Just a quick scribble about Dawson....

A few blogs back artist Shannon Luyendyk hissed about the clear-cut from Dawson Equestrian Centre while heading for one of my favourite viewchick bliss points at Eagle Hill.

So, here's a photograph of WHERE the equestrian trail starts from Dawson's campground - if you go out onto the gravel Powderface Trail, then look for this squiggly yellow traffic sign (to the right of the trailer), on the left-hand side of the road - photograph next up - is where your equestrian trail slants across the clear-cut (top photographic image on the top right-hand side again for you, visual works for me every time - click, by the way, on the image and they enlarge like crazy - I just hope you're not on dial-up that's slower than smoke signals!), across Sibbald Flats and then either aim for Eagle Hill or adjoining rides. Frankly, absolutely one of my favourite areas.

So, hope these are helpful!

Down Jumpingpound Summit Trail....

Oh, and by the way, here's a pic of the exit onto the gravel Powderface Trail and the lay-by car parking. Looks nice and flat, doesn't it?! Well, that's the number that climbs up to stupendous viewpoints and Jumpingpound Mountain itself. This trailhead's located 17.1 kilometres from the turnoff off the #68 highway.

And, one final shot of The Fox, usually only a drinker-of-water-from-home, who guzzled half of the Jumpingpound Creek down as well as getting a good washdown and sweat scraped clean.

This area, by the way, is a definite wildlife corridor - the closest I've ever come to a magnificent grizzly (my eyes watered, the scent was THAT strong - really!) happened one earlier fall riding alphamare The Best. We were, say, 40 yards apart and both just sizing each other up with no particular hassle. Bear spray though recommended here, folks, and not tucked into your saddlebag either (!). Cougars too, up higher, black bears and in winter the tracking in snow are just amazing experiences, one after another - pine marten, snowshoe hares, the brush of a landing owl's wing. Magic.

From the Viewchick.......

Wow! to this gifting of Indian summer right now.

And. Here's a ride that certainly needs a mountain fit horse and also one where you need to be super-aware of weather conditions. Two weeks before The Fox and I clambered atop the Jumping Pound Ridgeline trail a disgruntled hiker had told me he'd have been better off with snowshoes.

“Eight inches of snow, the top crusted,” he grumped. A note down where the rig was parked mentioned on the 15th September a mountain bike race had been scheduled. Did it run? I wonder, because peddling up those steep climbs and slithering three back to one foot gained must have been, grin, a bit character forming.

So, here's a fabulous ride not mentioned in the guidebook, two trailer number if you can manage, are better than one – reasons why later, OK?

Take the #68 Highway (it's paved now until the K-Country entrance, lovely!) and then go along until you slide down the hill towards Sibbald Flats, golden too right now and with the grazing lease cattle due for their move towards home mid-October. Then turn south (or left) onto the gravel Powderface Trail. If you click your mileage timer on, it's 10.8 kilometres to a parking lay-by, where on your right hand side is the Lusk trail (where an obliging cyclist mentioned three horse riders were camped out at the little corrals there a couple of kilometres up through the old growth forests).

On the left (or east) side is the easily found start of Jumping Pound Ridge Trail. Pop over the stout wooden bridge, across a little meadow and then, it's climb. And climb and climb. It's switchbacked and initially underfoot is mostly dirt with the odd stone but as you hit the higher elevations, it's more rock than dirt; this is NOT a ride for barefoot.

I actually rode this with The Best in 2005, and up-here-high we hit shin deep crusted snow so I guess we didn't notice the rock outcroppings (the photograph opening this Tuesday's blog on the right-hand side was taken here). This is akin to riding the high backcountry in Banff and tough going - the map says 2.5 kilometres but it feels double that.


Then, magically, suddenly you're out in sub-alpine meadows, coming to a T-junction with a Kananaskis Country map. Hoik left and you're heading towards Cox Hill. Go right (or south if you've that kind of mind-set) and the 2.5 km section here runs along the base of Jumpingpound Mountain (2,240 metres or 7,349') with knockout views towards the Don Getty Wildland Provincial Park.

The Fox, not super-fit as I'm spending kind of a lot of time with money-making marketing and media consulting I'd reckoned would be ready to call it a day so we knocked down the Jumpingpound Summit Trail (more lookout points, yum) onto another parking lay-by area jammed with hikers' cars. Those little brown lines on the Gem-Trek map said, yep, it was steep in places, rocky too (these are places to check your saddle isn't edging forward or your saddleblankets haven't dropped off backwards miles back).

One group of efficient pole-wielding hikers just back down said they'd ascended to the mountain's summit easily in 50 minutes; heck if I managed that I'd think a gold medal was in order but just to give you a perspective on what two-leggeds can do.

Here's where the second trailer and a friend reading the Sunday papers, came in handy – it's exactly 6.4 kilometres back along the gravel Powderface Trail to where my rig was parked. Pretty much a single track deal with passing places, and on this Sunday a fair amount of traffic (those gold dusted poplars and aspens had every photographer in Alberta out, let alone the hiking and mountain bike crowd). Not much corduroyed, a lot of loose gravel on the edges with the road itself hard packed – to ride back on? Not much fun, no shoulders to ride away from gravel spray would be my take.

If my horse had been fitter, well, I'd have stayed high and continued southwards, past Canyon Creek (gorgeous too) and then hit another lay-by parking slot at the end of the Prairie Creek Trail, which adds another 10.2 kilometres to your ride time. (If, by the way, you want to do this trail combo going northwards, the Jumpingpound Ridgeline trail actually starts around the corner northwards by, say, 600 metres from where the little 'P' marker dots on the Gem-Trek map right by Prairie Creek Trail. There's a red diamond nailed up on a pine set backaways from the road, but once you find that, you're on your way!

POINT TO CONSIDER: The gravel Powderface Trail by the Mount McDougall Memorial, by the way, is steep. You need a powerful rig to power up its gradients (I once had to take horses out, tied them to trees, drove up the slope, legged down and then hiked back up to re-load before going on southwards. I was, I admit, seriously hot that day......)