A strenuous hike from valley bottom to alpine meadows in the Park Ranges of the Rocky Mountains, the Groeneveld Trail follows a historic sheep drive route. The well-defined trail ascends for 5 kilometers to an elevation of 1798 meters. From here, one may wander along the marked route to true alpine and thence wander freely; there may be grizzlies in this area.
An interesting fact shared by Elsie Stanley discusses how she helped take sheep up that mountain in 1961. Her parents and two other farms near McBride had sheep, so that summer they took the three flocks, maybe 500 sheep, along the road to Dunster. (Gravel road. Lots of ups and downs and corners) . They spent the night at a farm there, and were joined in the morning by 3 or 4 flocks from the Dunster area, some men on horseback and with dogs. A CAT road had been pushed up behind the Groeneveld farm to timberline, so they started up that way. The switchbacks worked against them with the sheep, and eventually, they ended up driving them straight up the mountain. A long-time shepherd stayed with the sheep for the summer, but had a lot of trouble with grizzly bears. She went up with her dad and others to meet them on the way down, and she doesn’t remember much about that descent; it must have gone well. They sorted out their McBride group later that day and started bringing them home. They slept under the stars at the King Creek campgrounds, and in the morning, her dad and brother went home, and she was left with two little sisters and a horse to bring the sheep home. Quite an excursion all around.
There was a Katimavik group of young people here, maybe for two summers, or three, and they likely built the trail as well as the Stone Arch. Tom Duchatel was their leader.
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