Vancouver Island -via Kananaskis

...on some river crossings it is just easier to lie down
and do the backstroke...

This trip was planned for early summer but kept getting postponed, so in the end it sort of started for real with a couple of side trips to the Kananaskis (that needed to be done as the weather was sooooo good it would have been a shame to run away and then come back to find everything covered in snow...).
So first up was an exploratory trip to Canyon Creek with a return along Prairie Creek. In theory it would work just fine, but there was very little information on the Canyon Creek portion past the Ice Caves and hence the 'exploratory' classification. The one description we did have suggested several creek crossings but it is now late summer and the water levels have all subsided so that should make things a bit easier. I also had a track for the first portion of the path in my GPS that we could use as a guide and that ought to make things easier also.

without water, it was easier in places
to just use the creek bed as the path

eventually there was water
in the creek

The first portion up to the Ice Caves trail is of course a gravel road and a nice easy ride on a fabulous day (which it was). As soon as we left the gravel and found the trail, which was actually the remnants of an access road of some sort we found things were going to get ore interesting. In places the trail was fabulous, wide and reasonably smooth, and in places it had been washed out and was now a rocky stream bed, and in others it narrowed down to a very winding single tract that wasn't always easy to follow. The one consistency was that it kept crossing the creek. We lost track at around fifteen, but at least the lower portion of the creek was dry which made it much, much easier. Eventually there was enough water to remain on the surface and the creek was no longer dry and then became a significant stream which became difficult to cross without getting the feet wet. You might ask why the path crossed the creek so many times - I know I did! Well, it wasnt just random or for fun. The creek is aptly named. It travels through a small but quite long and very winding canyon with a lot of bends that end in cliff faces so the trail has no choice but to go to the other side.... after about six or seven kilometers the trail begins to peter out and is difficult to follow in places which is where the GPS track I had came in very usefull. Eventually, after about ten kilometers we were not able to find the trail anymore as my GPS track ended there as well. The last few kilometers had been quite slow due to the bushwhacking and route finding and so we decided to about face rather than push on and tempt a return in the dark. As it turns out we were within a half a kilometer of another access road that would have taken us where we needed to be...  ...Oh well, good to know for next time!

The next was in the Sheep end of the Kananaskis on a couple of trails that I had done a few weeks before on my commuter bike - I wanted to redo one or two and do one or two that I hadn't gotten to... re-do as a comparison for myself between what mountain biking was like in the 80's with no shocks etc (like I had with my commuter bike) and today with full suspension, 24 gears and fat tires.

nice trail - lots of obstacles

Well, on the new trails I went on with all the roots and fallen trees and rocks and bogs, I would have been hours longer on the other bike - not to mention how much more effort would have been required... But on the trail I chose to re-do, things went somewhat different. I figured if I could do twenty km along a fairly good track with the commuter, I ought to be able to double that on the mountain bike - which would have gotten me all the way up the Sheep River to Tombstone. Things began very well - I was making great time and the ride was a fair bit easier, but just as I was done most of the hard climbing and was getting into the long valley, I came over a rise to find I had a small problem... well, not so small actually!

Mr. Grizzly cooling down on a warm day

There was Mr. Grizzly on my path with no apparent intention of leaving. (You might also notice he has a significant silver patch on his shoulder hump). I was about a hundred meters away and on a bike that (with a bit of adrenaline)  could do 35km/h along that path, so I was reasonably comfortable taking a couple of pictures and waiting a couple of minutes to see what he would do. He definitely knew I was there but made no move to retreat and there was no way I was going to advance - so we watched each other ....and then I retreated.  ...I'm pretty sure the whole 40km would have been quite doable otherwise.... :)