Family day fun

The Davey family on Wedge Connector

Thanks for all the trip reports yesterday. I waited until mid-afternoon to head out to Kananaskis, thinking the crowds would be starting to thin and parking would be easier. My first choice was the Stoney trailhead which has come to be known as the Troll Falls trailhead.

Craig, Lila, Cale and Danny on Evan-Thomas

I observed a Conservation Officer ticketing vehicles which were parked at the Kananaskis River bridge which is a starting point for skiers accessing the Bill Milne trail.

At 2 pm, I couldn’t get a parking spot at Stoney. A big sign warned that no parking was allowed on the roadside.

Wedge Connector

My next choice was Evan-Thomas. I could see lots of skiers on the Bill Milne bypass trail along the highway as I was driving south.

I was successful in finding parking in one of the few remaining spots at Evan-Thomas. It was obviously full at some earlier time in the day because vehicles were lined up along the edges and everywhere that you could squeeze in without blocking access.

Evan-Thomas

The air temperature was -4°C but the snow was still recovering from the deep freeze and was at -11. Conditions were as good as I’ve ever seen with good snow cover, excellent tracksetting, great grip and glide.

There’s lots of foot traffic on Evan-Thomas due to the ice climbing and waterfall, but to my astonishment, nobody had walked in the tracks. The same was true for the entire loop including Wedge Connector and Bill Milne.

Hay Meadow

In the trip reports, Ray Yong also mentioned how nobody had walked on the Watridge Lake tracks with an exclamation mark. Maybe there’s hope for Telephone Loop?

After completing the loop, I went back to Stoney and found a parking spot. I skied Hay Meadow, and once again, I couldn’t believe my eyes – nobody had walked in the tracks which were excellent.

As you’ve read on my previous post, at the end of Hay Meadow I got sidetracked by the fresh grooming on Stoney trail which I enjoyed for 3.7K. Tracksetter Jeff tells me it goes for about 5K.