This was one of those days when you wanted to be skiing in the mountains - new snow, a broken trail, reasonable temperatures and sun for a greater part of the day made for a very enjoyable day.

The snow ploughs were still clearing the Smith Dorien as we drove to the Shark Mtn. trailhead. We stepped out of the car into new snow possibly around 4" depth. The yoyo skiers were already getting ready for their day on the slopes of Mt. Shark in behind Shark Lake. The temperature was around -15/-16C and the sky had hazy clouds. We started off in tracks to Watridge Lake following some of the yoyo skiers. They turned off shortly after the creek descending from Shark Lake. The hill down to the Spray River bridge was mostly in powder snow, making it a very easy ski down.

The Crew at Spray River Bridge

A brief stop at the Spray River bridge


Spray River and Cone Mountain

and we were off to the Bryant Creek bridge over rolling terrain.


Bryant Creek

At the Trail Junction, there were tracks heading to the Canyon Dam, rather unusual for this time of year. We continued along in tracks possibly made by 2-4 skiers heading towards Assiniboine. Trail breaking was minimal. Along the section to the first campground beside the creek there were a few downed trees some of which you could ski over and others which needed to be skied around. We arrived at the campground


Bridge at 6 km Campground

and took a short break to de-layer and grab water.


Break Stop at 6km Campground

As we climbed more, it became apparent that two of us had good grip wax and two were struggling on steeper sections. We passed what I thought was a newer bridge installed to span a washout (likely deepened significantly from the major storm a few years ago). At the base of the long hill which comes down from the Bryant Creek Shelter it was obvious that this gully had also been deepened by the same storm. We made a mental note that brakes would need to be applied before getting to this gully. At the shelter junction we regrouped and decided to have lunch at the warden cabin which was about 10 minutes away. We arrived at the warden cabin about 12:45 and had a very leisurely lunch.

Bryant Creek Meadows Warden Cabin

Wonder Peak & Mt. Cautley

The tracks which we had been following continued toward Assiniboine, but this was our turnaround point. We decided to have a look at the Bryant Shelter on the return trip. It was all boarded up likely due to Parks Canada Covid policy. The ski down the long hill from the shelter was quite enjoyable due to the powder snow. At the bottom of the hill just at the gully we encountered one of two skiers which would be the only people we would see west of the Spray River bridge all day.

Skiing was initially downhill and the two that had solid grip on the way up struggled to keep up to the glide of the other two who had struggled a bit on the uphills. However, the group mostly stayed in sight of each other until the terrain flattened, where we became in-file. Since none of us had been into the warden cabin at the Trail Junction and we had made good time for the return trip we decided to take a look. This cabin is not nearly as nice as the standard warden cabins and is without a porch.

Bryant Creek Junction Warden Cabin

It appears to be more for trail work crews as it is larger than the standard footprint.

After moseying around the site for awhile we headed off again. Crossing the Bryant Creek bridge, Clifton spotted a dipper earning its meal in the water.

As we climbed the hill beside Watridge Lake we had to scramble to get out of the way of two skiers coming down at this late hour of the day. We were a little surprised. As we neared the Watridge Lake junction we encountered more skiers heading in the opposite direction to us. The rest of the trip was uneventful and one could say a little boring on the Watridge Lake Trail. We arrived at the cars around 4:30pm. Surprisingly, traffic on Hwy. 1 was quite heavy considering we were driving well after the downhill ski hill group.had left the hills.

As I said, a wonderful day to be out in the mountains and I believe the rest of the crew would agree.

Thanks to participants: Damian,Clifton,Toshiko for joining me on this easy but long and popular tour. Thanks to Damian for being our photographer for the day.
Damian's stats for the trip were 27.8km and 440 elevation gain. Thanks Damian.

Bob C/S