Raspberry Ridge

Snow levels are putting an end to the hiking season along the Bow Valley. We were hoping that heading south would give us a bit more time.

Raspberry Ridge is one of the many fire lookout hikes in the southern part of Kananaskis Country. While it hasn't been abandoned, they are only manned during the summer months, and I guess summer is over (who knew?).

Nighttime freezing makes for interesting patterns

The day started with two ranchers heading through the gates to retrieve a couple of runaway cows. Exciting stuff.

The trail started out fairly clear, but there were definite signs of an overnight freeze. Less than 15 minutes from the trailhead, we started hitting snow and it would get progressively deeper as we made our way to the ridge.

Gaining the ridge itself was fairly easy as we took the direct route. Twice, we encountered bear tracks, a larger set lower down (about a day old), and fresh tracks (in the morning) higher up. We did not see either bear, however.

Atop the ridge, the snow was thigh deep in places due to wind accumulation. There was even some slab development occurring.

Abandoned fire lookout atop Mount Burke

The fire lookout setup is quite extensive, with no less than 5 buildings adorning the summit. The washroom in the photo below was locked, unfortunately.

Nepalese prayer flags near the helipad atop Raspberry Ridge fire lookout

We decided to try a different return trip, as there seemed to be a longer but less steep trail going along the ridge. After a while, we got tired of getting further from our destination, and took a more aggressive line down a gully to rejoin the uptrack.

Laureen and Nika, heading back down

The larger of two sets of bear prints

I think this will be an interesting place to do some ski touring. The highway is open up to the trailhead, so access shouldn't be an issue. We'll be back in the winter!