Rambling the Powderface...

This has to be one of the best short, accessable gravel rides around Calgary!

The Crown King it ain't...

It's such a pretty scene.

Powderface trail is a relatively short, gravel connector between routes 66 and 68.  Most visitors do an about face at pavement's end once they've reached the Elbow Falls campground at Forgetmenot Pond.  At one point in time, the road continued into the Rockies, looping around to the Sheep River road farther south.

That forestry road was the only way to get into the back country to fight fires.  Today, helicopters have pretty much obsoleted such "fire roads" as they were called. 

From Calgary, the PFT climbs top about 5500'

You can't access the back country along that route any longer except by snowmobile during winter months.  I myself have ridden in there and I can tell you, beautiful as it is in winter time, it is actually deadlier than riding here in summer months.  A breakdown on your sled without proper survival gear and or communication equipment would strand a sledder many miles back in completely wild terrain. 

I love riding the PF trail!

Little traffic exept today, there were gravel trucks kicking up more dust than a Texas cattle drive, choking me in gray powder as they went by.  The dust hung in the air like volcanic ash.



Campers...?



Once upon a time ago, I thought this was a fairly challenging route.  In the couple of decades since, I have ridden far more difficult and dangerous rides on the XT's I own.

There have been several excursions into Baja's heart, a mountain top in British Columbia, numerous desert rides and of course the latest adventure up the Crown King in AZ.

Powderface can bite you if you're not careful.  Winter, summer rains, truck traffic, animals darting out... can all turn a peacefull day ride into a sudden horizontal trip. 



The entire trail climbs and twists and entertains.



Today, while enjoying one of the few warm days of 2011, a Beemer pilot decked out in hard core riding gear passed while I was perched above the road snapping digital impressions of the surroundings.

One of two 'secret' crossings.

I wasn't a whole lot further along when he came towards me.  We had a little roadside chat, he informed me that the road up ahead had a grader on it and as a result, the gravel was 6" deep.  Too dicey for him on his 500 pound plus "off-road" motorcycle.  He warned me that it may be 'impassable'

I felt like telling him my recent encounter with CK.



Home of young brookies!



There was no point, you would have to have been there to have an inkling...

A Fab day ride!

I thanked him for his advice and 'soldiered on.'

There are many creeks, most notably Jumping Pound, that cross the road in numerous places.  Much of the crossings have been modified to prevent 4X4's from rooting up the environment.  Two however, remain in their natural state, and with all the water rushing from the snow caps, I played a bit, splashing the 600 through a dozen times.



GS pilot, "You may want to turn around, the gravel is 6" deep!"



It was a lovely day.  Even the gravel trucks and grader, which by the way was only there to aid the truckers, could not detract from the ride.  Warm enough, blue skies, white fluffy clouds... yup, a perfect day to be riding an old XT.



I once saw a bull moose, chest deep in this pond.



By now, my bike had taken on a light sheen of gray.  Indeed the gravel at times where the grader had passed, resembled ash and was 6" deep.  Too tough for a BMW GS?  Maybe, but not for a veteran traveller of an XT Yamaha.

What a great bike this is!