Old Man River North to Skyline Road

May 30, 2024

Back to cattle country

Brrrr. It was cold overnight. I'd say it was just below freezing based on water crystals in the dish pot. Good thing I brought that warm sleeping bag. At least is was a sunny and calm start to the day.

After a really good Costco quiche for breakfast (gotta remember that for future van-supported trips), we were on the road before 10.

To start, it was a nice slightly downhill trip on the very quiet Forestry Trunk Road through the Livingstone Range of the Rocky Mountains. We passed a wildfire base that had some old cabins - I wondered if it was an old German POW camp from WW2, but it doesn't seem that there was one here - there was a camp further north in Kananaskis near Barrier Lake and also one in Lethbridge.

We had the road to ourselves through the Livingstone Range.

It looks like there's no way out, but we'll hang a left through a gap.

It still looks like early spring here in late May.

Despite the chilly weather, it was nice riding.

Then we took a left turn and headed generally east on Maycroft Road. We were in the midst of beautiful scenery - the Livingstone range and the Old Man River. Then we went around a corner, and poof - we were back in cattle country. I don't know if there was ever a townsite. We saw three buildings that were all pretty far apart, which makes it seem like there never was a townsite. There is a former one room school, and we also saw an old church on a current residential site, and community hall is still present at a third location. The hall was built in the late 1930s. A report from their archives says in the early days there was a wood stove to make coffee on, and lighting was with Coleman gas lamps until they got electricity in 1960. The archives also report: there was no bar inside and the dances were known to get pretty rough, with lots of “fightin’ and drinkin’ outside.” Apparently local residents would appear in the afternoon and hide their bottles in gopher holes for later in the evening, “so they could step out with a buddy for a little snort.”

We met Rick at Highway 22 at a picnic site for lunch. It had warmed up only to about 10 degrees C, so it was nice to have a hot drink.

While we were eating, a family arrived and exited their car. Mom, dad, and multiple kids were all wearing pirate hats and the kids had swords too. What fun! It wasn't even 'International Talk Like a Pirate Day'.

The ranches here must have a great collection of old timey cowboy gear.

Steve accessing the one room schoolhouse. The interior has been all fixed up, and it looks great.

Looking east at the Old Man River. Where there was freshly graded gravel on the road, the going was a bit tough.

Our lunch spot at Highway 22 where it crosses the Old Man River.

After lunch Sue hopped into the van with Rick to go find a campsite. This was the one night there was no official park for us to camp in, but we were hoping for a decent wild campsite.

Steve, Adele, and I had a beautiful ride east of Highway 22 through the Waldron Ranch, which is a 65,000 acre (wow!) cooperative grazing land owned by 65 ranchers. Cultivation is not permitted. The route at that point was slightly uphill but we had a nice tailwind pushing us.

This giant bit of equipment was attempting to get into the field to spray nitrogen fertilizer. But it was too large to fit through the gate, so the cowboys were going to have to take down part of the fence. Check out the size of those tires.

The Porcupine Hills are sure nice to look at.

And here is the view back westward towards the Whaleback and the Rockies.

Oops. We didn't buy a camping pass. It's available online, apparently. But there was no cell service.

Most of us stayed on the road for our final climb, but Steve decided to try a shortcut. At this point, we were just a few minutes from our campsite.

Sue and Rick found a real-live campsite with a single picnic table and a nice outhouse even. Then they biked back to meet us at the bottom of our last good hill climb up to the Skyline Road.

It was nice to have a place to camp, but it was cool and windy. After having appetizers outside, we retreated to the warm van before dinner and ate our butter chicken inside before another early night.

It was cold, but we were prepared for it.

I found today to be a stunningly beautiful ride from start to finish.

Today's ride: 56 km (35 miles)
Total: 166 km (103 miles)

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