Cyclist suffers fatal crash on Highway 93
A 56-year-old cyclist died on Highway 93 July 17, north of the Columbia Icefield.
An initial investigation determined the man crashed his bike while descending a steep hill.
RCMP were dispatched to the scene just before 1 p.m. and by the time they arrived, the cyclist was deceased and lying alongside the highway.
The man’s name and place of residence is not being released at this time, and the investigation is ongoing.
Boy rescued from Cavell
An 11-year-old Sherwood Park boy was rescued by a helicopter, July 20, after tripping and falling while hiking down the Cavell Meadows trail with his parents.
Although not critically injured, his scrapes and bruises were bad enough that his parents were scared to move him, so they called 911 around 2 p.m. and waited for Parks Canada’s visitor safety team to arrive.
Using GPS tracking from the 911 call, Parks tried to narrow down where the family was, but because the reception in the area is weak, the location wasn’t as accurate as they had hoped for.
“The initial call when we plotted it looked like it was fairly close to the trail head, so it seemed reasonable to respond with a team of visitor safety staff and a wheeled stretcher,” said visitor safety specialist A.L. Horton, who hiked up and flew out with the young boy and his mom.
But it turned out the family was close to the treeline, a ways up the trail, so, after the team realized where the family was, a helicopter was deployed, along with a couple of visitor safety rescuers.
The boy was then put in the helicopter and flown to an ambulance waiting at the trailhead.
“He was a trooper in the helicopter,” said Horton.
Turned around on Skyline Trail
Four young adults, aged 16 to 20, found themselves in over their heads as they hiked the Skyline Trail last weekend.
While hiking on Saturday, the group realized it wasn’t travelling quickly enough to get to its campground, so it reassessed and turned around, heading back down to the Watchtower Trail.
“They called their parents and told them that they were going to change their plan,” said A.L. Horton, a visitor safety specialist for Parks Canada, noting that the only reason they had cell reception is because they were at the Notch—the highest point on the trail. “So they ended up going down, turned back and went down to the Watchtower Trail and stayed at the campground.”
The next morning, though, the group got confused and instead of following the Watchtower Trail, it took the wrong side of the creek.
“So they weren’t on the trail at all,” said Horton, “and they ended up coming out at Medicine Lake.”
Parks visitor safety staff was sent out to look for the missing group, who hadn’t arrived home as quickly as expected—judging by the time it takes to hike the Watchtower Trail.
In search of the hikers, Parks sent mountain bikers down the Wabasso and Watchtower trails and flew a helicopter over the open sections in the Skyline Trail.
“We were just wrapping that up—we were waiting on the results from the teams on the bikes—and we got a call from one of the wildlife guardians who ran into the group at the viewpoint at Medicine Lake.
“They were tired and exhausted from their journey, but uninjured and in good health.”
