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Rocky Mountain Ramblers Association

Trip Report
Trip Date:
25-Oct-2018
Activity:
Trail hike
Trip name:
Black Rock Mtn L/O
Coordinator:
John
Report:

I made a couple of choices on this trip that if I were to do it again I would change, The first choice was to take the #1 highway to the #22 and go north through Cochrane rather than Stoney trail and the 1A. There are a lot more traffic lights nowadays on this route and, as Philip commented, it felt like Calgary rush hour with the amount of traffic. The new subdivisions in Cochrane have made it much busier. Despite this choice I think we were only a few minutes late meeting the Canmore and Cochrane contigent. On the Transalta road I had decided to stop at the top of "the big hill" down to the Ghost river and as it turned out the road beyond was in good shape so taking it would have been a better choice. Clifton made the good choice of keeping going and was able to easily drive to near the trailhead without any need for his 4WD. The extra walk for the rest of us was pleasant though with a very nice low angle light highlighting the cliffs and canyons of the Ghost.

After ascending the good Lookout trail to just about tree line we had a break as it looked like once above the trees we would be in a strong wind.




Break before we got to the wind on the ridge.

It was windy but we got a bit of shelter once in the gully that leads to the plateau.




Philip ascending the fairly snow/ice free gully.




Summit in sight across the plateau to Black Rock lookout

We had nice views all day which included Devil's Head.




Devil's head

I was one of the last to top out and as I crested, expecting to see 8 or 9 Ramblers, instead I got a view of an empty lookout - everyone had ducked down below the windows of the lookout to keep out of the wind! We did all stand up for the customary group photo.




Douglas, Bruce, Clifton, Terry, Barbara, Inge, Arnold, Philip and Bart

We had a couple of breaks during the descent. At one break spot I came across a prone Rambler - fortunately I knew no incident report would be required as I was familiar with this Rambler propensity for afternoon siestas!



Enjoying windless late October sunshine on the Black Rock Lookout trail.

We had a last break quite close to the river bed in warm, windless sunshine - very pleasant. Wildlife we saw were some white tail deer in the morning and a flock of waxwings on the Ghost river bed. We saw quite a few hunters on the drive out. Thanks to Philip,Terry,Arnold,Douglas,Inge,Clifton,Bruce,Barbara,Bart for enjoyable company and conversation from John. Thanks to Arnold, Bruce and Doug for some of the photos.




Chinook arch to accompany the wind!