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Rocky Mountain Ramblers Association

Trip Report
Trip Date:
29-May-2020
Activity:
Trail hike
Trip name:
Secret hill in Ghost River area
Coordinator:
Carl
Report:

We headed up Lesueur Creek in the Ghost River area intending to visit my "Secret Hill," which we first visited May 1, 2016. This is past our normal ridge and valley loop on Lesueur Ridge.

It was warm enough to start the hike in shorts and T-shirts, and the Aspen and grass were lush green, just like the last time although a month later in the season.




Majestic Douglas Fir on Lesueur Ridge




Green Quaking Aspen on Lesueur Ridge




Devil's Head stands sentinal over Lesueur Creek valley

The temperature got to 19 but it felt like summer.

I decided to avoid a swamp on the first part of Gillean Daffern's loop by going counter-clockwise, but we ran into some bizarre piles of gravel and dirt the purpose of which we could not imagine, and followed a path which soon petered out into forest, then a large bog. We could see a large hill across the bog, and were able to find a major ATV track on a cutline, thanks to George's GPS. We followed this up a steep slope onto the summit, where we had lunch.




View from Secret Hill #2 in the Ghost River area

There was lots of room to spread out for lunch, and the summit was uncannily similar to my first Secret Hill.



Lots of space for lunch on summit of Ghost River Secret Hill #2

Following trails over the hill confirmed that this was actually a totally different hill, and we could not see the original hill. This whole area is riddled with roads, ATV trails, cutlines, cutline access roads, motorcycle trails, foot paths and game trails. We wandered in the right general direction on a collection of these trails, finally getting back to where we had come up in the morning. Although this seemed to be the middle of nowhere, at one point we crossed a rickety bridge complete with iron mesh that somebody put a lot of effort into building. It was very quiet all day, with the pleasant sound of bird song, although somebody was out there somewhere letting off rounds for a while.

The flowers were impressive--lots of crocuses still, hillsides of bright yellow buffalo beans, delicate calypso orchids and bright violets.




Violets shared the limelight with calypso orchids and buffalo beans

On the way back to the cars we met a family of 5--the first hikers I have ever seen in this area in 25 years of taking one to three trips every year. At the road, the relentless scourge of over population in Alberta struck home, as a steady stream of cars and trailers headed west on the very rough road to do random camping.

I had promised a moderate amount of distance and elevation gain and a TL2 trip. In reality, it turned out to be OT3, and18 km with elevation gain of 579m, due to a tremendous amount of up and down on foothills slopes and valleys, but everybody loved it.

A shout out to the group for an admirable job on the physical distancing for the pandemic response. This was my first trip since the club resumed trips after a couple of months of lockdown, and I had some trepidation about it, but with excellent cooperation by everybody we had a safe and enjoyable outing. More than one participant noted one surprising benefit of the no car pooling rule--that without the distraction of fellow passengers, their eyes were awakened to the spectacular beauty of the drive out on Highway 40.




Track of our route to Secret Hill #2 (Secret Hill #1 marked as Daffern spot)

Participants:Sid,Dianna,Linda,Robert,Ginger,Margo,George,Donna,Darlene.and Carl, coordinator and scribe.