TREK ALLEN BILL POND

December 15, 2004

Last night was a pretty good trek. Three of us showed up at Allen Bill Pond, gathered our stuff and headed out. It was easy enough to find the first trail head just off the road.

Travel on the trails was easy without snowshoes. With only about 3 cm of fresh and a solid base/ground, it went by quick. We made our first mistake looking for the intersection with Elbow Trail. We turned early and contoured closer to the river than previously planned. After some contemplation time on the map, we decided to continue along the contour and find the cutline from below.

The cutline was very distinct so it didn't take long before we found it and started up. And up and up some more. 300m later we could see the lights of Calgary to the east through the breaks in the trees. Without a moment to lose, we doubled back to find the intersecting cutline we had spotted earlier. This trail was shown on the map to intersect with Elbow Trail and the other cross over trail that we intended to seek out.

At 9:00pm, we popped out on a trail that was cutline-like to the north. We spent a considerable amount of time contemplating the map because the trails just didn't match up. We paced up to where the intersection should be, but there was only trees on either side. By 9:30, we contented ourselves with the hope that if there was a CP there, it would have been visible. Maybe I should get a GPS to verify stuff...

The hike out was uneventful. A great night!