Adventures for Wilderness, Unicorns in the Whaleback – May 26, 2024

May 26, 2024

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• Adventures for Wilderness
• Events
• Uncategorized
• Whaleback
• Whaleback

With Kevin Van Tighem

Text and photos by Lindsey Wallis

It was a sunny morning as we met at the gate at the end of Bob Creek Road. Usually we are the only souls at the trailhead, but today another hiking group also had the idea to hike here, and indeed on our planned route! Luckily, Kevin had alternatives in mind and our group set off across the creek on a few rickety logs. No one got wet feet and we continued along the valley bottom to the boundary of Bob Creek Wildland Park.

We are so often embroiled in battles to protect things and trying to stop development. Often times it seems like the conservation failures and loss of special places just keep piling up. But this trip is always a good excuse to remember the wins. This park is in existence because conservationists and ranchers and regular folks worked together to prevent development in this valley and convince government that it contained ecological resources worth protecting. The legacy of this park and the adjacent Heritage Rangeland is just one of AWA’s wins over the years and Kevin reminded of this as we paused.

The group also got a lesson in hydrology as we traced the path of the water down through the aspen groves to the stands of willow attesting to the presence of water just below the surface. Here are our best reservoirs that will protect us from drought. We don’t need to build more dams to create reservoirs, we already have many, much more efficient ones all along our Eastern Slopes.

We stopped at a water trough, where Kevin had set up a remote camera in past years to capture all sorts of interesting visitors including a grizzly bear. Then, we climbed through the douglas firs, some enormous specimens, hundreds of years old, to the ridgetop where we enjoyed a surprisingly wind-free lunch among the balsam root, shooting stars and forget-me-nots.