Ruby Falls day outing Saturday March 14

[binch]

Anyone interested in a run into Ruby Falls?

[Gravelgobbler]

I'm in

[DBrands]

I'll join too.

[binch]

Excellent.....sounds like a plan coming together ;-)

[Abdu]

I'll come down

[Abdu]

I'll come down

Was just down there this past weekend trail is good moderate ice on some of the hills that first hill is still a pain going up,

Ice on the rivers is still solid only about three small fall throughs that were only about small bumps on the trail

[binch]

Hey Abdu, are you referring to the Hill that takes you down a slope, turns left and crosses the creek?   Or are you referring to the hill going up to the lakes?

[Abdu]

Hey Abdu, are you referring to the Hill that takes you down a slope, turns left and crosses the creek?  Or are you referring to the hill going up to the lakes?

i belive it is the hill going up to the lakes that has like the i think it's a Marsh at the bottom.

[binch]

Hey gang,   

Here are the details for next saturday's trip into the ever popular Ruby Falls:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/cPhdR6Bb2Zt61iPn8

Let's meet up at the Timmies at the 'Currents of Windermere' (mall on SE corner of Henday and Terwilliger drive) for 7am.

From there we'll head to Drayton Valley for the last fuel up and food at the Canco service station/ Timmies on 50st, just north of Hwy 22.   
From start Approx 1.5 hours & 130KM

From Drayton Valley we continue west on Hwy 22 for about a kilometer to the HWY 620 south.  Follow Hwy 620 past Lodgepole approx 17km to the Elk River Road WEST.   Follow the Elk River Road to the Pembina Forks Crossing at the Forestry Trunk Road Hwy 40 (AB-734) & turn south.    
From start Approx 3.25 hours & 251km
 
From Pembina Forks Crossing take the Forestry Trunk Road hwy 40 (AB-734)  south to the Cardinal River Road on hwy40 approx 8km WEST.   Follow Cardinal River Road past the Tall Boys Settlement (SLOW DOWN THROUGH HERE!!!) to the Thistle Creek Road approx 22km and turn SW.   Follow Thistle Creek Road 7km to staging area on north side of road, at the lake.   
From start Approx 3.5 hours & 287km
 
Follow trail east side of Lake North toward Rugy Creek then turn west and follow the trail to the falls.  NOTE:   STEEP Trail off to the north takes you to Ruby Lake is about 2/3's of the way in (approx 13km).
We should make the trail head about 11am or so.  I expect there will be several other groups in there too.
We'll try to make the falls by 4pm before turning around to head home for 9ish.

Suggestions.
- Check your fluids and lube your prop shafts.
- Bring lunch, Drink and snacks to suit your needs.
- Bring chains if you have them.
- Recovery gear.
- Radio- Personal first aid kit
- you may not need them but rubber boots may come in handy.
- Come prepared for -30C....even if you don't need it.

If I've missed any names/contacts I'd appreciate it if you could let me know.
Any Questions......?

cheers, Bill

[binch]

Greetings all,

The run into Ruby Falls is going ahead.  Sounds like like a bit of snow in the forecast and temps around minus 10c so we should have some sound ice. 

There are are a few changes to the group as follows:

- Abdu & Mike will be leaving Friday and camping in the areas around the staging area/falls.   But they will be meeting us at the staging area Saturday morning about 11am.

- Isaac had the misfortune of losing his engine im his disco so we won't have that vehicle with us.  But Isaac is going to try and snag the passenger seat in Dave Brandson's D90.

- Abdu and Mike both have passenger seats for Bruce and Tanya, who will all meet at the staging area as well.

Isaac, Dave L, Dave B and I will be meeting at Timmies for 7 am as per the original plan and heading down together.

The rest of the game plan is the same😉

NOTE:   If you have one of Lloyd's little radios pls bring them with you.    I will bring the two I have.

Cheers Bill👍

[DBrands]

It was a beautiful day out, even if things didn't quite go to plan.

Bill, Isaac, and I met up in Edmonton before convoying through Drayton, arriving around 11AM the south entrance to Ruby Falls. A decent amount of fresh snow had fallen overnight in the foothills and other than some oilfield weekend work, the FS roads were quiet.

Isaac unintentionally tested the offroad prowess of his Subaru. Convoying with the two Land Rovers, he got mired in deep snow up a relatively steep hill after spending a comedic amount of time with snow blowing over the windscreen. He got turned around and back out to a decent parking spot, and jumped in with Bill.

In that time, Bruce showed up and decided that his city truck (stock Tacoma) and lack of time to spare, meant he wouldn't join us for the rest of the afternoon. We parted ways and continued on.

We didn't run into Abdu and Mike at this point... apparently lost in translation, they didn't appear to have camped at the south-side camp area. No tracks in the fresh snow to be seen.

Bill and Isaac in Bill's 110, and me in my 90 carried on up the trail, made good time through the deep snow, with only one detour to two larger fallen trees that we didn't care to cut out of the way, and with another trail possible lower down the slope, why bother!?

Once at the river, we still didn't see any tracks... having expected to run into Abdu and Mike by now. We carried on up the trail. It's been 8 years since I'd been to Ruby Falls (in the summer), and with no GPS track, we spent a bit of time trying to find the trail in all the fresh snow. A few deep drifts slowed our progress, but for the most part, the ice held our vehicles, and we were able to detour some of the areas where others had been less fortunate.

Big foot?



About 60% of the way up the trail, we lost the way completely, so spent some time on foot looking for signs of past users. Bill forged a path on foot and Isaac and I brought the Land Rovers up, albeit only after dislodging my truck from some deep drifts as we tried to cross the snow-covered ice without putting too many tires in the creek.

Unfortunately one particularly snow-covered crossing resulted in my 90 getting right stuck. After crossing an iced over channel, I lost traction on some sloped ice, losing all forward momentum. I rolled back no more than a truck length and deposited the back end of my truck into the creek.



I was stuck against the ice and snow shelf on the edge of the creek, all four tires spinning, with one doing its best impression of a water wheel in the creek water below. We attempted a winch recovery from the rear with Bill's truck, but a solenoid in his winch wasn't ready to partake. We tried a kinetic recovery after digging a bit of snow back down to the ice, but my rear right tire was still 4' below the surface it would need to roll onto. The only way was forward... but at this location there were really no trees...

I was thinking it would take all 350' of the winchline and extensions I had to get us out, as there were no trees directly infront and the closest large trees all off at 10 o'clock to the left at 250+' or a single large tree off at 2 o'clock to the right, about 150' away. I shoveled off a single big rock out infront, but it had no good angles to secure a tree strap. In the end, we decided it best to attempt the tree off to the right, through deep drifts and up a large bank. Both the initial pull, and on the bank, we had to adjust many times as the angles of the pull were putting my truck over on its side. With the stability of the snow unknown it took us quite a bit of time to get out successfully. Over an hour later and past our time limit to turn around, we had both trucks back on our previously travelled tracks.





In retrospect, it probably would have been a better idea to try the trees far away on the left, and get turned around and try cross the creek in the other direction. Hindsight 20/20...

About halfway back to the start of the creek trail, we ran into Abdu, Mike, and their group. Chatted for a few minutes, and joked about the miscommunication. They had gotten a late start, followed our tracks in the wrong direction, and so never met up until we were on our way out. We then parted ways.

Abdu and Mike and group continued on towards the falls, planning to spend the night. Bill, Isaac, and I joked that we had exposed all the weak ice so they would have no worries! They also had some well-kitted jeeps, making my 90 look rather dainty by comparison!

All in all, a good day out in the mountains.

[binch]

Gr8 write up Dave!!!  I'll give it a read once I get my glasses on👍👍🤣😅😂

Apparently they spent 1 to 1.5 hours stuck in the same spot before breaking to smaller groups an getting to the falls.

What a brilliant day to be out playing in the fresh snow