Animal tracks on Redearth Creek

You can read about this snowman in the Trip Reports(Peter Nov 28)

With eating and skiing being two of the top three priorities in my life, it’s been a tough three days having neither. Being ill with the flu, it was nice to be back on my skis again, but my energy level was pretty low. Since starting this blog three years ago, I don’t think  I’ve missed more than one day of skiing due to illness.

I maybe should have picked an easier trail, but curiosity got the best of me, and I headed out to Redearth Creek. It appeared to have been snowmobile packed yesterday. There was a dusting of new snow on the trail and that was the extent of the snow in Banff from the upslope storm which hit Calgary.

My Mantracker instincts indicated that two skiers were on the trail ahead of me. I  only went 5.4K, so I never did encounter them. 5.4K is the high point before you descend to the campground. You’ll have gained 240 metres of elevation. It took all I had to make it that far.

Surprisingly, I saw no rocks rearing their ugly heads on the first 2K, which is usually the case after the first packing. The snow cover was thin, however, and the trail had a lot of bumps and uneven spots. It’s easy enough climbing, but coming back on those fast hills is when it’s difficult. By 3K the snow cover was a lot better.

I followed some animal tracks for about 2K along the trail, but I don’t know what they were. With the dusting of new snow, they weren’t so clear, but take a look at them in the photos. What’s really interesting is that this animal dug a hole in the trail right down to the ground, went to the bathroom, and disappeared into the forest.

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After showing last year’s trail reports for the past two days, the Kananaskis trail report has been updated. Mt Shark had some tracksetting and packing completed yesterday. My guess is that the groomer will be working in PLPP today and the remainder of this week.