Tessa the springer spaniel, my friend Ruth and I headed to Kananaskis to check out the freshly groomed Bill Milne trail today. It was snowing lightly, and the temperature
was +1, so I had visions of it being a waxing nightmare. Luckily I had thrown in the waxless skis today, but Ruth was skiing on waxable.
Bill Milne trail is single trackset with a skating lane
To my surprise the waxable skis with Swix VR50 worked quite well. No clumping but still reasonably good grip. The fresh snow was no more than a dusting, so the tracks were still in excellent condition. We started at Wedge pond and skied through the Mount Kidd RV park, the golf course, and turned around after about 7K. The trail continues on to Ribbon creek, and you could start there as well.
The Bill Milne trail was mostly free of debris
It was mostly overcast, so we didn’t get the full benefit of the beautiful views that are one of the pleasures of skiing this trail.
The best choice of all for gear today would have been skate skis, since the Bill Milne has a skating lane along with a single track. There were a few short sections where the trail had embedded debris, but overall it was pretty clean.
One short section of the Bill Milne trail near Wedge pond has a couple hills and tight turns
The Wedge connector has been trackset and the Evan-Thomas trail is groomed(already with lots of boot tracks).
There is some inconvenience to skiing on the Bill Milne, and that’s the frequent road crossings where you have to remove your skis.
If you’re looking for trails to ski with your dog, I have a page on the main menu under “Resources” entitled Dog-friendly ski trails.
The Banff trail report indicates that Goat creek was trackset today. It also indicates that the Spray river trail is in Fair/Poor condition, so there must be some marginal conditions along the trail somewhere. If you’re planning to ski Goat creek and continue on to the Spray river, be prepared for conditions to get progressively worse.
The Yoho trail report is out of date. It shows the most recent grooming to be Jan 14. If you’re looking for current information, go to http://www.khsc.ca/updates/. The trails were groomed on the 25th.
They’ve had some more snow at Nipika “Conditions are excellent with fresh grooming on all trails. 3 cms of snow last night have freshened up the tracks. Day Lodge, classic & skate rentals & ski school operating 9 – 5 daily throughout the winter season.” Conditions should be excellent for next week’s loppet, and there’s only five more days to register. At last count there were already 81 participants registered.
That’s exactly what I was going to ask! I think we’ve spent a mortgage payment on boots. The issue we seem to have is the amount of hair ( cocker spaniel) around his paw and when he drops into deep snow and pulls his paws back out, sans boot!
We are having a heck of a time finding protective boots for our dog that will stay on when he gallops down the trail. We even invested $70.00 for Sorrell type boots that fell off within the first km of our trip! I see Tessa is wearing a set in the above picture. Do they stay on and if so, where did you get them?? I thank you and Bob the dog thanks you as his paws are getting a little raw!
Tessa has a large collection of other boots that never worked adequately. The ones she is wearing are called “Pawz” and you can see them here http://pawzdogboots.com/. They are simply a rubber boot and they stay on well. Another benefit is that the dog can still feel the ground through them. They come in a pack of 12 and cost around $16.00 and come in 7 different sizes. Most pet stores in Calgary carry them. The website has a store locator. I’m pretty sure that Tailblazers has them. Occasionally they will tear(even if the dog’s toenails are short) and you’ll have to replace one. -Bob
Thanks, Bob. Looks like we can get them in Okotoks. Will definitely give them a try as we lost one of the $70.00 boots first time out which upset us but made Bob the dog very happy as he hated them! Sometimes the simplest solution is one that works the best.
Hi Sheila,
I have heard those “Pawz” dog boots are available at Walmart in Okotoks for 13.99. This is a great price if available as I have found they really vary in price from 15.99 to 22.99. These boots have worked wonderful for our Tessa the Springer spaniel!!