Strawberry Hills - Kananaskis Country

Hello and welcome!

6 am.  Stoked for the first real back country hike I've done in a while.  The trail appears to be fairly flat from the look of the topo map and Google satellite imagery.  The goal is to make it to the lake marked on the map below.  My calculations put the hike at about 6km from the parking lot.  Not a long hike, but a nice day trip for lunch and relaxation, and then be home right around supper time.

Heading out now. I'll post the details and some photos when I get back later.




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Wow.  Nature is awesome.  Nature is also great at forcing changes in plans and for playing tricks on humans. I was expecting a bridge across the Highwood River from the parking lot, however google satellite imagery did not show one, so I brought my crocs just in case we had to ford the river.  When I got to my brother in-law's place and asked if he had sandals or something to cross a river with, I could see a worried look on his face.  Let the fun begin!

We left the house at 8 and were at the parking lot at the Fitzsimmons Creek Recreation Area at about 930. Sure enough no bridge or other 'easy' way of getting across.  There was a herd of cattle that were crossing the river so we approached that area and watched them cross.  They found a nice deep part of the river, the water was ICY cold at that time of the morning with clouds and a chill breeze, I was not looking forward to submerging myself past my groin at this place.  We also had Greg's border collie Jasmine to worry about.  She doesn't like to swim and having to carry her, or mount a dog rescue operation were also not on the top of my list for activities for the day.  We walked the shoreline for a bit and found a spot that looked promising.  We traded our boots for our 'water wear' and I led the charge (this was all my idea so I had better go first).  HOLY HANNA.  I hate cold, I get cold when I open the fridge at home. The pain in my feet was almost instant, but I pushed on as quick as I could.  The water got to about my knees, and I splashed a bunch of water up my shorts, but we made it.  The area we chose had a couple of dry sand bars to break up the crossing into manageable bouts of intense cold and pain.

We made it across.  I had brought a couple of rags, we used one to dry our feet.  Man it felt good to get the socks and boots back on. I pulled out the map, located our position and then plotted a course through the sticks and brush to intersect with the trail we were looking for.  That was the easy part....

We found the trail quick enough.  It looked like it was an old logging road.  You could see traces of the ruts but nature is working on erasing all traces of road.  The cattle were on the trail with us, and protested our presense loudly.  The little ones sounded like they were actually saying the word 'moo' I was thinking to myself, I wonder if there are any bulls in this herd.  A bull would not be good to run into... Oh look, there's a bull now, snorting at me.  They let us pass without incident.  I guess we looked too little to be a threat to the herd.

According to the map, we would cross Strawberry creek, then at Fitzsimmons creek we would turn north and follow the trail along the creek to a gate and just follow the trail until it turned and crossed the creek again in about 4km.

This is where nature let us know who is in charge.  We crossed the first creek.  It was a bit of an adventure as it was fairly deep and too wide to just jump across.  We found a downed tree across the creek upstream from the trail and crossed there.  We worked our way back to the trail.  I checked the map and compass and noticed that the trail was heading south east, the trail we wanted headed north, north west.  I thought maybe it loops around up ahead.  It was heavily wooded so I had no landmarks to go by.   I thought the next creek must be up ahead somewhere.  The woods thinned out a bit in about 5 minutes of walking and I noticed there was a mountain to my right, but no mountain to my left.  I called a halt. Greg and I both looked at the map, our compasses, and the terrain.  We determined that the creek we had just crossed was Fitzsimmons.  Somehow we had missed crossing Strawberry creek.  The area was heavily flood damaged from the "Flood of the Century" a few yeas back, so it is possible that Strawberry creek simply vanished or was redirected and ran into the Highwood river north of where it did previously.

So now we knew the map to be inaccurate and to be more aware and trust the land more than paper with lines drawn on it. This led to error number 2.  The trail intersection with the creek was hard to read on the map, but there was a trail the followed along the creek, so we took it.  The going was quite rough as the flood had ripped up trees and deposited them all over the trail.  But we slogged on for about 20 minutes. Then we got to a beautiful part of the creek.  There was a moss covered cliff on the other side and a steep embankment on our side.  It was beautiful, but not what I was expecting from the satellite and map. We slogged on a bit more and came to a spot where I could see where the pathway should be.  It was about 200' above us!  Crap.  So now we had a choice to make.  Hack our way back to the last trail intersection, or scramble up the rocky slope to the top of the ravine.  The dog started running up the slope, knocking loose rocks and debris, I was worried that she would slide down and possibly hang herself on the leash or pull one of us off balance, so we removed the leash and climbed up.  It was a strenuous climb with the packs but we made it.

We followed the trail for a bit, then I remembered I had my phone with me, and it has a camera. I had elected not to bring an actual camera because of weight.

The creek lies at the bottom of this ravine. The trees down there are probably 30' tall or so.

Fitzsimmons creek from the bluff

From up here we could also see the Alberta/BC border at the top of the ridge about 5km away.

Fitzsimmons creek Valley and Mt. McLaren

The trail was easy and clear now as we were back on an old logging road.  Not sure how we missed the intersection down by the creek.  We determined that we would figure that out when we headed back along this trail later.

It was an easy hike at this point.  The trail was clear and in places completely covered in mountain daisies.  The colors were amazing. (sorry, another reason I don't carry a camera is that I prefer to soak in the beauty rather than spend my time trying to capture it in pictures that don't do it justice.)  But here is a shot of some of the trail flowers.

Overgrown logging road and Mountain Daisies

We hiked for along the old road absorbing the beauty and spirit of the wild country.  We saw views I cannot begin to describe (again, the few photos I took, just don't capture the vast beauty).  We saw horse tracks, elk tracks, deer tracks.  Then I noticed a torn up rotten log, but it didn't look recent, then we noticed a turned over rock and a small hole dug.  Bear signs, but not recent.  Then I noticed something that proved bears had been here.  

Bear Poop

We had Jasmine off leash at this point, but as Greg would have to shout at her every 20 seconds or so to stay on the trail, I figured it was probably safer to leave her off leash as her running through the brush and Greg's shouting would give bears plenty of warning we were passing through.  It also meant no chance of seeing deer or elk, but being in Mr and Mrs Bear's home means you need to announce your presence.

Mt Armstong

The trail led back to the creek where there were remains of an old logging bridge and had a bit of a rest and a snack, It was about 11:30 now.  According to the map, we had come 4km along the trail, add in our detours and sight seeing along the creek, plus the scramble up the mountain side, I would say we had done 6+km at this point.

The lake (pond) that was our destination would require bushwacking to find the clearing.  With the dense woods and limited view, as well as no guarantee that the pond would even be there, it might just be a slough or marshy wetland, we decided not to go for the lake and head into the Strawberry hills area and stop for lunch where the trail looped back across the creek.  We hiked another 30 minutes or so past a couple of intersections that I double checked with map and compass each time. The area was a maze of trails and it would be very easy to make a wrong turn again and have to back track.  We found the creek crossing we were looking for and stopped for lunch.  Google map coordinates for lunch area

Lasagna from Backpacker's Pantry  Traditional Italian comfort food with a backpacking twist. The perfect blend of Italian seasonings, tomatoes, Parmesan cheese, noodles, and hearty Organic soy protein in lieu of ground beef. Makes two 12 oz. servings. Vegetarian. High Protein.

Really quite tasty. But next time I'll have to stir it up a bit better with a stick or something.  Only took the water about a minute to boil and another 15 minutes or so for the food to re-hydrate.

We let the dog clean off the dishes, then rinsed them in the creek.  Refilled the water bottle from the water I had brought along.  Mountain creeks like this are probably safe to drink, but can also contain bacteria, and seeing as I can't afford to take time off work, and I wasn't willing to boil water on this trip, the extra weight of water was worth it. (packed 3L or about 6.6lbs)

Lunch by the creek

This little creek must have been a raging torrent during the flood.  Just a short distance from our lunch site was a log jam.

Log Jam near our lunch site

The trail behind us from lunch site

The trail ahead from lunch

It is important to be aware of where you are at all times.  A half hour or so after lunch I noticed a pile of rocks and a burnt stump jumbled near what appeared to be an overgrown animal trail, but the main road carried on.  However as we followed the road, it started heading north, the compass confirmed that.  So again we stopped and decided to go back to the pile of rocks.  This had to be the trail that we wanted that was marked on the map.  It was well hidden, someone in the past had probably missed it as well, so they marked it.  I added another rock to the pile. and we headed on down the path where we met up with the trail guardian.  A grouse.  Just sitting there, rock still.  He let us walk right up to it, within about 3'.  The velcro on my pocket as I tried to get my phone out for a close up scared it off.

As you can see from this photo, the trail was very overgrown, little more than an animal trail through the woods. There were horse tracks and deer and elk tracks here and there in the mud, as well as a big pile of elk droppings. Not hard to follow if you pay attention.

Grouse on the trail.
Yes this is what passed for a marked trail on the map.

The trail eventually let back to the spot where we stopped for a break by the bridge remnants and it was easy going all the way back to cows and the river, then the drive back home.

The main trail that we missed at the beginning went up and in the wrong direction, but turns and heads the way we wanted to go.  The main reason we missed it was because we were focused on finding 1 creek, crossing it, then looking for a trail at the second creek.  Stawberry creek was a dried up creek bed right where the cows and their bull were hanging out.  Had I not been looking for signs of a creek on the way back, I would not have noticed it.

All in all a very nice hike, I think I'll be heading back here for an overnight trip to explore some of the other trails and roads in the area.

Hike details:

5 hours from leaving the vehicle to sitting in the vehicle again.

Distance covered estimated at 12 to 13 km

Total elevation gain was maybe 200m but there were a lot of ups and downs, and if you don't miss the trails, the hike would be a very easy one.  Well worth freezing your feet to get across the river.