The passionate hiker

The passionate hiker
Early days in the outdoors

Monday, August 29, 2011

Picture of the Week

Fri. 26 August:   Trapped!

You never know what might be ahead of you at the gas pumps - but this was a little un-nerving.  This is the PetroCanada gas station in Rocky Mountain House on our journey into the back-country to conquer the remote Chungo Lookout.  Luckily this was the closest we got to any bears this weekend.

Conquering Chungo

Fri.-Sun. 26-28 August:  Chungo Lookout



Chungo Lookout
Mission accomplished!  After months of trying to figure out how to get to the abandoned Chungo Fire Lookout, on a remote ridge in the Central Alberta foothills, an expedition was mounted this weekend, and it was successful.

This story began back in early May 2010 when I visited Blackstone Lookout, up the Forestry Trunk Road north of Nordegg off Highway 11.  Hazel, the fire lookout at Blackstone, told me about the Chungo Lookout, and it caught my imagination: an abandoned, yet intact, fire lookout on a distant mountain ridge, which nobody ever visited.  I began to consider if it might be possible to get there, or if it was just too remote to reach.  Over several months, I studied maps, contacted a local off-road vehicle club, found a back-country outfitter who rode horses into the area.  I even contacted helicopter companies to see if they’d fly me in there, but when they told me what it would cost, that ended any idea of the easy option.  I finally discovered a very helpful person who works for the forestry service, who had some knowledge of the route, and now I knew it might be possible to hike into there.   Thanks to good advice from L, I started to plan a three day, two night trip, with a base camp from which the assault on the ridge would start.  L also suggested I do the trip as soon as possible, while it was still summer.   A weather window appeared, along with the ideal partner for this adventure, being M.  We moved quickly, and were ready to leave the city at noon on the Friday.

Friday

It was a fast, and enjoyable journey north up the “Cowboy Trail”, Highway 22, through the small towns of Sundre, Caroline, and Rocky Mountain House.  From here, a very fast 100 km westwards on the wide Highway 11, through vast areas of rolling forest, brought us to the old mining village of Nordegg.  After filling up with gas, we turned north onto the dusty Forestry Trunk Road, for about 12 km, then branched left onto the even more remote Chungo Road.  Our trailhead lay exactly 39 km up this road, with measurement of distance being made very easy due to the handy little signs every kilometer, giving us the distance from the Forestry Road junction.  Chungo Road is impressive.  It climbs and drops dramatically as it heads north in the lonely, forested foothills of the Rockies.  Thanks to the various gas wells and tiny gas plants in the area, this road has been newly reconstructed, and although a gravel surface, was well graded and empty of traffic.  At kilometer 39 we had our eye out for a green trapper’s cabin, and there it was, a very basic little one-room home in the trees.  And a few yards past the cabin was the old fire access road, branching off to the left, just before a tight right-hand bend in the Chungo Road.

We were soon on the trail, carrying on our backs all the supplies we would need for three days in the back-country.   Below us to the left was Brown Creek, which would become our companion for most of our adventure.  If you like crossing rivers or creeks, then this is the trail for you.  In total, over the next three days, we would make sixty eight (68) creek crossings.  Luckily the water only occasionally reached up to our knees.  Several crossings could be made by hopping from rock to rock.  This is called a creek, but is really a small river.  Earlier in the season it would present a formidable barrier to progress up the valley.  We could see how high the water reaches in Spring run-off, and it would be several feet deep.

At the start, the trail is very clear, and is accessible to vehicles for the initial few hundred metres.  The first wide river crossing would stop all cars – but not OHVs.  One or two very attractive campsites were located at the first few creek crossings.  Beyond that, there was no sign of anyone having camped up this valley.

Our adventure can be broken into three stages.  The first day we walked westwards up this valley, to our base camp, about 9 km from the road.  The second day we would continue west, then south, climbing up to Chungo Ridge and the lookout, before retracing our steps to the camp – a round trip of about 22 km.  On the final day we would return down the valley to the car.

There is very little elevation gain up the valley.  Generally the trail was clear.  The valley bottom was sometimes grassy with scattered trees, and then it would narrow down a little, and the trail would pass through the trees.  The sides of the valley and the surrounding hills were heavily forested. 

On this first day we crossed the creek twenty six times, each of us in our own style.  M wore her sturdy kayaking sandals and so simply waded across – and often straight up the middle of the river just for the fun of it!  I used my “dry-sack” technique, which kept my feet reasonably dry.  Either way works.

Eventually, we came to a broad, grassy area below a steep slope, where the valley splits, one branch heading northwest, and our branch continuing in a generally westerly direction.  Here, beside the trail, above the creek, we found an ideal place to set up our base camp.    Just above us were some low bluffs in the trees, which provided a good view across the bushes and the grass, so we could keep an occasional eye out for any passing animals.  In fact, the next day, I discovered a thermometer nailed to a tree up there, which indicated that someone may have used this as a campsite, but there was no sign of recent activity, or a fire-pit.   M had her bivy tent laid out in no time.  My lightweight Big Agnes tent soon followed.   We then cooked ourselves a hot meal down on the little beach beside the creek.  The light faded by around 9 pm.  During the walk, we had been watching the clouds, which had looked slightly threatening for a while.  But it stayed dry, and it was a warm evening.

Saturday

There was frost overnight, so a large bowl of porridge was the perfect answer.  We were on the trail as the sun started to light up the valley floor.  Today there would be a hazy sun and a warm breeze – perhaps the perfect weather for a long hike.  We continued westwards up the valley, passing through a narrow gap, before curving southwards towards the hills.  The trail continued to be fairly clear, now a single path in the grass, but marked by several sets of hoof prints from recent horse-back riders.  It was also marked by the occasional bear paw print and bear scat, and by other animal prints in the mud.  The bones and skulls lying beside the trail suggested past encounters between predator and prey!  Luckily not today.  For some reason, bones have always fascinated M, and there were some good specimens for her to study.

Now heading south, the valley narrowed, and we passed through a boggy area, marked by an orange metal post – the remains of a fire road gate.  Here the trail finally started to climb up into the hills.  And here we had our first glimpse of the bare rocky northern end of Chungo Ridge, ahead of us.  A steep section directly up a narrow creek-bed brought us to the grassy high-point below the north end of the ridge.  This was marked by another orange metal post – the other part of the gate which someone must have hauled up from the valley below.  The wide, grassy trail continued southwards down the hillsides towards Chungo Gap.  We could see that this was the route the horses took.  Having studied the topo maps carefully, however, we knew that the lookout trail branches off at this point, to head into the valley which parallels the ridge.  We found this sketchy trail just a few yards into the trees to the left of the orange post. 

We could tell this was once a road as there was an “avenue” through the forest where the road once ran.  This reminded me of the nightmare route up to Cabin Ridge, but it also gave us confidence we were on the right path.  There were no signs of anyone having come this way recently.  The route first dropped down the hillsides before leveling out at a tiny lake beneath the ridge.  It was difficult to get to the edge of the lake due to the thick bushes.  We continued up the valley, making one minor error in route-finding by straying a little too far to the right and ending up in the bushes along the valley floor.  But we soon found the trail again, which hugged the slightly drier edge of the valley in the trees.  From hereon, the route was easy to find, as the trail started to climb steeply to the head of the valley.  This had once been a road, but was now a grassy or rocky trail, mostly free of bushes and fallen trees, running through the “avenue”. 

Suddenly, with an excited shout, M proclaimed: “Look, there’s the lookout!”.  And there it was, high on the ridge ahead of us – and it was intact!  Now we knew the game was on.  We were going to make it.

After a long steep section, we reached the head of the valley, and turning up to the left, were soon at tree-line.  Already the views westwards to the Rocky Mountain Front Ranges were spectacular, particularly the gap in the mountains where the Brazeau River runs out towards the foothills and prairie.  I had stood close to the source of the Brazeau, on Nigel Pass, only a few weeks ago.  Now I was seeing the same river from a completely different angle.  It runs through a wide, lonely valley running north-south between the mountains and Chungo Ridge.

The final section of trail runs in two long switchbacks up to the summit of the ridge.  The road no longer exists.  You can figure out where it ran, and so can make a route across the steep, bare, stony mountainside, but over the years, the natural angle of the ridge has filled back in.  Soon we were approaching the ridge-top and the lookout.  The top of Chungo Ridge is grassy and flat enough for several buildings as well as a helicopter pad.  But the ridge itself, in both directions, becomes narrow, with dangerously steep slopes to the east and only slightly less steep to the west.  This ridge is walkable, and if we had not come such a long way to get here, we would have found this an exhilarating ridge-walk.  Not far to the north along the ridge was an appealing summit.  To the south, the ridge soon falls in a series of cliffs down into Chungo Gap.

Chungo Lookout was once an impressive place.  The lookout building itself is still intact, complete with cupola.  Perhaps inevitably, the packrats or marmots have found a way inside through a hole in the lino floor, and have been busily eating away at the walls and cupboards, leaving a mess on the floor.  There is a separate bedroom and a tiny workshop/office, both in bad state of repair.  In the office, on a table, sat a 12 volt battery, with a little power light shining, which feeds the tall aerial outside.  The battery is charged by a solar panel.  A ladder fixed to the wall inside the building leads up to the cupola, which apart from a broken window, is still in good shape.  All windows were of course boarded up.  We noticed the markings above each of the windows of the cupola, showing the direction of key landmarks, such as Grave Flats, Lovett Lookout, and so on.

A rotting wooden pathway curves down past an open storage shed to the privy – also open to the elements.  White stones were arranged to spell “CHUNGO” for visiting helicopters.  Some long-ago visitors had arranged some white stones to read “XMC 84”, and there was a circle of white stones right on the edge of the cliff marking a helicopter pad.  It seemed to us that this place was simply gutted then abandoned, and now is gradually falling into ruin. It is only a matter of time before the main building collapses.  Perhaps the only hope for Chungo is the fact that someone must visit every so often to check the aerial and battery.  It is still not too late for the building to be resealed and rescued from the packrats, as was done at Tocher Ridge in Yoho.  This would then make Chungo a wonderful and incredibly remote destination for adventurous explorers for decades to come.  It was our impression that this place is seldom if ever visited.  We left a little visitors note pinned to a nail in the wall hopefully beyond the reach of the packrats.

Our return from the summit was much quicker, and started with a direct drop off the ridge from the lookout to the head of the valley, short-cutting the long switchbacks.  We made good progress back down the trail, this time keeping to the right path and not straying into the bushes on the valley floor.  For future hikers, look out for the two arrows we left on the ground to indicate where you need to stay a little to the left in the trees, and ignore the red blazing we used as we wandered off course for a few hundred yards on our way up the trail from the small lake.

Feeling very pleased with ourselves, we raced back down the long route, into the Brown Creek valley, and all the way back to our tents.  It had only taken us just over three and a quarter hours to get back from the lookout.  It was a very warm afternoon and we relaxed by the creek on our little beach, enjoying the food and later lighting a small fire on the rocks beside the stream.  By the time the sun had set, we were probably already asleep in our warm sleeping bags.

Sunday

 An even heavier frost overnight left M with a frozen Nalgene water bottle, but today dawned cloudless, and it stayed that way all morning.  It was amazing how quickly the temperatures rose as soon as the sun climbed high enough to hit our tents.  Once again we were glad of a hot bowl of porridge.

Our return journey was a leisurely stroll down the valley, enjoying every one of the twenty six river crossings.  The sunlight made this a beautiful trip through the green grass, over sparkling creek-beds, under a dark blue sky.  The wildflowers were still giving a good display.  And as M discovered the previous day, there were ripe wild strawberries and raspberries all over the ground.  It was very close to being a little paradise today.  The further we travelled eastwards, the more we felt the isolation of the valley we were leaving behind.  This was the most lonely back-country area that either of us had yet experienced.

At one of the crossings, M discovered, just around a corner, the ideal swimming hole, and a diving (or jumping-off) rock, and so proceeded to try it out.  It was very cold.  I was happy to give that experience a miss!

All too soon, we had reached the final river crossing, having sung “ten creek crossings waiting to be crossed” more than enough times!  With a huge sense of achievement we were back at the car.  Our return journey to the  big city was fast and uneventful. 

It was hard to take it all in.  We had only given ourselves a 50-50 chance of success, and we had succeeded. 

Mission Accomplished!





Statistics
Chungo Lookout
Fri.-Sun. 26-28 August

Total Dist.

40.1 km (hike)

Height Gain

 2,756 ft.

Max. Elev.

 7,415 ft.

Time

14 hrs. 52 min.



Other Stats.

Fri. 26th:
Start hike:      5.07 pm
Campsite:       7.54 pm
Distance:          8.9 km
Sun/cloud

Sat. 27th:
Start hike:      8.25 am
High pt. jn.:   10.58 am
Arr. L/O:         1.13 pm
Dep. L/O:        1.46 pm
High pt. jn.:     3.04 pm
Campsite:       5.03 pm
Distance:        22.3 km
Hazy cloud, sun
Sun. 28th:
Dep. Camp:   10.10 am
Ret. to car:      1.37 pm
Distance:          8.9 km
Cloudless

Temp: dropping to below freezing at night and rising above 20 deg C during the day.

Calgary to Trhd. via Sundre: 360.6 km

Trhd.- Calgary via Hwy22/2: 380.0 km

Trhd. = km # 39 on Chungo Road, past green trappers cabin


Sunday, August 21, 2011

Picture of the Week

Sat. 20 August:  Having a Blast     This colourful poster once advertised the Twin Falls in Yoho Valley.  When the left-hand Falls dried up, back in the 1920's, the Canadian Pacific Railway had the streambed blasted out to renew the flow.  Today, only one of the waterfalls is flowing.  Time to bring back the dynamiters?  This picture is displayed in front of the Twin Falls Chalet.

Yoho

Sat. 20 August:  Yoho:  Twin Falls and The Whaleback



Another classic hike in the Canadian Rockies.  Or perhaps that should be the Canadian Pacific Rockies.  For it was the CP railway which opened up the Yoho Valley to tourism long ago, and it is those well-graded trails which make this such a treat for today’s hikers.  To say nothing of the more dramatic changes the railway company has made, such as blasting out one of the channels of the Twin Falls when it stopped flowing!

Today my hiking colleague J joined me for this adventure.  Another early pre-dawn start from Calgary had us passing Banff as the sunlight caught the peaks.  The sun was shining brightly as we crossed the Alberta-BC border and headed up the Yoho Valley.  This road has a couple of very tight hairpin bends, but the road was empty at this early hour.  The car park at Takakkaw Falls, however, was full of cars.  There is a nearby campsite here, and these cars belonged to the campers.  So we were actually one of the first arrivals of the day.  We had no expectation of being alone on this popular route.  As it turned out, the trail was not particularly busy, despite its widespread fame.

At the car park were some two-wheeled luggage carts, thoughtfully provided for the use of the campers in the nearby campsite, which we passed through on the way up the valley.  The trail is initially a wide gravel path, heading northwards along the valley floor.  After about two kilometers we passed the signs to some waterfalls which we would explore on our return down the trail.  The path, now a narrower trail, then started to climb gently up to Laughing Falls.  Here, beside the milky Yoho River, sits a tiny campsite, perfectly positioned across a wooden footbridge.  Just round the corner was the Laughing Falls, an impressive waterfall of about 30m height.  The trail continued up the valley, past another small campsite, and a smaller waterfall coming through a narrow gap in the cliffs.  From here the trail was steeper as it climbed towards the base of the Twin Falls, which we could now see above us.  But where were the twins?  Only one of the falls was working!  But it was spectacular enough. 

There is a perfect viewing place for the falls, which tumble down from the horizontal cliff-line high above the valley, then down a series of smaller falls to the riverbed below us.  The valley seemed to be full of waterfalls, large and small.  We later learned that, above the falls is a valley which is called Waterfall Valley, which summed up today’s whole trip.

Just down from this ideal viewpoint of the falls sits the famous Twin Falls Chalet.  Here they serve tea from noon to three in the afternoon – a taste of the old days of the CP Rail Grand Tour where wealthy English people would come up here on guided tours.  The lady who runs the chalet, Fran Drummond – whom we did not see – has been doing this job since the early 1960’s.  “Remove your Boots” proclaimed the big sign on the front door of the chalet.  A couple of guys were busy filling large containers of water from the creek and probably boiling it up in readiness for tea-time!

Our original plan was simply to hike up to this point and then hike back down.  But it was such a perfect day, and we were feeling in good shape, so we decided to tackle the Whaleback on our return journey.  The Whaleback requires a strenuous hike up steeper trails to the top of Twin Falls and then further to a spectacular viewpoint high above the Yoho Valley.  Thanks to the CP Rail trail builders, this was a wonderful hiking route.  The path was never too steep, and by multiple switchbacks it climbed up past a cliff-band and eventually up onto the high land above the falls. 

We eventually came to the falls themselves, where we could stand right on the edge of the precipice and enjoy the view back down to the earlier viewpoint at the base of the falls.  Here the lively river simply headed straight for the edge of the cliff and immediately dropped 80m (260 ft) to the rocks below.  Above the falls was one of the most scenic corners of the Rockies that I have ever visited.  A narrow footbridge spanned the river, and upstream was a valley down which the waters flowed, through a huge area of snow.  We had fun taking pictures of ourselves below the huge drifts, which looked more like icebergs, breaking off into the river.

From here it was a steady, gentle climb up to the Whaleback through high meadows and scree slopes, with stunning views across to the sharp Yoho Peak, and a series of glaciers and snowfields ranged across the head of the valley.  On Whaleback summit we met four young people who were relaxing after climbing up the steep path from Little Yoho Valley.  From here the whole Yoho Valley was displayed for us, surrounded by sharp mountain peaks and glaciers.

We were very glad to be heading down, not up, the precipitous switchbacks into the Little Yoho Valley, and offered encouragement to the young couple coming up the hill, who were looking very over-heated.  Across the valley we could see the Iceline Trail, and readily agreed that this would be a separate hike at another time.  The trail dropped down and down the Little Yoho Valley until we finally came out at the junction above Laughing Falls.  From here it was a pleasant stroll back down the trail, this time stopping to take a quick look at a couple of nice waterfalls on side trails.  Even now, there were relatively few people on the paths, so we were able to enjoy the incredible scenery.

And to finish it off was the most spectacular waterfall of them all, Takakkaw Falls, at the start of our hike.  These falls drop 380m (1246 ft) to the floor of the Yoho Valley, and are a huge tourist magnet.  Not surprisingly the car park was now full.  We had been on the trail for eight hours, during which time the temperatures had risen from just a few degrees above zero to a very warm afternoon in the twenties degrees C.  We made steady progress east along a busy Trans-Canada Highway, stopping for a welcome meal at Craig’s restaurant in Canmore.  The sun was dropping towards the horizon as we drove into the city, feeling very satisfied with yet another amazing day out in the Rockies – with grateful thanks to CP Rail!




Statistics
Twin Falls/Whaleback
Sat. 20 August

Total Dist.

21.2 km (hike)

Height Gain

 2,300 ft.

Max. Elev.

 7,250 ft.

Time

8 hrs. 1 min.




Other Stats.

Start hike:      8.17 am
Chalet Jn.:    10.37 am
Whaleback:     1.31 pm
Ret. to car:      4.18 pm
Temp: rising from just above zero to the low 20’s C.

Sunny, light breeze, perfect hiking weather.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Picture of the Week

Sat. 13 August:  Pole Cat

I have no idea how this cat got all the way up this pole, but he needed some help to get down.  The fire engine was making its way down the road as I headed out of Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park, just west of Calgary.

Glenbow Ranch

Sat. 13 August:  Glenbow Ranch


This brand new Provincial Park only opened up last Tuesday.  But word gets around fast, and having visited it today, it’s no surprise it is already wildly popular.

Glenbow Ranch sits alongside the Bow River west of Calgary, and east of Cochrane.  It has remained totally unspoiled, as up until recently it was a working ranch under private ownership.  To east and to west, large homes have sprung up on the prairie, but here, apart from the Canadian Pacific railway running through the property, there has been no development on the land.

You have to know it’s here, as there are no signs on the highway yet, but a gravel road - Glenbow Road -   takes you off the high prairies halfway down to the Bow Valley.  From the car park, various trail systems head west and east into the hills and down into the valley.  Today I walked over fourteen kilometers from one end of the park to the other:  beside the railway – with freight trains passing by about every half hour – then up into the open grassy hills, back down into the valley, across the railway to the edge of the Bow River, and back again.

At the start, I had the place to myself.  By the end, it was a busy summer’s afternoon and the car park was full.  I saw deer, buzzards, cattle standing by the edge of the wide river, and a duck happily swimming around a small pond.  

It is the views which take one’s breath away.  Below the rounded grassy hillsides, the green Bow Valley gives way to open prairies, with the line of mountains on the western horizon.  To the east, the valley narrows as it passes between steep hillsides, while the tall skyscrapers of the city rise above the rolling landscape.

There is a large visitor centre where a friendly warden was directing people to different areas of the park, as a constant stream of visitors came down the hill from their cars.  Driving back up the hill, I saw a cat perched on the top of a tall power pole. Some kind person had called for help, and I soon passed the fire engine carefully making its way down the hillside to rescue the marooned animal.

With its paved bike paths, gravel trails, and its views, Glenbow Ranch will quickly become a favourite outing for Calgarians. It deserves the popularity it will very quickly gain.


Statistics
Glenbow Ranch
Sat. 13 August

Total Dist.

14.4 km (hike)

Height Gain

    400 ft.

Max. Elev.

 3,970 ft.

Time

3 hrs. 51 mins.




Other Stats.

Start hike:       7.37 am
Ret. to car:    11.28 am
Temp:+12 to +23 deg.C
Sunny, light W. breeze

Friday, August 5, 2011

Picture of the Week


Fri. 5 August:  Fall Guy

These signs show that there is more than one way of falling off a cliff.  Either way, this was a dangerous trail up to the magnificent Siffleur Falls, above the Kootenay Plains east of Banff National Park.  Two people have lost their lives on this trail.