Iyarhe Ipan and Swany's Ridge Off-Trail hike on 4-Sep-2020

What the heck is Iyarhe Ipan? Well in the Stoney language it means Mountain Point. Why go there? Well from the east the hills across the river from the Elbow Falls Provincial Recreation Area doesn't really look like much.

But from the west the name is understandable and it has always intrigued me.

Daffern's description has a long approach from Cobble Flats or Maclean Creek, but Yolande explored a more direct route in 2017.
So we started at the Beaver Lodge parking area at the bottom of the Prairie Mtn trail. The very first (and also last) order of the day was to cross the Elbow River.

After donning our hiking boots and heading left (downriver) we found another bit of water at the base of our intended route.

From there we climbed the fairly steep slope, mostly on game trails with some short bits of easy scrambling. Three of the party had done this with Yolande and helped with the route. In less than 2 hours we were at the north end of Iyarhe Ipan with some lovely views.

It was a short ridge walk to the highest (but actually less scenic) summit where we had lunch

From there we could see Quirk Ridge and Swany's Ridge. We decided to forgo the extra two hours that it would take to bag Quirk Ridge and instead repeat the previous trip by heading over to Swany's Ridge.

From there we bushwhacked all the way down to the ATV trail along the river. This was a mix of steep grassy and steep mossy slopes with some usable game trails and unfortunately one short stretch of pretty miserable old deadfall. Once down near the river the return to our water shoes and the crossing were pretty straight forward.

Roughly 8 km, 600 m elevation gain and 6 hours (at a modest pace with breaks).

Many thanks to participants: Rosanne,Philip,Sim,Jim,Ivan,Janice,Yoko,and Jane, for joining me,Carl (C/S).

PS: I drove to Cobble Flats parking area, but there were no Ramblers in sight. So I went for a hike by myself and eventually reached Quirk Ridge and Swany's Ridge.
Manfred