Lookout is one of the remaining actively staffed lookouts during fire season. Signs request that you do not peer into the house, interfere with equipment, or otherwise disturb the warden.
However, while we were nearby the warden came out to inspect some of his instruments, and Joan and I (especially Joan) had a good conversation with him. Below the house, other hikers were picnicking on the helicopter pad. There are also picnic tables in the shade just below the summit.
As usual, I was focusing on the panorama. It's a good view up there, of course -- it's a fire lookout. To the west, the town of Exshaw and a large quarrying operation are visible down in the valley of the Bow River. There is a trail and mountain bike route through the wooded valley down to the Trans-Canada highway.
Here's a closeup of Exshaw and the quarry. There is also a long Canadian Pacific train; this is the major transportation route between the west coast and the rest of Canada.
Looking to the northeast isn't bad either.
Then we returned the way we had come, completing an excellent hike. Tomorrow, we would move on to Pocaterra Cirque and Mt. Engadine Lodge.
