To The Mountains I Go: Jumpingpound Loop

Distance: 5km for short loop or 9km for long loop.
Elevation Gain: 244m (lots of up and downs)
Time: 2-3 hour for short 4-5 hours for long
Difficulty: Easy-Moderate

Access:
Trans Canada Hwy (hwy 1) going west to Sibbald Creek Trail (hwy 68). There is a trail head at the Pinetop day use area that is gated off in the winter, so you will have to park on the side of the road. There is multiple places to start the hike as it is a loop going across the hwy a few times. If you drive past Camp Cadicasu then you have gone to far. Turn around and the start is in between the Texas Gate and that camp. You can also see a trail sign on the right going west.

Experience:
For Easter my family got together, and we wanted to go on a hike. We knew that it would be muddy from the recent snowy and rainy weather, but we went anyways. We got there, and had a really hard time finding the start of the trail. There is many fallen trees, and snow making it hard to see a distinctive dirt path. We found the Pinetop day use area, which has toilets and picnic tables. While there it appears as if you have to walk down by the creek, but that is not the right path. You are supposed to walk along the ridge right above the creek, but we didn't notice that. We ended up walking along the road until we saw a trail head, which we did that about 250m past the gate for Pinetop day use area. We started there and walked the loop. It was very muddy, wet, and snowy still, as being April in Alberta. The path goes up and down a lot, so see the 244m elevation gain doesn't sound so bad over 5 km, but it went up and down 244m many times during the hike. We hiked for 2.6km, and then ran into the middle of the hike sign where you can either go and cross the road or do the bigger loop. We decided to take the shortcut and cross the road. The other side is a lot flatter, but it was very windy. You will run into another camp ground that isn't kept up anymore, and has one broken picnic table to eat at, which is where we stopped for lunch. In total it took us about 3.5 hours.