An easy scramble up the northernmost peak in the Glasgow massif.  Gives great views of Nihahi Ridge and the scrambling route up Mount Remus.

Start at  Little Elbow Recreation Area, preferably from the parking area near the suspension bridge. Cross the suspension bridge over the Little Elbow, then immediately turn right onto the equestrian trail shortcut. Keep right and down to the flats alongside the river. Follow Little Elbow equestrian trail to Glasgow Creek. From here there are two ways of getting onto the bottom of the northeast ridge. Either cross Glasgow Creek on the “bridge”, then  not too far along the trail start heading up left in the forest. Or, and this is what we did, take the  usual route into Glasgow Creek (see previous write-up) and on reaching the dry valley above all the springs and soggy ground head right into the forest. As we hoped, the forest  was fairly open on this aspect and the going easy.  Where the terrain steepened up, we veered right and intersected a trail on the ridge. This was intriguing! Had the trail  just developed on the defined part of the ridge, as trails are wont to do, or did it extend  all the way down to wherever? We resolved to return the same way and follow it down. This never happened, so if anyone  can shed any light on where this trail ends up/starts, please reply to this blog.

View from Nihahi Creek trail of Peak 466270 showing the NE ridge.

The trail continued up the ridge, often at the edge of cliffs. At the base of a rocky tower, the main trail went left and circled around the crags on the left (south slope).  It was a bit vague on open ground where it climbed back up to the ridge beyond the tower. In trees it was again clear, soon taking to a swath of grass and scree to the right of the forest edge. Last trees marked End of Trail, from now on there were just signs here and there of people passing.

The open ridge  was interesting. First off we climbed over a top circled by crags. Going up, found a very convenient ledge heading left. Going down, we (like others) descended rubble on the left side in preference  to the scramble off the end. Then ascended a tapering grass/scree ridge, the kind that usually ends in a drop-off.  It, too, ended in a drop-off , but luckily,  there’s  a very convenient descent gully with all the loose rocks kicked out of it.   Straightaway the ridge rose like a roller coaster track, then  promenaded  along  to another drop-off.  Getting off was easy via  a wide ledge with jugholds. All that remained was to plod up scree to the summit.  A lower grassy top to the right made a better R & R spot. Just watch out for wolf spiders after your lunch.

Our next idea, to go and look at the connecting ridge to Peak 461258, came undone when the ridge top became knife edge and the prospect of scrambling down steep loose rubble on the left side was  deemed “unappealing.” “Doesn’t appeal to me, does it appeal to you?” “No.” However, we WERE close enough to look at that  intriguing bite out of  the ridge and ascertain that while the ridge at this point is hanging in there on a thread (the rest having collapsed), it is certainly wide enough to cross without having to look down the cliff on the west side.

More pictures  

By this time black clouds were gathering and the wind gusting. We traversed across to our ascent ridge, at a streak of trees and vegetation descending into the valley head  between the two peaks and had a confab. Despite the threatening weather, Tony was all for returning the same way. I was now wondering about the valley. I knew what the ridge was like. Would the valley have water? Would there be a good trail?  As it happened  there was neither, but the going was reasonable on grass under the trees.

ps. You get a really good view of this ridge from Nihahi Ridge and from Nihahi Creek trail  at the viewpoint above the canyon.

For the last few years hikers have been using the logging roads up Seventy Buck valley to access Eagle Hill and Seventy Buck viewpoint. It wasn’t to last, of course. So before reclamation this summer we asked the SRD and SLS to consider keeping certain of the roads open for hikers and bikers. Meaning, just narrowing them to quad-width trails so we could get by. They were happy to oblige, but then we ran up against a snag: rancher X who owns the grazing lease. He wanted the one road kept open to the boundary with the Reserve so he could inspect the fence at regular intervals (this is not a trail of use to us) and  wanted  the trail  heading towards the viewpoint reclaimed in case his cattle stray onto it (hardly likely).  He threatened to close down the whole valley if  this route remained open. Legally, I don‘t think he could have done this.

As an aside, we have yet to see a cow in this valley and I can’t imagine cattle will be wandering the cutblocks, which are choc-a bloc with slash, anytime soon. Quite apart from that, the Stoneys use a gate to get into the valley and hunt, which is why you hardly see any moose or deer in the area-just their bones. Strikes me as being a dangerous valley in which to run cattle.

Anyway, we walked all the routes yesterday to see what had happened. The start of the road from Hwy. 68 has been reclaimed and you must now walk up the cutline to its left to get onto the narrowed logging road beyond. I am happy to report that the route to Eagle Hill has been unaffected and in fact improved. The route to Seventy Buck Viewpoint  is a reclaimed mess that took ages to walk. By the time we reached the viewpoint for lunch we were feeling despondent. But soon bucked up when we  saw what we think were a couple of eagles gliding around the cliffs and using the thermals to spiral high into the sky. The view was  great as always, and the mountains very clear, all of which reminded us of why people love this viewpoint.

Lunch on Seventy Buck viewpoint

Then went NW to the high point, gathering up flagging left behind by SLS. On top  saw that the other access trail had been reclaimed. Again, it took a long time to pick a way through the very large cutblock to gain the rancher’s quad trail. The trail  is pretty rough at this end and I can’t see it being used by bikers. The cutblocks, by the way, are very colourful right now with fireweed, asters and arnicas.

More picures.  

So below is a map showing past logging roads and present trails. The question now is, how to get to the viewpoint?  Do we spend a lot of time clearing a way through the slash with chainsaws, or do we come up from the west slope? There is a logging road, not yet reclaimed, that leads to a NE-SW cutline that can be followed up with deviations to the high point. It may be possible from near the top of the cutline to traverse across to the gap between the high point and the viewpoint. Another alternative is the south ridge of the viewpoint, but it is very steep. OK for going down…

Inviting your comments.

Most of you will be asking “where the h— is Rainy Summit Ridge?”  It’s the ridge to the west of Rainy Summit on Hwy. 66. The top end of it links up with Powderface Ridge trail. I don’t know who started the ball rolling, but when we first went up about 15 years ago there was already a trail to the first viewpoint. Since then, the trail through the “cutblock” has splintered amid a dense jungle of shrubs and  trees. As someone said, the possibilty of coming face to face with a griz was very real.

So in 2010 a new start was orchestrated by X and  a friend  that totally misses out the cutblock and climbs through open forest (good sight-lines) to the foot of the rock ridge. The terrain is steeper than the old route, but if you follow the blazes and odd pieces of flagging you should ascend on a zigzag line. In places a trail exists where it follows snippets of game trails. The junction with the old trail is marked with a blazed tree and flagging.

View of Rainy Summit Ridge, the overlook to left, the first viewpoint at centre. From the big cairn, the route follows stumps with rocks on top and the odd blazed tree to the bottom of the forested slope at 534328.

As mentioned, it comes out at the bottom of the rock ridge from where the trail is obvious all the way to the viewpoint. Climbing up farther to Rainy Summit Overlook (no trail) is an option. Besides being the better viewpoint and a destination in its own right, the overlook connects with Powderface Ridge trail, thus making Rainy Summit Ridge an alternate route to Powderface Ridge. Personally, I prefer to use it as part of a loop using the old pack trail shown on the map.

Most people bound for Burstall Pass have no idea that a narrow valley exists between Mt. Burstall and the long north ridge of Piggy Plus. And that at the end of it is a high col with a superb view of the French Glacier. The route was first documented in Andrew’s “More Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies”  under “Piggy Plus” on page 229. Last Thursday we had no intention of climbing Piggy Plus, which is a difficult, loose scramble. We just walked to the col and made a variation on the return to take  in some karst meadows, larches and a second fantastic viewpoint, this time of the Robertson Glacier.

We walked the Burstall Pass trail for 3.3 km to a former sawmill site where we used to park the car pre K Country (walking and biking up this logging road STILL rankles), and turned left up a grassy avenue. This is shortly before you come to the bike rack. A trail soon developed and in a few minutes led to a Y-junction of obvious logging roads at a cairn. More cairns and some flagging indicated a left turn up the steeper road. After the gradient eased off, the road narrowed to a trail that cut across to our valley creek, crossed it, then followed the right bank into the narrows beyond the trees. From here it was a simple walk to the stony basin below the col, in part made even easier by a snow-choked creek bed. From the basin, we plodded up snow (scree later in the season) to the col and messed round on the lower ridge of Burstall, gawking at the view.

Mt. French, French Glacier, Mt. Robertson from col.

Coming down, we headed  straight through the karst to the sink shown on the topo map which turned out to be a meadow with frost humps. Next, we gained the north ridge of Piggy Plus and headed north to grassy bluffs poking up above the larches. What a beautiful viewpoint looking south to the Robertson Glacier and north to Snow Peak, Birdwood Pass and Mt. Birdwood! We could have lingered there for hours.

More photos 

Don’t do what we did next, which was an attempt to descend the ridge to the north. There’s high cliffs on the left, tiered cliffs on the right—the topo map gives no clue about these—and successively dicier steps down the ridge itself. After descending a couple of  “thank goodness we don’t have to climb back up that” steps, we came to what MIGHT have been the final step: steep mossy slabs and no trees to hang on to. I guess we’ll never know, because back up we toiled to the bluffs. By this time the thunderstorms has passed by and the sun had came out for the first time all day.

So after hanging around the bluffs and the larch forest, I recommend returning to the sink. In the high ground around the sink on the northeast side there’s a bit of a gap and here we found a game trail that led easily down the east slope to the creek at the one place that was obstacle free.

To sum up, a beautiful  hike  and relatively short if you bike the Burstall Pass trail. We’ll be back in the fall when the larches turn. Distance 13.1 km to col and back. Add on a kilometre if visiting the bluffs. Height gain 610 m + (2000 ft.+) High point  c.2515 m (c. 8250 ft.) Incidentally, the map shows  recommended routes and not our considerable ramblings down and up the north ridge of Piggy Plus.

Do you take your cellphone or iPod into the mountains? Chances are you put them in the pocket of your supposedly waterproof jacket and forget about them when you get rained on. When you get home you try drying the moisture-laden device in the oven, or use one of a number of other home remedies. A Portland company has come up with a more reliable solution to your problem—The Bheestie Bag.

The Bheestie Bag is a Ziploc-style bag with a self-contained bag of water-absorbing beads inside, designed to ‘dry out’ electronic devices: cell phones, iPods, small cameras, etc. The silicon beads can last up to a year for frequent use in a damp environment, though a lot less if used for an extreme soaking.

To dry-out an electronic device, turn it off, dry the surface, take out the battery if possible, open flip phones, drop it in the Bheestie Bag and close the zip. Leave the device in the bag for 24-72 hours, depending how wet it got and recharge if necessary.

From Canada, order through REI. Cost US$20.

Actually, it’s a replacement trail. Do you remember Link trail, the section that connected Volcano Ridge trailhead to the  pass between Volcano Ridge and the rocky knoll which is South Volcano Ridge? — a long boringly straight cutline lined with alder, followed by a horrendously steep and stony cutline up onto a ridge?  Well, the new Link  trail is the anthisus of straight; it winds A LOT  up an east-facing ridge to the south of the old route. A few other facts: It  starts 820 m south of the old junction on what was Gorge-Link trail. It’s 2.6 km long, has bridges over every creek starting from Volcano Ridge trailhead,  and joins the old route almost midway between Volcano Ridge Summit trail and the pass.

It was flagged back in 2009 by Don Cockerton (now retired) who saw the desperate need for a better trail. As I write this, the contractors have reached the meadows about 200 m away from its flagged junction with the old Link.  So. though not quite finished,  the trail is definitely followable. Right now it’s a wide track, which I found  a little off-putting, but I know that in time the grass creeping  in over the edges will make it a more aesthetic trail. It would be interesting to get other people’s opinions of the new route on the blog. I think the bikers will love it.

To get there, we parked at Gorge Creek trailhead and biked the closed section of Gorge Creek road to the old Volcano Ridge trailhead. The road  is still in excellent shape and is being driven on a regular basis by the contractors who have keys to the gates. If you don’t want to bike the road (and returning up that hill is NOT something to look forward to after a day’s hiking), you can make a 12.5 km loop from Gorge Creek trailhead with  South Volcano Ridge trail and the new Link trail. If you want to visit Volcano Ridge summit, add on 5 km. OK, so getting to Volcano Ridge still requires a lengthy walk. But it’s so worth it: Volcano is the best viewpoint in the foothills, the flowers are full out, the access trail is still clear.

To answer  Willibrad, here is a list from RMB of where the books are available. If a store doesn’t have it, ask them why not.

• Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom)
• Amazon.de (Germany)
• Amazon.jp (Japan)
• Audrey’s Books (Edmonton)
• Bentley’s Books (Cochrane)
• Blurb’s Books (Camrose)
• Boundary Ranch (Kananaskis)
• Cafe Books (Canmore)
• Camper’s Village (Calgary & Edmonton)
• Canadian Rockies Rafting Company (Canmore)
• Chapters (Calgary)
• Fortress Junction (Kananaskis)
• Friends of Banff (Banff)
• Friends of Kananaskis (Kananaskis)
• Glenbow Museum (Calgary)
• Goro Canyon Gift Shop (Banff)
• Greenwood’s Bookshoppe (Edmonton)
• Indigo (Calgary)
• Indigo.ca (Canada)
• Kananaskis Outfitters (Kananaskis)
• Kerry Wood Nature Centre (Red Deer)
• Map Town (Calgary & Edmonton)
• Mountain Equipment Coop (Calgary)
• Mountain Lights (Lake Louise)
• Nanaimo Maps and Books (Nanaimo, BC)
• Norseman Ski Shop (Calgary)
• Owl’s Nest Books (Calgary)
• Pages Books on Kensington (Calgary)
• Second Story Books (Canmore)
• Sparrowhawk Photo (Kananaskis)
• Sundance Lodges (Kananaskis)
• University of Calgary Bookstore (Calgary)
• Valhalla Pure (Calgary & Edmonton)
• Viewpoint (Banff)

The situation with MEC is frustrating, ever since all the book ordering was done from Vancouver by people who don’t know a lot about books. (Dennis, we miss you.). For instance, in the past MEC has sold well over a thousand trail guides. But  the latest edition is not even on the shelves yet, despite the book being out in mid May. When I asked customer service how many they had ordered, they looked it up on the computer and said 6, with 2 going to the Vancouver store!

At one time MEC was the place where I bought all my climbing books. Now they only stock guidebooks and Lonely Planet guides. The Calgary store should be supporting local authors like Chic Scott, Glen Boles and Kathy Calvert. Is anyone else irked by this?

Incidentally, most of the royalties from my books have gone  to the Bow Valley SPCA since its inception a number of years back.  (It’s a non kill facility.) So keep on buying!

The road is starting to grow-in and drainage runnels are appearing

Recently drove up the truncated northeast end of the Gorge Creek Trail, which, perhaps, should be renamed the Ware Creek Trail as it goes nowhere near Gorge Creek.  Despite it being a holiday day, the Ware Creek trailhead was deserted and wore an air of abandonment. It badly needs some maintenance plus picnic tables to lure people there. Not to mention some brushing out of the Ware Creek trail. The closed section of road, destined to be the new Link trail, was barricaded by not one but two gates and numerous strands of barbed wire, the barbed wire extending both sides into the bush. I was about to make some quip  about border controls  when Tony noticed  a cattle gate at the side of the road, the kind that is hard to open and even harder to shut  unless you’re an arm wrestler. (Does anyone else have a problem with these gates?) So we got through and walked up the road a way. I can report it is growing grass down the centre line; the gouge out of the road is still there; there is no sign of logging yet.

Gates on Gorge Creek Road at Ware Creek. Overkill?

But back to those fences. Anyone going to Allsmoke Mountain along the meadows of Ware Creek now has to navigate two of those gates in a new fence extending right across the meadow.

Damage near the Ware Creek end of the Gorge Creek Road that precipitated the road closure

The area between Station Flats and Canyon Creek Road has become a popular mountain biking destination, with more bikers than hikers on many of the trails. There is everything from short, steep, obstacle-featured “Downhill Specific” (DHS) trails that descend to Canyon Creek, to long-distance trails such as Tom Snow, which is used as part of the Bow 80, an 80 km loop that starts along Sulphur Springs, then over Cox Hill and Jumpingpound Mountain. Some of the new trails built by the mountain biking community are multi-use, some are DHS, while the two sections of Pneuma joined by Hotlaps are heavily used as an alternative to cycling up the road.

Hikers to left, bikers to right - Wet Pants, Special K

Hikers need to use caution on high-speed DHS trails such as Special K and Race of Spades. Hike them only in spring and fall when traffic is lighter; hike them in small groups, in the uphill direction, with head up and eyes open. Avoid Pneuma on busy weekend days, with the exception of the top section which descends the open ridge above the first section of Moose Mountain trail, providing spectacular views and a pleasant alternative to the boring old road.

The map below shows the conglomeration of trails in the area. DHS trails are shown as dashed red lines. Not shown are the DHS trails that descend to Canyon Creek. Click on the map for a larger, printable version.

The map in a previous post, New Bike Trails in the Elbow, shows trails to the east between Tom Snow to Elbow Trail.

A new mountain bike trail has appeared along the section of McConnell Ridge north of Barrier Lookout. This aesthetically-routed trail makes an excellent loop out of the boring Quaite Valley-Jewell Pass trail. If you are mountain biking, the trail is designed for riding in the counter clockwise direction, using the wide, easy Quaite Valley trail to gain elevation for the fun descent back to the highway.

If you are hiking the trail works better the other way round, going in a clockwise direction from the Trans-Canada Highway. That is how I’ll describe the route.

Drive 2 km east of the Lac des Arcs/Heart Creek overpass and park at the unofficial pull-off at the Quaite Valley road. Hike east along the highway for about 1 km until you come to to a small draw after the wide rock-cut. Look for some pruned trees and perhaps a cairn or flagging to start onto the trail. The trail goes up the draw a short distance and then contours across an open slope above the second rock-cut. It crosses over a ridge-line and descends slightly through the trees to a tiny stream. If you missed this section, don’t worry, simply go to past the second rock-cut and make your way up the east side of the next gully. After crossing the gully, the trail again contours east and slightly up hill to get above the next rock-cut. From here, the trail follows a series of limestone outcrops near the crest of the ridgeline. The route is marked with cairns and lined with bits of deadfall. You know if you are on the route if the path is clear of debris. If the path seems a bit steep, simply look around for an easier way. This section is very open, with great views of Yamnuska and the rest of the lower Bow Valley.

Ascending the lower part of McConnell Ridge with Goat Mountain and Yamnuska in the background

The ridgeline levels out after about 200 m of elevation and the bare limestone comes to an end. A very nice trail enters the forest and gradually climbs along a bench on the east side of the north peak of McConnell Ridge. The trail is close enough to the edge of the bench to offer frequent views towards the Camp Chief Hector area to the east. At about 1600 m elevation, you emerge from the shady forest to an open ridge-line with views to the west.

From the ridge, the trail again follows bands of bare limestone, with short jogs to the east in a couple of spots. This is the most scenic section of the hike, with superb views of Mt. Yamnuska, the peaks of the Exshaw Valley, Barrier Lookout and the entrance to the Kananaskis Valley, Jewell Pass, the Heart Mountain loop and more. The trail continues south along McConnell Ridge to a low saddle at the base of the steep, rocky slope with Barrier Lookout on the top. Along this section, there are a few spots where the mountain bike route takes a steep drop down a bit of limestone slab. Wherever these bits are too steep for hiking up, there is always an easier route that gets you back up onto the trail.

More images  

From the saddle, look for a well flagged trail that leads southwest, roughly following the 1650 m contour. This nicely made trail winds through a mossy pine and spruce forest until it reaches the Prairie View trail, 500 m from Jewell Pass. Follow the Prairie View trail to the view-less Jewell Pass 4-way junction and hike down the Quaite Valley trail back to your car.