It was, appropriately, a warm summer day for our 2020 Summer Solstice hike at Indian Oils. We finished the hike just minutes before the sun reached its zenith before starting its annual retreat.

I thought I had chosen a sufficiently remote location that we would not have to make an extremely early start to get parking on a Saturday. I had, but barely, and we all got proper parking spots. When we returned at 3:15, the entire area was totally overrun with cars and people, and the traffic on the road was heavy.

We started the hike at 10:10 and before we left the Sheep River valley we met a deer on the trail. We spiced up the hike on Indian Oils Trail by looking for some of Gillean Daffern's "secret" features. (Well, they aren't as secret since she has shared them with anyone who carefully reads her book, but they do take some searching.)

First we visited the Secret Pond, which was full of water. We should have climbed the bank on the other side to see the Secret Rocky Knob, as we did miss that feature as we failed to follow the trail from the cairn at the top of the hill on the trail.

Group at Gillean Daffern's Secret Pond at Indian Oils

The dim narrow trail is obscure enough that the coordinator took a stick near the eye from a dead spruce branch. Learning--don't wear dark sunglasses in the shade!

We climbed the little View Hill for lunch and enjoyed the view. The wildflowers are pretty sparse this year, but there were some nice calypso orchids, and a few shooting stars and crocus, and a few others.

Back at the first pass with the bench, we found the Secret Escarpment and enjoyed great views from the sandstone outcroppings.

Gillean Daffern's Secret Escarpment at Indian Oils

Joe on peak of Secret Escarpment

Janice, Alicja and Susan pose on Secret Escarpment summit

We bushwhacked down a thousand vertical feet (300m) from the escarpment and got a unique bird's eye view right over the Tiger Jaw Falls as they roar under the bridge to the south side of the Sheep River.

Bird's Eye view of Tiger Jaw Falls bridge over Sheep River

The route was fairly open but there was some blow down and some swampy areas. Trip statistics: 10 km and 540 m total elevation gain.


Trip track overlaid on Daffern and Spirko routes by Joe

Participants: Joe,Sid,Dianna,Linda,Robert,Susan,Mohsen,Alicja,Janice and Carl, coordinator and scribe.

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