Looking west from South Baldy, Kananskis Country

Looking west from South Baldy, Kananskis Country

Tuesday 20 July 2010

Red Deer River Paddle

Camp site on the Red DeerMy friend Keith (sporting a 'Game Over' T shirt throughout his stag weekend) recently got married. To commiserate, a bunch of us paddled some of the Red Deer River for a couple of days. There are many reaches of this river to explore within a couple of hours of Calgary; we took on a fairly short stretch close to Trocchu.




Here is Keith in celebration mode. Sadly for us, his wife's career prompted a move back to the UK shortly afterwards - we hope he and Gwen will return to Canada in the years to come.Dicko Keithson In the mean time if you see this man on the streets of Plymouth.....cross the road immediately, and don't look at him directly!

Friday 2 July 2010

Mt Fullerton

Foreshortened view of Mt Fullerton, on the rightMt. Fullerton is part of the southwestern Calgary skyline. Despite its modest height (2,728 m / 8,950 ft) it is a fine day out, requiring a round trip of around 26 km (16 miles) via the easier of its two 'popular' ridges: the northeast.

Tristan and I did this as a hike-a-bike. Kane, Williams and others recommend ditching the bike at the Nihahi Creek/Little Elbow junction and walking from there, but one web author suggests riding the entire approach. We tried this, but gave up on the bikes about 1 km after the junction. If we'd persisted for another 10-15 minutes we might have cut 60-90 minutes off the round trip time, as the riding does improve once the valley widens. Looking up the northwest ridge
Off-route just below the summit






The scramble is straightforward. We followed the Kane description up a drainage that was still choked with snow that had an annoying habit of collapsing underfoot. A faint trail was visible here. From the top of the drainage, you gain the ridge to the right, and scramble enjoyably over solid rock for rather further than you expect, direct to the narrow summit. The register showed 11 ascents for the previous year; this is no honeypot peak despite its visibility from Calgary. Our Canada Day ascent was the first of 2010. From the summit ridge we had fine views of the Elbow area, plus further peaks such as Assiniboine. I was intrigued by a narrow side-slope trail that disappears towards Mt. Howard, as there is no sign of a trail in the main valley and this would be a very long approach to Howard, making for something like a 35 km day.

Summit view beyond Romulus and Remus, to Tombstone and beyondThe scramble descent was fun, although the valley walking section did drag somewhat - the narrowing of the valley ahead didn't seem to draw any nearer for a long time. Biking out was awesome, although quite technical, particularly descending the switchbacks. I almost came a cropper above the little gorge that closes the valley when my SPD wouldn't unclip and instead of putting down my upslope foot, I fell headlong downslope, still attached to my bike, stopping a few feet above the cliff edge. The rest of the ride out was way more fun. The trip took 7 hours car-to-car. Recommended for a quiet day out, although my legs have been aching all night!

Thursday 1 July 2010

Goat Creek MTB

Lou on one of several creek crossings heading uphillGoat Creek is a great, easy MTB ride between Banff and Whiteman's Gap, above Canmore. It's about 19 km long and very popular. A lot of people shuttle and only cycle it from Whiteman's to Banff. Many of them are families trying to get their kids to enjoy mountain biking (which is great to see), but yeah....some of them are lard arses. And some of them carry radios playing f*cking country music at loud volume. Death by bear might be an appropriate reward for that kind of behaviour....

Lou approaching Ha Ling and Whiteman's GapDespite the unwarranted intrusion of slide guitars on the wilderness, it was a great little ride: 38 km round trip and a height gain of 600 m or so, plus all the up-and-down on the trail. Next time we'll do it with the Rundle Riverside trail as the return leg.Lou at Bow Falls

I'm feeling guilty

No boating today...My old friend Chris 'no problem' Freeman came to stay with us months ago and I never blogged pictures from his visit. He really got to experience the frustrations of Calgary in the spring. The week started off OK with sun and fresh snow up at Sunshine Village, but after two days we had heavy rain, then gales, then over a foot of snow dumped in K Country, before finishing the week back in double figures and blue sky.
We ate well!No hiking todayAt last, something went right with the weather








Chris said he had a great time anyway, and we did manage to get some good stuff done, despite the weather's best efforts - it really was foul at times! We had a good couple of days' skiing, some paddling and an attempt at hiking that never left the car park at Elbow Falls due to some 'interesting' snow depths. Chris - I'm sorry, but please do come back anytime between July and October, and December to Perfect skiing conditionsApril!