Hog's Back/Threepoint Creek: 21 km of Hot Hiking

About once a year, we opt for a long, full day hike somewhere. This year, I chose the Hog's Back/Threepoint Creek loop, a 21.2 km circle. This long trail follows a reclaimed fire road for a part of the way, following the course of Threepoint Creek, and takes you to a canyon I was told is the "Grand Canyon of the Kananaskis".

This hike was not without some misadventures. For starters, about 3 km in, I was intent on studying my GPS and I slid off the trail, scraping my knee and elbow (a little blood never hurt anyone). Second, it was about 29°, and we ran out of water. We were on the trail 6 hours, and basically started rationing around 2:30, as we were down to less than 700 ml. But one of the first "issues" was this sign at the start of the Hog's Back section.



I (correctly) guessed that there was unrepaired trail damage from the flood of 2005. About 1 km past that sign, the trail, now 100 m above the river, was crossing a very steep undercut bank. Sure enough, the entire hillside was missing, including the trail. I wanted to get photos, but getting out of there wasn't too safe (it involved scambling up a gravel/shale scree slope at 50° angle, grabbing onto trees as we went). I figured that was it for the wrecked trail sections that caused the closure, and it almost was. There were also two creek crossings that had been washed away.

However, after that the trail got better, except for a lot of downed trees. Then it went zooming up an incredibly steep 250 m climb (which just about melted us, as a lot of it was in the glaring hot sun). This got us up to this view.



The trail hugs the lip of the ridge on the right. Just past here is the "obvious lunch stop" - the top of another awsome undercut bank.



Many people stop here and turn back. In fact, I downloaded a GPS route map that did just that. But this is not the "Grand Canyon" I was promised. Tantalizingly in the distance was the start of the canyon, so we decided to press on.



The trail conditions got worse, with even more downed trees, and damage from dirt bikes that arent's supposed to be here (this is south of the McLean Creek OHV zone). I suspect that there's been no maintenance in a few years because remember, the trail is actually closed. The trail sort of undulated up and down a bit, in mostly shaded forest, with occasional glimpses of the canyon ahead. It's shaped like a hockey stock, and here's the blade part starting to show up.



Then suddenly you get on top of a grassy ridge with a panorama over the blade of the stick...



and a spectacular view up the canyon.



It was here that we consolidated water & found we were down to less than a litre, with 10+km of trail to get back to the car. Rather than retrace our steps up and down the hills and through all the bad deadfall, we opted for the longer but flatter (sort of) fire road route. We expected it to be infinitly more boring (we were right), and covered in used horse food (which it was). It started with nice views up the Quirk Creek valley, with Nihai Ridge and Powderface Ridge in the distance.



But then it turned into a long, hot, dusty 330 m decent that took 3 1/2 hours to get back to the car, with the only interesting parts being the 7 creek crossings where we stopped to cool off and soak our headbands...



...and the wildlife. We saw an owl fly though the forest, but got no pictures (I think it was a Barred Owl). We saw a number of porcupine chewed trees. We saw lots of red squirrels...



and a Three-Toed Woodpecker.



The trail was covered in spider webs, some of which were occupied. I think this is a Cross Spider, but it could be an Orb Weaver.



And we saw signs of other animals: several sets of cougar tracks, and either cougar or bear scratched trees.





The hike stats: Parked the car at 1,439 m ASL and started hiking at 10:20 AM. Lunch at 1,642 m at 12:15 pm, with a 45 min stop. The great vista was at 1,742 m at 2:00 pm. Back to the car at 5:20 PM.

Did we like the hike? It was OK. Would we do the hike again? Probably not. The vistas are nice, but only start showing up after a 5 km trek through a boring forest. The trail needs a lot of work to become usable again. If you want to do this, I suggest mountain biking up the fire road to the second Hog's Back junction, walking the 10 minutes up to the spectacular canyon view, and riding home.

And bring a lot more water than you think you need, expecially if it's 30° out.