Tuesday, July 7: Sibbald Creek Road

Sibbald Flats

I'm now in the foothills area of the Rockies between Banff National Park and Calgary.  Even though the mountains are primarily behind me, I expect challenging riding, because these foothills can top out at higher elevations than the Banff townsite.  Without a guidebook, (Alberta has not published a nice comprehensive guidebook like we used in BC)  I depend now on the TransCanada Trail (TCT) website for my route information.    The website shows the TCT travels on two more trails which cross the open country and are not routed by existing roads.  The first is the Kananaskis Country Trail which is 31 kms long, followed by the West Bragg Creek Trail which is 50 kms.  I don't know the surface of these trails - they could be logging roads, doubletrack, or single track mountain bike trails.  Probably a combination of surfaces. 

My first step today was to check out an information center near Barrier Lake and near the head of the Kananaskis Country Trail. I ask the attendant if he has a brochure for the TCT.   "Nope." But he has a computer monitor which shows a detailed map of the region, and he can produce printoffs.   And he provides me some interesting information.  Both of these two trails are closed!  Due to the flooding.  Actually the Quaite Creek Trail which I rode two days ago is now also closed.  I get this information with mixed emotions.  On one hand, I'm disappointed because I will have to continue off of the TCT route for the next 81 kms.  Each day off route is a day in which I'm not getting the TCT experience I  envisioned when I started 13 years ago.  But I will be traveling on dirt roads  and paved roads instead to get to Bragg Creek.  These roads are likely going to be easier travelling than the TCT.  

Interestingly, the TCT website does not mention that these trails are closed.  While the website is the best information available to me, it is not showing any of the trail closures I've been finding along the way this year.  Perhaps the TCT organization is not getting this trail information because their only resource is reports from riders like me. Or maybe the website is staffed only by volunteers, and they don't have the capacity to continually update the website for temporary closures.  The TCT organization is a tax exempt business which depends on donations.  (I now make an actual donation annually).  It has to be a tremendous amount of work trying to organize and maintain the longest trail in the world at 28,000 kms.  I am  travelling the main original trail which crosses the country west to east.  But now there is a branch of the trail that goes to the Arctic Ocean, (not for me), and many spurs off of the main trail. Many communities not on the main trail route but nearby,  have an interest in connecting to the main route so they develop a spur to the amin trail. And the route is designed to include all territories and provinces including The Yukon and Nunavut. With local trail organizations maintaining and upgrading the trail constantly, it seems like a tremendous amount of work to keep track of it all.

 A distance sign at the start of the Sibbald Creek Road.

The weather today was perfect.  Best day of the trip this year.  Broad sunshine all day, bright clear skies (no smoke yet), with temps in the 60's.  The road is 36 kilometers, around 22 miles,  and I decide to break the ride down into two parts.  The first part is west to east and around 17 miles.  I plan to complete that today, there and then back to the car.  On the second part, the road becomes paved and makes a big left turn to head north and connect with  TransCanada Rte 1.  The scenery was nice all day through both forested and open prairie areas.  Following the major pattern of roads here, it starts with an ascent to a high point and then descends before ending at TransCanada  Rte 1.  Like the first three days on Highway 40, the road is a dirt road and sometimes stony and washboarded but very wide. It is clearly used by all types of vehicles including semis. 

The nicest viewpoint of the day was at Sibbald Flats which you can see in the first picture above.  Photos are two dimensional images of three dimensional scenery, and again the photo does not capture the depth of the plain below my viewpoint.  It is a level grassy meadow west of the Sibbald homestead.  Andrew Sibbald came west in 1875 and was one of Alberta's first teachers.   This area was of importance to  the indigenous people (Stoney Nakoda) and has evidence of stone-tool manufacture dating back thousands of years.

This pond/lake is at the highest elevation of the 
Sibbald Creek Road at 5000 feet.

One other area of interest is the Jumpingpound forest demonstration area.  I did not stop but is an outdoor forest laboratory showing maintenance of old and new forests.  I  took the picture of the sign below, mostly because I think this area has a interesting name.  Not as interesting as the Golden Ears bridge near Vancouver but interesting nevertheless. One last comment for today:  one of the first sights of the day was the start of the closed Kananaskis Country Trail  - it looked like a challenging mountain bike trail.  So I am probably getting off easy for my travel through this region, and that's not a bad deal.

Jumpingpound Forest Demonstration Area 

Mileage:  37 miles
Highest Elevation: 5013 feet (that's high for a foothill area)
Lowest Elevation: 4424 feet


 

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