Sticking with the winter activity theme from my last post, I wanted to share a short post about Bear Pole Ridge. This is another ridge near camp, and I believe it actually connects to the ridge-line I talked about in my previous post. Up until the winter of 2011 this new ridge was relatively unknown to Base Camp. We knew it existed, but nobody had found a decent way to get up there. A past staff member eventually blazed a trail on cross-country skies all the way to the top where he discovered a dirt bike trail that we didn't know existed. It's a bit of a slog to get up to the ridge, especially on skies, but the views are worth the effort. He eventually named it Bear Pole Ridge because of the bear claw markings on several trees that he found along the way. I've been up to the ridge a few times in the winter and a couple of times in the summer on my bike. It is absolutely no fun climbing up on your bike, but coming back down the opposite side is more than a lot of fun!!
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| Almost every tree in this Poplar bluff had a deer rubbing on it |
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| These markings are either caused by male deer rubbing the velvet off of their antlers or they were eating the bark |
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| This is how the ridge got its name |
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| Bear claw markings in the bark of a tree |
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| The view of Devil's Gap from Bear Pole Ridge. You can actually see Lake Minnewanka at the back of the valley. |
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| Orient Point |
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| Sleeping Mole and Black Rock Mountain |
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| Rome posing on Bear Pole Ridge |
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| I noticed more bear markings on my way back down |
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