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A ramble up the upper Elk
The journey began in Cranbrook but it culminated at the ‘start of the road.’
It was Elk Lakes Provincial Park that beckoned on a sunny Thursday, July 28 afternoon.
The 101 km drive to Fernie from Cranbrook featured the usual volume of reddish/orange licence plated vehicles, but the long weekend hadn’t yet kicked into gear. The roads would become much worse.
Approaching Fernie, the Elk River to the south was busy with floating and stationary fly fishers, as the river and region continues to grow in popularity as one of the best trout fishing areas in the world.
I was in no hurry to reach Elk Lakes, 67 km north of Elkford, because the Canadian Football League schedulers’ slotting my Winnipeg Blue Bombers into another Thursday night placement, against the visiting B.C. Lions.
Normally, a visit to Rocky Mountain paradise would trump an early season CFL tilt, but there was a special reason to catch this one. Winnipeg’s beloved defensive line coach Richard Harris died suddenly two days before the game and as the Bombers have the league’s best defence, I was extremely curious to see how they would respond.
So I stopped into Sparwood to grab some photos and was impressed with the downtown centre coal miners’ memorial and garden. The last time I wandered around the downtown was last November and it was a true mid-autumn day in the Elk Valley.
Rather than beeline up Highway 43, I meandered my way north on the Lower Elk River Road, stopping into the Elk Valley Airport for a peek.
Another stop had me dipping my toes in a small creek at Elk Valley Regional Park. 
The drive between Sparwood and Elkford is almost too short, considering the raw beauty one observes.
Arriving in Elkford much too early to watch the football game, I opted to take the Fording River road up to the entry to the mine’s property.
Th0ugh I have been to Elkford many times before, I’d never had the time to properly explore and I found this 24 km drive to be a mix of natural wonder and industrial intrigue, with plenty of signs of coal mining, the reason Elkford’s average income is 60% higher than the rest of British Columbia’s.
A view point at the top of the hill leading east from Elkford affords a breath-taking view of the town and Elk Valley.
Following the football game, which I caught at the friendly Lamplighter Pub, (I quietly cheered for my Bombers who pulled off a huge win for their departed coach), I prepared to leave Elkford.
I stopped to check the air in my Jetta station wagon’s tires, after having earlier noted a slow leak in a front tire.
Sure enough, the tire was down again. I briefly thought about nixing my tour north to Elk Lakes, but the 10 km of the road that I had traveled in the past seemed to be pretty decent. The tire got topped up and I headed toward ‘the start of the road.’
District of Elkford Mayor Dean McKerracher is fond of saying that his town is at the ‘start of the road,’ rather than at the end of Highway 43, running35 km from Sparwood.
Elkford was stablished in 1971 as a home for miners working at the newly-established Fording Coal Operations, located.
“From its early days as a collection of temporary homes, a one-room school, and a single general store, Elkford has grown to its current population of nearly 3,000 residents,” notes elkford.ca.
“Elkford is largely undiscovered by lovers of Rocky Mountain recreation. Pristine natural wilderness is highlighted by proximity to Elk Lakes Provincial Park, Height of the Rockies Wilderness area along the continental divide, world class fly-fishing on the Elk River, a local ski hill, and a full range of community recreational amenities,” states elkford.ca.
With the final (or first) bastion of society falling behind, I slowly rolled up the Elk Lakes road, the light of day disappearing rapidly behind the jagged splendour of the Rockies to the west.
The first 10 km of the road were fine, as I remembered. The second 10 km was also an easy roll. Then things started to really slow down.
By the half way point, I was creeping along, trying to dodge the largest potholes and other tire and undercarriage damaging obstacles.
In short, it took me almost three hours to drive 67 km. Safe to say, the Elk Lakes Provincial Park road is one best travelled in a truck or SUV.
It was midnight when I arrived, so I simply set up a cozy nest in the back of the station wagon and dropped off to sleep.
I wanted to be up with the sun, to hike up to the lakes, with Lower Elk Lake only one km from the trail head. Weatherman Mark Madryga promised me that morning that the most glorious days of summer awaited and I relished the thought of a gorgeous, crisp, sunny morning hike and photo shoot frenzy.
Alas, I awoke at the first crack of light – to a torrential downpour. Harrumphing, I fell back to sleep and awoke two hours later, to a cold, damp day, with clouds clinging to the near-by peaks that are home to a serious of glaciers that feed the Elk Lakes and Elk River, which carves its way south and then east to the Kootenay River west of Elko.
Seeing as how I placed so much trust in the weatherman, I did not bring appropriate clothes for a cold morning hike. Man, one should never mess with the mountains. Always be prepared.
After a big slurp of water and a granola bar, I decided to head back toward Elkford and consider my day’s plans along the way.
Once in Elkford, with fresh coffee doing its thing, I decided to check my tire and it hadn’t leaked at all. It was fat n sassy with 32 pounds.
Go figure. Buoyed by a small miracle and perhaps a tad wonky from the 20 or so mosquito bites from leaving a car window down a crack, I rolled south to Sparwood, where I was seized with a new rambler’s dementia, and opted to head east for a meander around southern Alberta.
Ian Cobb/e-KNOW
