Our groups travelled from the Bluerock Wildland area to the Highwood River, East of the Highwood Range over a period of 4 days on June 4-7th.

Weather
The weather we experienced included mostly clear skies and temperatures ranging from -1C overnight with highs of 17C. We had one precipitation event on the afternoon/evening of June 4 (light snow in the afternoon above 2000m, and up to 4mm of rain in valley bottom.) On June 4-5 there were wind gusts from 60- 80km/hr from the west.

Travel Conditions
We generally travelled between 1500-2250m with a mix of on-trail and off-trail travel.
Snow patches were still present above 1900m on shaded north/ east aspects, with no snow at these elevations on south/west aspects. A few deeper snowpack areas required a bit of post-holing through knee deep+ snow, but in general it was easy to avoid.

River Crossings
Because of high water levels on the Sheep River, we crossed at Indian Oils bridge. The other river crossings on the route were quite reasonable and did not go above calf height.

Drinking Water
Drinking water was easy to find as the creeks were flowing well, but there has been a lot of cattle and ungulates grazing in the area making the water quality suspect. We treated/ filtered all the water we used.

Wildlife and Flowers
The wildflowers are in full bloom, adding vibrant colours to the landscape. During our four-day expedition, we observed a variety of wildlife. A black bear was spotted from a distance, and we encountered several tracks and scats indicating its presence. Additionally, we found evidence of wolves, moose, elk, deer, rabbits, etc. through tracks and droppings. Although no cows were seen in the area during this period, there was a significant amount of scat from the previous year, indicating past grazing. We traveled through tick-prone terrain, but surprisingly, only one tick was seen throughout the trip.

Sylvia Forest, Helen Sovdat, Peter Oxtoby, Kirsten Knechtel and the TAP Hiking Guide candidates