Craig's Report - June 25, 1997

Summer Check In

It has been over a month since I updated this and the old report was looking a little dated. The snow is now pretty much gone from most areas below the top of the Bear lift and it managed to disappear without causing the rivers to get too excited.

Mountain biking season is now in full swing, but due to rain and sloth I haven't been out that much except for quick rides up the ski hill. I did do the Sherwoody Forest - Gorbi loop about a week ago and it was in pretty good shape. There has been quite a bit of rain since then though and I try to avoid the trails when wet as they won't take a lot of wet weather abuse.

There has been a bunch of logging on the lower part of the hill, with Silver Fox being widened considerably from just above the top of the Deer Chair down. The trees on upper Meadow have also been cleared so there is now a straight runout from the bottom of Currie Bowl as shown at the right. (Late afternoon is not a smart time to be taking pictures looking up the ski hill.) There also have been a lot of logs hauled out of the new subdivision area, but I have not been in to look around yet.

There have been plenty of bear sightings on the hill this year and a lot of scat everywhere I have gone, but I didn't actually see one of the beasts until this afternoon when I came across this Griz up in Currie. I make no apologies for the small fuzzy image as he was just how I like them, far away. :-) I have heard reports of at least one fellow being chased and also that there are cubs around, so some caution is probably in order. There is a story of a fellow literally running into a couple of cubs while riding down the Island Lake road earlier this year. Mom didn't make an appearance and neither man nor beast was reported to be damaged, but I bet the old adrenal gland got a work out.