Banff trail ride day three

Another rainy day, though by the time we'd had breakfast and got on the horses, it had slowed to a misty rain. We hadn't gone far when we arrived at the Stoney creek warden station - years ago park wardens and their families would live full time in the park, in small cabins.

The park warden lived here with his wife and son

And on we went, stopping again for lunch beside the river, riding back to another corral near town. It was a great ride, despite the clouds and rain - a wonderful group, a great guide and good, sure-footed horses. We saw lots of wildflowers, some of which I could identify, lots of deer, one rabbit, a heron, and a Spruce grouse. No bears, thank heavens!

Denver, my horse for the three days

Banff trail ride day two

When we woke up to pouring rain, we knew we wouldn't be riding up to the Dormer Pass.  Greg had told us the night before that if it rained the pass would be in the clouds... so plan B was to wait for the rain to either stop or slow down, and do a shorter ride up the river.
By 10:30 there was only a slight drizzle, and we were heading north up the trail. We crossed Stoney creek and arrived at an old fire road - these were built in the thirties when fires were fought by hand, with a hose in the creek.  Several hours later we turned off into a meadow to have lunch beside an old elk pen - years ago when there were too few predators and too many elk, they would capture them and truck them off to other places.

The old elk corral

Again Greg unpacked the mule and got the fire going - no bagged lunches for us! This time it was grilled cheese sandwiches - grilled in tin foil over the fire.

Crystal the mule carried wood, a stove and food for lunch

We took a different way back to camp, on a narrow twisty trail beside the river, sometimes climbing high above it and then having to descend down steep paths. We crossed a slide, and at one point the trail had a cliff on one side and a drop-off on the other, but mainly it had a lot of sharp turns. A memorable quote from one of the Australians, who was on a really big horse, part draft: "it was like driving a semi - the front end would go around and then you had to wait for the back end to get around." It was a memorable ride, not for the faint of heart, and gave us much to talk about back at camp.

Banff trail ride day one

We met at the barn the first morning - eight riders in total: three Australians, four from Ontario, and myself, the only one from BC.  After collecting our saddle bags we were driven up to the corral on Mt. Norquay, which is a ski area in winter.  There we met our guide, Greg, and our horse for the three day trip.
We set off with Greg leading a mule, rode under the chair lifts, and headed up a trail. Soon we were in the forest, on narrow trails that were steep and rocky; we crossed a few creeks, some with wooden bridges over them.
After several hours we arrived at a meadow - it was time for lunch! Letting our horses graze, it was good to get off and stretch our legs. Greg unpacked the mule, and from the two boxes came a small barrel stove and wood - soon there was a fire crackling and he got water from the creek for cowboy coffee and for tea. Once that was ready out came small steaks - we ate them with potato salad.

Our guide cooks steaks over the fire

We got on our horses again and headed up the trail - a few hours later we crossed the wide and quite deep (up to my horse's belly) Cascade river and arrived at the Stoney Creek camp. The cook greeted us and showed us where to find our duffel bags - they had been transported by mule along a shorter route. She showed us the kitchen tent, our main gathering place, and lead us up a trail to a clearing and our tents.

Home sweet home for 2 nights - it had a comfortable cot inside

After dinner we sat outside around a campfire beside the river - the sun came out briefly. Since the flood two years ago the river is a lot closer to the camp.

The Cascade river