Highwood Junction over Highwood Pass ... and then home
Folks who've read our other journals will know how much I like Tuesdays. Being retired I've come to see it as the perfect day to be out doing things since the vast majority of people are toiling away at work or in school.
Well today took Tuesday to a whole new level. We had a reasonably early start and were pedalling away from our camp at around 9 am. Our camp was only a few kilometres past the road barriers at Highwood junction and I anticipated that we would start to see the first roadies passing us by 1o am.
The first humans we saw were at the summit of Highwood Pass, some three hours, 35 km's and 700 m of climbing later!
The south side of Highwood has always been my favourite side to ride. The ascent is longer, but more gradual with an average net 2% grade over the entire climb, and no sections of more than 8%. However, it's not as accessible as the north side so we don't get to ride it that often. That being said, I've never ridden it before where we had it all to ourselves! Pure magic.
It was another beautiful morning with some high cloud cover when we started but the sun continually burnt the cloud cover away as we climbed higher into the heart of the Rockies. As we were the only people around for literally miles, aside from the hum of our tires, we could hear the ravens calling, woodpeckers hammering away on trees, leaves rustling in the wind (which unfortunately was picking up again from the north, i.e. headwinds). It truly was an amazing morning to be riding and I'll let the pictures once again tell the full story.
This valley is a major wildlife habitat and you are certain to see deer, elk and bighorn sheep. While not certain, it is common to see bears as well, both Grizzly and Black. Normally they are right along the road and largely oblivious to the bikers passing by.
Sure enough, within the first half hour of biking we saw elk and deer, however they moved off into the trees as we approached and I couldn't get pictures of them. No problem though, still 80 km's to go and we will likely see more.
The few roadies we saw at the end of the day yesterday said there was still some snow at the top of the pass so we were anticipating some pushing. By the time we were within 1.5 km's from the summit we came across the first snow patches along the road. By about 700 m from the summit the road was now covered and we were pushing. The snow was only at most 30 cm deep, and if we had our road bikes it would have been a piece of cake. With our loaded German panzers though, it was a full body work out to push them through to the summit. We did it however and arrived just before noon. There's a small picnic area at the summit and the road down to it was mostly clear so we headed down there for lunch. Midway through lunch we saw the first roadies (well almost - a couple on electric fat bikes) coming up from the north side. They were soon followed by a steady stream of folks riding up from the north. Nobody else was coming from the south.
Lunch done, we had about another 300 m or so of pushing through snow before we could start our long decent down towards Kananaskis Lakes and eventually our start point at Hwy 68..
The first 17 km's were car free (except for a lone Parks snowplow that was heading towards the summit - if we rode tomorrow there would be no pushing!) and a much steeper decent, to the road closure barriers at the Kananaskis Lakes road turn-off. When we arrived at the junction it was fairly busy with roadies starting and finishing, some Parks maintenance crew, and a few conservation officers managing people coming and going from the King creek picnic area parking lot. Apparently there was a mama bear with cubs in the near vicinity and they were keeping people out of their way.
No bear spotted, we continued on for the final 45 km's of the ride north down the Kananaskis valley. We had to remind ourselves that we were now sharing the road with other vehicles. The shoulder is an excellent full width one in great shape, and being Tuesday, the traffic was very light. Even better, the morning headwind had now turned into a decent tail wind. Perfection!
This ~100 km of riding up the Highwood valley and then down the Kananaskis valley rivals the Ice Field parkway in scenic value IMHO. And if you do it at the right time of year, half of it is car free. It doesn't get much better. To add the final icing on this cake, the ubiquitous Big Horn sheep on this side of the pass were back to their normal behaviour, i.e. hanging out on the road , or just off to the side, oblivious to folks on bikes. Pic's to follow.
All in, another super day of touring and a fitting end to a great three day tour.
SOTD - Corb Lund Getting Down On the Mountain
Yep, a hat trick for Corb, just like the three perfect days of touring we had. Although this song may come off as a bit dystopian, you can also read it as paean to the country folk who can, and do make a living off the land. We were also very much on our own this morning, the only people around in a huge and magnificent landscape, and you could get a small sense of what it would be like to live like this.
One of the greatest rides in the Canadian Rockies. Do it when you get the chance.
The last few km's and the steeper (only 6-8%) part of the climb. Don't be fooled by the sign, that's Storm Mountain (3095 m) in front of us. Mount Lipsett is off to our right.
Not the first time we've had snow here, but it's hanging around longer this year than most. Still stunning! Highest paved road in Canada ... and yes there is pavement under the white stuff.
View to the west and the 'WW I French General's' peaks on the north side of Elk pass. Mostly 3000 m+ glaciated peaks named after French Generals from WWI (Jofree, Castelnau, Nivelle etc). Not exactly sure which one we're looking at here.
The final bit of 'car free' riding as we approach the Kananaskis Lakes junction. Check out the fantastic syncline on the flank of Mount Lawson. This is on the north end of Lower Kananaskis Lake (in the valley in front of us and out of view)
