All’s well that ends well.
Our adventure exploration into the Rocky Creek valley in the Kananaskis didn’t go as planned, but everything turned out happily—how did we manage in the world before cell phones, GPS and helicopters?

This is the start of Rocky Creek, which enters the Kananaskis valley from the east just south of Galatea Creek. This is the north side, where there is a somewhat overgrown but usable trail. In our morning start we did not know which side of the creek to start on, so took the south side, soon hitting the knoll seen ahead, which blocked travel along the creek. We decided to go over this, and had to descend a very steep bank back to the creek. This took quite a while, but in this short distance, one of the group took off up the ridge, before dropping down a gulley into the creek, way ahead of the group. We went 100 metres to a creek crossing, where we counted heads and discovered that this member did not come down the bank. Thinking that Ramblers stick to the group and would not wander off without saying anything, we sent a party back to search. They went right back to the cars and found the member had not returned, nor did they have any success in searching the area.

Alarmed by the possibilities of injury or health emergency in the very rough terrain, we all retreated to the trailhead, and called the Kananaskis ranger station. Soon a formidable team was on the way—a couple of conservation officers, an RCMP constable and a 3-man helicopter crew.

We had by now sent a search party up the ridge, and were able to contact them by cell phone. The helicopter quickly searched up the ridge and then into the valley, where the missing person was found, and GPS point taken. Our hats are off to the very professional and understanding team of emergency responders. Adding to the danger of the job, there is a very high power line across the valley, which is not marked.

Some of the group now went back up the creek to meet the missing member, who was coming out. It turns out the missing-in-action member was trying to catch up to the group, while we had already aborted the trip. The detour taken was exceedingly rough and it took some tenacity to do it. We, meanwhile, thought it unlikely that anybody could get up the valley ahead of us.

The moral of the story is: WHEN HIKING WITH THE GROUP, NEVER TAKE OFF ON YOUR OWN WITHOUT THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE GROUP—ALWAYS STAY TOGETHER.

Our friendly conservation officer taught us about the new international signals for communication with a search helicopter. Arms up (not waving) like making the Y in the dance “YMCA” means you need help. One arm up and one down, like this, means you do not need help. This is particularly important when there are many people in the area who are not those in trouble.

After the “adventure” of the day, eight of us went for a small hike up the very scenic little hill at the Barrier Lake picnic area, where we saw the first wood lillies of the year.

Participants: Dee, Carolyn, Patrick, Carole, Susan, Sharon, Francisco, Wally, Brian, Elizabeth, Eric, Gerald, Jeanne and Carl, coordinator and scribe.