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An old riding buddy that I hadn't talked to in ages called me up out of the blue and wanted to hook up for an adventure. I had a company stat holiday on friday so we made plans to do a route neither one of us had ever attempted.
Chris and I decided to do a variation of the "Over Moose Mountain" trip in the Back Country Biking in the Canadian Rockies guide book. We would turn it into a loop instead of a point to point by going Moose Mountain to Jumpingpound Ridge and returning via Canyon Creek.
A wicked hail storm the night before changed my original plan of doing the K-80 race course as far as Jumpingpound and then climbing Moose Mountain, but after seeing what is involved I think our final route was a much better decision.
We started out by riding up a very muddy Sulfur Springs single track and were actually happy to turn onto the dryer Moose Mountian fire road. 15kms of climbing brought us to the end of the road and some amazing views.
Looking back down at the fire road and the valley we started from (4500ft)...
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After the road ends the hiking begins. We had anticipated plenty of pushing so we packed light hiking shoes along, a very good call.
Looking at the final push up to the Moose Mountain summit and fire lookout. See the marmot in the foreground?
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A close up of Mr Marmot with the front range of the Canadian Rockies in the background...
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The final push up to the lookout. The hard work was still to come...
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Once at the summit (8000ft)we finally got a view of the next section of our route, a 7km traverse above treeline over to Jumpingpound ridge.
We would follow the top of the rocky ridge and drop down to the gas drilling platform (road) and then follow the lower green ridge over to Jumpingpound Ridge (far left hand side of picture)...
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Chris picking his way down the pile of scree. This where the hiking shoes came in real handy!
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Once at the second summit we were able to put our bike shoes back on and ride, woo hoo! Dropping down to the gas well platform was a riot, we were on a steep grassy slope with no trail and large sections of big rocks, forcing us to pick our lines carefully to prevent being "rocked out"...
Chris climbing to the second summit...
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After some bushwacking we managed to gain the east ridge of Jumpingpound. The travelling was much easier now, we even had a bit of a trail to follow!
Looking along the ridge towards Jumpingpound (green summit in the distance).
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After pushing and riding along the grassy ridge we finally reached the top of Jumpingpound Ridge (7200ft). Looking back at Chris labouring and the ridges we followed to get here...
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6000 feet of elevation gain had taken its toll on us and we were only half way around our 50km loop! Luckly we had a nice long descent off of Jumpingpound to look forward to. We didn't realize it at the time but the rest of the ride would be all downhill
The climb up the south ridge is always nasty, but riding down it was pure joy!
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We finished off with the Canyon Creek trail, which neither of us had done before. The description in the guide book had always turned us off, with its umpteen creek crossings and many unridable sections.It turned out to be a pleasant surprise, in that it was a gradual downhill on tight and twisty single track! The creek crossings (we lost count at 15) proved to be blessing as well, since were in the heat of the day and almost out of water.
A gradual descent on the Canyon Creek road and highway 66 would have us rolling into Station Flats trailhead spent but with huge smiles on our faces.
Chris and I decided to do a variation of the "Over Moose Mountain" trip in the Back Country Biking in the Canadian Rockies guide book. We would turn it into a loop instead of a point to point by going Moose Mountain to Jumpingpound Ridge and returning via Canyon Creek.
A wicked hail storm the night before changed my original plan of doing the K-80 race course as far as Jumpingpound and then climbing Moose Mountain, but after seeing what is involved I think our final route was a much better decision.
We started out by riding up a very muddy Sulfur Springs single track and were actually happy to turn onto the dryer Moose Mountian fire road. 15kms of climbing brought us to the end of the road and some amazing views.
Looking back down at the fire road and the valley we started from (4500ft)...
After the road ends the hiking begins. We had anticipated plenty of pushing so we packed light hiking shoes along, a very good call.
Looking at the final push up to the Moose Mountain summit and fire lookout. See the marmot in the foreground?
A close up of Mr Marmot with the front range of the Canadian Rockies in the background...
The final push up to the lookout. The hard work was still to come...
Once at the summit (8000ft)we finally got a view of the next section of our route, a 7km traverse above treeline over to Jumpingpound ridge.
We would follow the top of the rocky ridge and drop down to the gas drilling platform (road) and then follow the lower green ridge over to Jumpingpound Ridge (far left hand side of picture)...
Chris picking his way down the pile of scree. This where the hiking shoes came in real handy!
Once at the second summit we were able to put our bike shoes back on and ride, woo hoo! Dropping down to the gas well platform was a riot, we were on a steep grassy slope with no trail and large sections of big rocks, forcing us to pick our lines carefully to prevent being "rocked out"...
Chris climbing to the second summit...
After some bushwacking we managed to gain the east ridge of Jumpingpound. The travelling was much easier now, we even had a bit of a trail to follow!
Looking along the ridge towards Jumpingpound (green summit in the distance).
After pushing and riding along the grassy ridge we finally reached the top of Jumpingpound Ridge (7200ft). Looking back at Chris labouring and the ridges we followed to get here...
6000 feet of elevation gain had taken its toll on us and we were only half way around our 50km loop! Luckly we had a nice long descent off of Jumpingpound to look forward to. We didn't realize it at the time but the rest of the ride would be all downhill
The climb up the south ridge is always nasty, but riding down it was pure joy!
We finished off with the Canyon Creek trail, which neither of us had done before. The description in the guide book had always turned us off, with its umpteen creek crossings and many unridable sections.It turned out to be a pleasant surprise, in that it was a gradual downhill on tight and twisty single track! The creek crossings (we lost count at 15) proved to be blessing as well, since were in the heat of the day and almost out of water.
A gradual descent on the Canyon Creek road and highway 66 would have us rolling into Station Flats trailhead spent but with huge smiles on our faces.
