The North Ghost In Alberta

North Ghost Valley

The North Ghost is kind of misleading as the actual area of North Ghost Wilderness Preserve is 60 square miles of raw wilderness established in 1967 along the front range of the Rockies 70 km. from Calgary bordering Banff National Park. The area includes Mount Aylmer,  Mount Allen,  Mount Apparition,  Mount Oliver and  Mount Costigan.  Most of the rest of the area is called Ghost River Valley and encompasses 262 square miles.  It takes in a much bigger area that includes the Ghost Valley, Waiporous, Burnt Timber, Fallen Timber, Hunter Valley and several other areas where off road use is lawful,  unlike the Ghost River Wilderness Preserve where only foot traffic is allowed and the area is heavily monitored and many restrictions are in place to protect the pristine wilderness. There are many ice climbers in the area in winter as there is some renowned climbing available. 

Getting here is half the fun and while a lot of it is accessible to cars and motor-homes, it's much more suited to trucks and 4x4's.  the road in is usually pretty hard going,  from bumpy hard packed gravel with millions of pot holes to soft mud and water on the road in some places along with a few small creek crossings.  On my last trip there I was really disappointed to walk down a trail and see a TV set that obviously quit working and was thrown on the fire then smashed and left in the bushes by some careless and thoughtless asses that think being able to camp here free is their right and not a privilege to be coveted.  For God sake's,  if you're that irresponsible then stay home.  It's people like these that end up spoiling it for all the rest as usual.

There are beaver ponds in this area that are stocked with trout and caught early in the spring or summer before their flesh becomes too mushy, make an excellent pan fried breakfast.  While there are loads of off road vehicles in the area, it's still easy to find a peaceful place to camp.  I don't usually camp on a ridge but the last time I went, it was in a car and places near the creeks were too hard to get to or were already taken. It was a stunning view though, nice and breezy and no rain after we arrived after it poured all the way there.  There is an abundance of wildlife including, Bears,  Wolves,  Big Horn Sheep Deer,  Moose and Cougars.  Ghost River starts in the high ranges on the boundary of Banff National Park and has 2 tributaries being Waiporous Creek and The South Ghost River.  The river and creek levels usually remain high all summer due to runoff of melting snow from the mountains.  The area is generally always breezy.    

The Ghost River name comes from a Stoney tribe legend that was told to Dr. Hector, a member of the Palliser expedition. Indian Ghosts were witnessed along the river collecting the skulls of warriors killed in a battle with the Cree tribe.  Legend has it that the ghosts had taken the skulls and hid them in nearby Devils Head. Legends abound in the area regarding The Cree, The Blackfoot and The Lokoda tribes. The Blackfoot or Blackfeet were a feared tribe and were always at war with most other tribes like the Sioux and the Cree.

Devil's Head Mountain

The area is also used heavily by the equestrian set.  Margaret Lake is not to far from here and is an alpine lake stocked with Trout that often suffer winter kill. Margaret Lake is situated with a lovely backdrop of mountains.

Margaret Lake

I already can't wait to get back there this summer and enjoy a few days of peaceful 
camping and relaxing.  I've had so many great trips to the area with and without a Dirt Bike. Common sense, bear safety and being well prepared apply as always to using the back country.








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Do Have A Good Day And Explore The World At Every Opportunity.

Jeffrey Robert Hilton

Can You Say Alberta Search And Rescue ?

Can You Say Alberta Search And Rescue ?

Written by : Jeffrey R Hilton

***

Ah winter ! Yes.Some people swear by it. I swear at it.

It's gained a huge popularity and a lot of fans I'm just not one of them much anymore.

Years ago I got my first pair of cross country skis and toured through the city parks with them enough to somewhat know what I was doing,  and get some great exercise at the same time.   At that time I had never been down hill skiing yet.  A good friend called and asked if I wanted to go try my skis in Kananaskis Country in the mountains.   Sure I would.  We left early on a Sunday morning and headed into the mountains, leaving our wives together back in the city.  We would join them later in the day for supper. At least that was the plan at the time.  At the trail head, we parked and after reading the trail sign and map. We decided on a long narrow loop trail and set upon it.


Not long after we came to some pretty scary hills, as in the kind where if you don't turn and follow the hill,  you go off a cliff instead,   and especially as I had never really been down any hills with my skis, let alone down the side of a mountain, this might be a bit risky.  I went cautiously as I could clearly see,  if I didn't make a few of the turns, I would simply drop off the side of the mountain. Ya no thanks !  I walked down 2 of the worst ones.


We got through the worst of it, and stopped for some lunch Before leaving we realized that there was a fresh Deer kill a few feet away from where we ate,  and were off again. Finding ourselves at another sign map that showed, we could join another loop trail and do a double loop, so to speak. This would make our time in the back country a bit longer than we had planned. A full day of skiing. Nice enough day. lets do it.  After a few more hours on the trail, things started to go wrong. I had fallen lots and as a result, I was getting wet, damp and cold.
My outdoor clothing was inadequate and not standing up to the back country cold or wetness very well.


The brightly lit day suddenly turned grey. We noted that it was getting late in the afternoon and still had a ways to go to get back.  That's when we decided to spring into action and put some juice on to get gone.  It seemed like only a matter of another 45 minutes on the trail and it was like someone switched a light off and left us in the pitch dark.
the sun was gone ! It would go down to minus 15 that moonless night.


I didn't feel good about this at all. thankfully my friend had a little more adept survival skill than I and we trudged on for a bit with his encouragement and could barely see each other at times 4 feet distant from each other. We took our skis off and began to walk.  My friend noticed that I was shivering a lot as we stopped again to assess the situation.  My thinking was already clouded and I was stumbling a lot. it was then that he decided that I would stay put on the trail and he would jog ahead and try to see where the trail went.


First we would build a small fire on the trail so I could reverse the hypothermia process a little if not slow it down.Once a small fire was going, my partner was off. After about ten minutes, the fire began to die down and I had to keep walking farther and farther to get bits of wood to try and keep it going.Just when I had a good start, my partner returned and said he would need to take a torch from the fire as he couldn't see at all and thought that maybe it wasn't that much further. So off he went again and I stayed and fought to rebuild the fire. It seemed like an hour had passed before he finally returned and by that time I was shivering uncontrollably.


Good day now a bad night and getting worse as my partner informed me that he could't see the way out so we would have to stay the night.  I had a bit of a fire going now and again another torch and off he went to find a suitable place to hunker down for the night. At least we had lighters and matches.  By the time he got back, I was turning into a basket case and in the grips hypothermia.  My partner had managed to keep himself a little dryer than I had.  He led me off again stumbling down the trail and pretty soon I was puzzled to see this huge glow in the sky. As I rounded a bend in the trail, I saw a very welcome sight.  There was a huge telephone pole sized log ablaze along with a few smaller ones close to a recess in the bottom of a cliff that was somewhat dry and sheltered.This fire was an inferno already.  My mate Scott,  had done a cracking job on this one.


We settled in and I  immediately stripped naked and hung all my wet clothes up on the log near the fire and began trying to thaw out, rotating around the fire like a possessed Popsicle stick.  I was a bit shocked at the size of the fire my friend built, but it worked a charm as it wasn't long before my clothes were dry enough to put back on.As a matter off fact, they were almost burned and my socks were singed but the clothes felt good to put on warm like that.  We resigned ourselves to stay the night and the next morning we would find our way out easily in daylight.  All we had to do was get through the night and I was more confident that would happen now.  Until then, the only experience I had of winter camping was when I was in Army Cadets and then at least we had tents and arctic sleeping bags.


Unbeknownst to us, our wives had alerted the RCMP when we hadn't returned by ten pm and Alberta Search and Rescue was called into action.  We chatted for awhile and both fell sound asleep as we hunkered down close to the fire as we dared get.  At 3 am I almost had a heart attack when I felt someone shaking me and I could see still sleeping beside me as I looked up into the face of a rescuer on skis with a dog by his side.  He said;  "Do you want to walk out now or wait until morning ? " "Um ya we'll go now as id staying until first light would make matters any better.  He informed us that another group of searchers were looking for us elsewhere on snowmobiles and radioed them that we had been found.  Yes of course,  why couldn't they have found us so we could of got a ride out ? Punishment for stupidity maybe ?


I arrived home at stupid o'clock in the morning in a zombie state and slept for only one and a half hours before getting up and and going to work for 7 am.  How and why I did that I will never know.  My face looked like a had a bad sunburn from being so close to the bonfire that probably saved my life along with my good friend that kept a cool head and secured us a great chance at surviving the night.  My thermal socks had holes burned in them as did all of my other clothes.  I kind of lost my taste for x-country skiing after that  and my skis went in the garbage.  It goes without saying that I am grateful to Alberta Search and Rescue for their efforts.  We probably would have been fine until the morning, but who's to say ?


Going anywhere near the back country now, winter or summer, means bringing along a survival kit tailored to the season.  Don't leave home without it !  I always had carried one and this was the one time I didn't bring it along.  I'm just grateful I am here to tell you about it, really.
Thank You Alberta Search And Rescue !

***

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Jeffrey R Hilton