Barbara B.'s Adventures: 7-Hour Road Trip

It's been a week of non-stop rain. Lots of flooding, and lots of snow in the mountains. Since coming back from my trip, I've been itching for a spring-time Rockies hike and had planned on Belmore Browne for today. At a total of just over 8km and 640m of elevation gain, surely that would be doable even if there is snow. We go bushwhacking and do what some would perceive as 'crazy stuff' all the time, but I thoroughly enjoy being off the beaten path - where one experiences quiet, grand vistas, raw nature, and may not see another person for the entire day. 'Hiking' amongst the tourists - a la Johnston Canyon - makes me cringe. But perhaps it was time for me to learn a lesson and to take some hints - one friend had a cold, another dealt with water in the basement, and another wasn't sure about rising water levels and snow. In the end, I was actually happy myself to have a quiet weekend without a killer hike (and I have been struggling as I'm trying to regain more energy again). However, I still wanted to get to the mountains, and in the end made it a mission to see if one could access Belmore Browne.

My day started off slow as I woke up with a pounding headache thanks to trying to go off diet Coke cold turkey since Thursay. Lazily I dragged myself out of bed to check my e-mail: 'Are you still heading out there?' And so I had my partner in crime for the day. A Safeway stop was mandatory for I needed the Coke (and yes, I need a 2L bottle because it'll be a while before I get off this stuff :-) ). IKEA was next as I was heading down to Hwy 22X anyway, and then it was time to leave the city behind. Just driving and no hiking would be out of my routine for a Saturday. We figured we did our walking distance inside IKEA already, but decided to walk around Forgetmenot Pond - except we couldn't get around it due to snow. Most of it was still frozen. We were back in winter.

Hwy 66

Forgetmenot Pond

Winter does not want to be forgotten

When I want something, I go for it. And I knew that today I wanted to drive Powderface Trail, and not see a "Road Closure" sign. Surely "Closure" has got to mean something different than "Closed". This sign looked like it was missing some info. To me it looked like there was a full noticeboard waiting for information, but nothing was posted, so the road would be good for me to go.

"Road Closure" - a sign at the other end revealed that this was

for the Rocky Mountain Rally, which took place yesterday

It had some challenging sections due to muddy conditions, but in the end was passable all the way out to Hwy 68. What became very clear very quickly though, was that Belmore Browne would likely not have been accessible. We didn't even see the cairn for the trailhead due to the snow. Actually, we didn't even see the side valley opposite from where you are supposed to head up. Crossing the creek would have nixed the event in no time as it was more like a small raging river. Had we gone for it, we would have resorted to an alternate hike. But I was happy to have made it out there, and to at least know what it was like. I don't think there'll be any hiking in this area for at least another two to three weeks, which only means it'll be even longer in the 'real' mountains. This is definitely a late year.

Powderface Trail - look, it's plowed!

I think Belmore Browne and Tiara Peak are in this photo

Once we made it through these slow 34km, the sun came out. Just before Dawson we came around a corner and left all the snow behind. Roads were dry, even Dawson was all dry, and I got to see my first crocus on May 28th.