It was a very windy on the TransCanada & Hwy 40 to Barrier Lake where we were rudely greeted with unexpected driving rain. It didn't look good to the west and there was no enthusiasm to proceed under these conditions. But Sim noted that the rain had only started on the last few kilometres of the drive and suggested Cox Hill held a prospect of better weather, being further east. So we headed east on muddy Highway 68 to Dawson trailhead where the weather was okay.

We all donned microspikes and they were required as the trail was pretty well ice and snow the whole way. The weather held up with the clouds coming from the west dissipating by the time they reached us. Further up we took a break at the viewpoint to the east where we could see the clear weather over the prairie, although Moose Mountain was swathed in mist:

Misty Moose Mountain from Cox Hill trail

We pushed on to the bottom of the summit ridge and decided we didn't need to go up to the top as the wind was quite strong already at that lower point. We were able to find a snow-free sunny spot for a relatively comfortable lunch. For the return we decided to retrace our ascent steps:


Carl points out the alternate return route to Doug & Sim, too snowbound to try this day

We were the first group to go up today and we ran into a few others on the way down. A GPS tally was 11.2 km, 680 metres vertical gain.

Thanks for joining me goes to participants Douglas, Carl & Sim. Ron C/S/P

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