Unofficially named bump east of Hwy40, as one drives towards Barrier Lake. It is actually Hike #1 in new edition of Daffern K-guides (blue book). Perhaps better suited as shoulder/off-season, but I had few hours & wanted different perspective of the valley. Besides trips with no trail always spark my interest.

Start is at Lusk day-use area, few kilometers down Sibald Creek Trail (Hwy 68). Daffern advocates heading up where you please, but if you walk from parking back to Sibald Trail, just before the curve look for a flag indicating easiest way. Initially bit steep, then follows crest of semi-forested rib. Bits of trail and several flags, then traverse through bit of deadfall to intersection with trail coming from Tim Hortons ranch. Rest of the way is obvious. "Summit" has bigger cairn/register than I've seen on many real peaks Few pics:


1- Register Entries. It is always nice to see guidebook authors actually hiked the trail!
2- View down to Barrier Lake; Baldy left. In the morning when sun is behind, this is quite a nice viewpoint
3- Views SE from the "summit"

Walked few minutes down the hill (Daffern extension), but it is not really worth. Came back same way; was considering following trail to the ranch, but walking back to the car on road was not appealing. I'll say I enjoyed this way better than expected; perhaps it is just appeal of Kananaskis I haven't seen for about a year. It is a bit surprising though this is included in K-guide books. Also my GPS reported slightly higher distance (2.2km compared to 1.7km in the book)

Finally few pics from Bow Valley Wildland; all these years, and I never bothered to stop. It is well worth


Trail around Middle Lake (pic 1) is submerged at places, but passable. However Many Springs trail on the south side is not passable and closed (3rd pic - boardwalk - is taken from closed area; my feet were submerged at this point [:I]

Late February '21 (more than 7 yrs from original post already !???? Where did the time go???)

Planned to go somewhere else, but very high wind made me seek shielded foothills instead of high alpine. Horton Hill gets lots of afternoon sunshine, so it looked like a good choice for few hours leg stretcher. Following my own instructions went out from Lusk parking to Sibbald shoulder expecting some tracks, but there were none. No matter, initial rise was a bit awkward, but low snow & I was able to easily boot up. Higher up, just before that wide open meadow with best view of the day I intersected well broken trail & followed to the top. I thought it was coming from Horton Ranch & on descent followed it; eventually it merged at valley bottom with Horton Ranch - Lusk Recreation trail. My line was way better though & while you can get up pretty much anywhere, I stick with recommendation of walking out to Sibbald road shoulder & then heading up. Pics tell the story:



[Sibbald road as you walk out of Lusk recreation area parking. Head up open area on center left & follow easiest line up through semi-open forest afterwards]



[After initial steep bit looking back to Sibbald Road. That's Mt. Baldy upper left, and distance right is Yates Mtn a.k.a Barrier Lake lookout]



[View of Barrier Lake from large open meadow ~20 min from the top. This is much superior viewpoint from what you get from semi-forested Horton Hill summit]



[Further up view towards Yamnuska area; this bit had lots of deadfall, but it was easy to navigate through]



[Hunchback Hills to the east]



[Horton Hill summit, again with register that had couple of notebooks & plenty of entries]



[Lower down someone built a snowman. Guy looks quite happy ; too bad it is soon going to melt]

Total tally was ~3 hrs with 375m vertical, about 5km. Note: It is possible to extend the hike by continuing east on Horton Ridge to next bump, then descend forested slopes down to Sibbald Road ~2km east from Lusk parking. This can not be recommended as it involves much tedious bushwhacking and almost no views; returning the same way is best option.





Full report with GPS download link here