Home»All Photographs»2013 Hikes»Plateau Mountain 06-01-13

A day of nice weather sandwiched within a week of rain was good news for this Super Saturday season opener. Calm conditions were a treat as well, as this area is frequently buffeted by high winds. I noticed a moose and her calf in a glade of tress near the highway.
The trail starts of in a nondescript area with no signage or official trail. We simply looked for the best line to ascend between minor cliffbands. Above 2000m, the rain we got in Calgary came as snow here - more than I was expecting at that. Near the top, the landscape was covered in a foot of snow. Plateau Mountain has several hydrogen sulfide sour gas wells (in current conditions it looks like an Antarctic Research Station in the snow) and various related infrastructure, which seems in conflict with its designation as a Provincial Ecological Reserve. It is a Reserve because it has 'patterned ground" - a geologic feature resulting from permafrost where the rocks and pebbles are arranged in loose patterns of circles and polygons. Plateau Mountain was the last area of remnant permafrost as the glaciers retreated following the last Ice Age. We'll need to return sometime to confirm this, as all we saw was snow.
Clayton noticed what we think were wolverine tracks. In a 3 & 1 pattern like a rabbit, but with mini-bear-looking paws with noticeable claw marks as well as paw or tail drag marks. There was a set going to the Antarctic station, and a set leaving. Wolverines are known to investigate cabins and huts as potential food sources, and are quite adept at breaking in (they have also been recorded digging and chewing their way into frozen beaver lodges in the wintertime...the beavers have no escape under the ice). But nay, sour gas pipelines and valves provide no food for a wolverine.
We descended by an alternate route for variation. We found a pretty area by the confluence of two streams and followed the riverbed back to the vehicle.