Willow Creek Campground to Indian Graves Campground

May 27, 2024

Just us and the cows

We met up at at Sue and Rick’s shortly after 7 am. We spent some time sorting out the Garmin InReaches (satellite communication devices) because there will likely be no cell coverage for most of our route, and then started off on our 2 hour-ish drive to our starting point. We're all heading in different directions when the trip ends, so we drove three vehicles.

Our first meetup was in the Town of Nanton to fuel up and enjoy the last flush toilets and running water we'll have for a few days, then we drove south to our starting point at the Willow Creek Campground run by the Stavely, AB Elks Club. Southern Alberta is notoriously windy, as in, periodically windy enough to blow transport trucks over. And today we’re heading west, the direction most likely to mean a headwind. At about 10 am, the dynamic highway sign that reports wind speeds said 9 km/hour - we’ll take that.

There was no sign of anyone camping yet at our starting point. We found some two guys cutting grass, and one of them said we could park in the maintenance yard. That suited us fine, since it seemed less abandoned than the campsite area. It took us a while to get organized, getting things moved into the van, and also partly due to more futzing with the InReaches and we didn’t start biking until about 11:30. The temperature was around 20 C when we started, and stayed there for the rest of the day. It was perfect weather for biking today.

For the first couple of hours we were on the Flying E Road, a gravel road no doubt named after a ranch and its cattle brand. [In a brand, adding a dash to the left and right of a letter, at the top, is called a flying letter.] It is a lovely twisting gravel road with many cattle guards, and only a handful of vehicles passed us all day. The entire area along the east side of Highway 22 is ranches, including the A7 Ranche (not sure why it's spelled with the 'e' on the end), still owned by the Cross family, one of the original Alberta ranching families. A.E. Cross was one of the 'Big Four' men who founded the Calgary Stampede. He also founded Calgary's first brewery. Today the ranch is still family owned - I found an article that says they run 4,000 yearlings on 14,000 acres of native grassland that include 140 pastures.

Steve can't resist interacting with any available pup. This ranch dog was accompanying its owner, who was mending a fence.

Heading west, without a nasty headwind. Hurray! The mountains are barely visible in the distance.

There were beautiful vistas, like something out of a western movie. The spring flowers were blooming too.

Sue didn't used to like riding over cattle guards. She had lots of practice every day this week, and now rides them like a pro.

Did they mean to say windy as in winding, or windy as in blowing winds? Possibly both.

About an hour in, I realized that I had forgotten an entire IKEA bag with my camping stuff in my truck. Argh. The InReach was put to work, since we had no cell coverage, and Rick kindly drove back for my bag. Good thing too, because without it I'd have no tent, sleeping pad, sleeping bag, or pillow.

Shortly after seeing Rick pass us on the road, Adele crashed on a recently graded section of road in the fresh deep gravel. She ended up with some road rash in her arm and leg, but is a trooper and we didn't hear much about it the rest of the trip.

Bird life was abundant. We saw a couple of red tailed hawks, an osprey nesting on bridge who was nervously protecting her babies, a mountain bluebird, some swans, and a northern harrier. These were all identified thanks to Adele's skills. Well, I do know a swan when I see one. And the osprey too. There were also some super-loud frogs.

The wind was up a bit as we approached our short paved westbound section on Highway 533, but it never got terrible. Or scary, which it can be here.

The foals matched their moms, and didn't leave their sides.

We took at snack break at Chain Lakes provincial park and chatted with a weed inspector for the municipal district. Since there are zero towns in this MD, they built their public offices in the provincial park. Noxious weeds are a big deal in Alberta, with lots of inspection and enforcement.

Then we had an easy 10 km north on Hwy 22, the busiest road of the day, before our final 13 km climb to Indian Graves provincial campground on more gravel. It's a really nice campground right on a creek, mostly for equestrians, it seems. ATVs are banned from driving on the campground roads. We were the only campers. Signage on the paddock indicated that there would be horses arriving on the following weekend.

Highway 22 is known as the Cowboy Trail. It has a nice shoulder, and we repeatedly heard vehicles crossing over the centre rumble strips to give us even more space. That's Chain Lakes Provincial Park to the left.

Cows. Did I mention the cows and calves? There were lots of them. Mostly shy and far enough away that we didn't get good photos.

There was a mountain bluebird on this birdhouse until I got out my phone to take a pic.

As we approached the elevation of our campground, we noticed that the leaves aren't all out here yet. We're up high, and winter isn't too far gone.

Having a support van meant we could bring luxuries like full-sized camping chairs, a nice tablecloth, bottles of wine, and super-warm sleeping bags.

It’s apparent from the snowy mountains visible from the campground that we’ll have to take our plan B route tomorrow unless we want to walk our bikes through snow. Even our easy route climbs to 2020 m. But Steve is confident that the main road will have been plowed and open.

There were a few rain drops as I set up my tent, prompting me to put up a tarp too. But that was it for today's precipitation. It's supposed to be cooler for the next few days, but we should stay dry.

I got my tent all set up for rain that never came. And the flapping of my tarp annoyed me all night.

We had chips and beer as soon as we arrived at 6 pm, then we had a great dinner of Sue's beef bourguignon and brownies, then an early night. I was asleep in my cozy tent shortly after 9.

Uphill and into the wind (but we were lucky with the winds today).

Today's ride: 66 km (41 miles)
Total: 66 km (41 miles)

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Rachael AndersonSure is different than Morocco!
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