Souris River Bend Hike

 

On the morning of May 24 we had 15 hikers meet at Capitol Theatre Parking lot for car pooling to Souris River Bend Wildlife management area. Participants were Stephanie, James and Olwen, Hazel, Debra, Arthur and Shirley, Judy and Bert, William, Kelly, Marlene, Di ( Scotty stayed home because of of a sore paw) Lynne and myself.

We started the hike from PR 346 and traversed the top of the Souris River Valley Bench before reaching viewpoints over the river. From the viewpoints  we could see the Big Bend section of the river and Lang’s Crossing. It was nice to see that the poplars had come into leaf adding some green to the landscape. After hiking along the bench for some distance we descended to Crompton’s Flats and hiked along the river for a distance before breaking for lunch. During the break Stephanie demonstrated her tree climbing abilities.

Following lunch we started our ascent out of the valley in an attempt to discover an alternate route for our return to the vehicles. By this time it was extremely warm and one of our participants was suffering from  heat exhaustion. Thanks  Bert for bringing extra water and physically helping our fellow hiker up the hill. At this point I went back to retrieve my truck to return for our colleague while a couple of the other members stayed with her. The remainder of the group did head back along the trails to to the starting point. Again Bert came to the rescue  of some others also  suffering from the heat.

As expected we did encounter a number of ticks -  William and James seemed to have collected the most.

In conclusion it seems that the sudden change in temperature contributed difficult hiking conditions and pointed out the necessity to carry along plenty of fluids.

Brian