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Stoney Creek Warden's Cabin and Elaphus peak

Report Submitted by Jean-Francois
(trip) Date: Monday Aug 07, 2023

Submitted: Tuesday Aug 08, 2023 at 06:47

Participants:

Me and Geoff

Discussion:

I just wanted to share a few summer pictures of a trip to the Stoney Creek Warden Cabin as it's a well known winter ski.

We biked the Cascade Fire Road, the bike is quite easy over a very smooth road (with only a few rocky sections). For reference it took us just 1h 10' to reach the Warden's cabin (50' for the return).

After reaching the Warden's Cabin we continued towards a horse camp near the Cascade River. After fording the river (mid thigh deep) we continued on the trail leading to Elk lake and bushwhacked our way up Elaphus Peak (peak that can be seen from Stoney Creek Warden Cabin)

Overall a great day!

smooth riding

Elaphus peak in the background

Elaphus peak summit

Cascade river fording

3 comment(s) posted

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Comments:

2023-08-13 at 07:12 - comment by Helen Read

What a superb outing and report for a hot summer's day. Now we'll know what we are looking at: Elaphus Peak 2423 M when we are freezing our hands eating "no mustard" lunch. Guessing you crossed the creek from the Elk Summit Trail after going up Cascade.

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2023-08-14 at 09:35 - comment by Jean-Francois

Hi Helen,
We ford where horses go as I was told that although shallower, the hiker's crossing is through a quite swift flow.
Have a good summer!

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2023-08-29 at 15:42 - comment by DEMOCRATIZE AB

I can remember mountain biking the Cascade River fire road in 1987 a day after I got off crutches for an ankle that was broken in 3 places and surgically put back together. The road was in much better condition then.

This former Banff Sundre road was fleshly graveled at that time. It was rather difficult to peddle in the deep gravel in some areas. In fact, in some areas I had to walk my bike due to the gravel depth. The trail or road was much wider then, unlike in the picture above. What a change now!

There is a big need for volunteers to remove a lot of overgrowing brush on the Cascade trail to make for wider ski skating lanes so the skate skiers do not screw up the skier tracksets. If the brush is not removed, this trail will continue to get more narrow for skiing. It will not be long before skate skiing is no longer possible if the overgrowing brush is not removed.

I mountain biked up to Stoney Creek to get some fly fishing in way back when. I had to use a cane to hike along the river which added a challenge to fly fishing. My doctor was shocked and impressed when I told him what I did the day after I got off crutches. I only road a bike to get to the fishing because my walking ability was not good and somewhat slow. I spent a lot of years backpacking after that to get my ankle back in shape. Life is better in the Naturehood even when you are in bad pain.

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