Mount Robson June 27 - 30, 2015 - Part 1
Our latest adventure was at Mount Robson. Participants: Myself and my boyfriend Ryan.
We drove from Vancouver to Kamloops Friday night. Stayed in a hotel overnight and continued on the next day.
We arrived at our destination around 11:00 and had our mandatory orientation.
After orientation, Ryan decided to conquer the Mount Robson sign before taking on the mountain itself.
This is the view of Mount Robson from the info center.
They have a bunch of posts out front pointing to the mountains in the area naming and advising their heights. This was the only one we were interested in.
We then drove the last bit down the road to the parking lot. It was really really busy, and we had a bit of a time finding a parking space. We parked and started getting ready - and discovered we had some broken gear. We had purchased a pack second had checked it out. However the guy who sold it to us had hid a defect that was not fixable on the trail. We toughed through anyway.
Note to people selling gear: Don't sell broken gear and claim it is in good condition.
Note to people buying gear: Fully Test your gear before getting leaving!
So 1:15pm we started off on our adventure. A nice gentleman took our picture as we started out while we were fresh and smiley.
The water was high and rushing
The trail starts off as a nice leisurely stroll through a river valley. There is a very gradual incline for the most part with a few short steeper sections. The trail is scenic, non-technical and easy to walk.
We found a rabbit hiding in a a bush. It was very quiet.
We arrived at Kinney Lake camp around 3:15 pm. Unpacked, set up camp, and relaxed. Had some wine, pea soup, biscuits and apple crisp. Ryan decided to cool his feet in the water. We met up with a couple and their kids. Before dinner Ryan put our melted Snickers bars in a ziplock bag and in the lake to cool. Later he ran out to collect them. He ran from the table to the lake then came back saying "look what I caught!" He shared out the Snickers bars and the kids spent the rest of the evening looking for chocolate in the lake.
Ryan added a few notes to my journal for the first day:
"Ryan fought and bear and was very brave. I was scared, but I like my new bearskin hat!
Kinney Lake is a gorgeous milley blue, with high treed cliffs rising on all sides. We can hear the distant roll of a waterfall from our tent.
Wine is chilling in the lake as we prepare for our first dinner in the park.
DAY 2
We wake up around 6:30 am and have another easy morning. The morning was gorgeous, the water was mirror still, the bugs were out in full force trying to eat US for breakfast.
After being fed we started off on the trail around 9:15am. It starts off a lot like day one, nice rolling hills. The day warms up quickly.
Not long after we start out we come across a sign that says we need to supervise children. Here is Ryan contemplating wether or not he needs to be supervised. And from the next picture you can tell that he figures he does not need supervision - look at her go.
We come out on a flood plain to some more wonderful scenery.
We cross several more bridges.
And Ryan is still smiling at this point! The narrow bridge leads over to a little island and the cross over another bridge onto the alluvial plain. It is around 10:00 am and it is getting hot!
Although he seems to be considering jumping off the bridge...
We saw some more wildlife - they seem to be doing ok- this guy looks a little on the chubby side.
Right after we had a picture break, we had started to climb. We took pictures of the valley as we rose above it.
Arrived at Whitehorn around 11:15am. We take a snack break, refill the water. The site is pretty nice and close to the water. There was glacier till in the river, but there was a smaller stream running into it for us to collect water from. We needed to cool off a bit so we dunked out heads in the river. Felt really nice.
12:00 we leave Whitehorn and follow the river. Looking out across the valley you see waterfalls. The river is choppy. It seems quite shallow with lots of rocks.
10 minutes down the trail we arrive at the base of Whitefalls. The spray coming off of it is refreshing with the breeze. The trail between the base of the falls and Whitehorn was flat, breezy and beautiful. Took another short break cooling down. No sooner do we leave the waterfall and we see the sign advising STEEP HILL NO WATER FOR 4KM. It is bad enough we knew it was coming!! Did they have to rub it in!!
After a few switchbacks there is a side trail, which gives us a better view of whitefalls. So naturally we took more pictures.
We continue up the switchbacks in the boiling sun. There are a few shady spots, which we enjoyed short breaks in. There were lots of views of the valley and the falls as we climbed
And another sign you love to see on a trail....
And we made it to the top of white falls!! Look how far up we climbed!!
Immediately after leaving the White Falls sigh, more switchbacks!! Thankfully there is another side trail leads us to a bench with a great view of the valley.
We reach the Falls of the Pool around 2:00 - and we stopped for lunch. All this climbing is hungry work!
And on goes the trail, with more amazing views! Now we can see Emperor Falls! This gives us renewed strength to continue on.
We were so excited to reach the falls around 3:30. We dropped our packs where the side trail down to the falls was (Who wants to carry it up more than you have to?) It was sooooo cold in the spray! I could feel my skin go numb. It was refreshing, and it was loud! How much water pressure is that? So we had a shower, soaked completely through in seconds. When I had enough goosebumps and shivers we headed back to our packs. I was dry within an hour.
3:45 and we are on our way again, and immediately confronted with more uphill! but we powered on. Emperor Campground is a lot further from the falls than I thought, it took us another half hour to get there. We didn't stay at the campground for very long. It is smallish and had a ton of flies!! We were refilling our water and got bit a few times and were chased by wasps! Water supply replenished we hightailed it out of there.
4:45 we come across Mars Field. It is so hot your feet are cooking from the rocks. You can feel the heat radiating up wards hotter than what the sun is putting out! It continues on for a lot longer than you think. It could just be that the heat makes it seem longer - but it does continue on a ways.
It was a massive relief to get off the hot red stones and back to a normal looking landscape. It was short lived as we entered onto Mars Plains. Red tinged cobble type rocks that were exhausting to walk on. Every step the rocks roll under foot and it takes a lot of effort to balance and not roll an ankle. Needless to say - no pictures.
These bridges were just before we arrived at Marmot Campground (5:30 arrival). We are almost at our goal! And we found a sign that points to Berg Glacier!
There were tons of these fat chipmunks. And then there were ducks? That water is so cold there are icebergs in it!! No wonder they are napping on a sun warmed rock.
The last of the trail rolls up and down a bit before the final descent into Berg Lake campground. We finally reached our destination at 6:10pm. There is an enclosed shelter, a fair number of bear lockers. There were a lot of people up there - we didn't have much for choice of sites. We quickly set up the tent, took the food out of packs and then rushed to the lake to cool our feet. It was so cold! I lost feeling in my toes in seconds! But it felt so good. Ryan showed off by standing in it a lot longer. We then enjoyed some chocolate and a cup of water, sat back and enjoyed the view of the glacier and watching the icebergs float by. It made a lot of creaking noises and roaring as it settled and cracked.
7:30 we decided we were hungry so we headed back to the hut and made dinner. Enjoyed it on the front porch while drinking Beer/Cider, so decadent!
We finished off the evening with cheesecake that we shared around, and hot apple cider. We enjoyed the quiet evening watching the glacier. The darker it got, the more the glacier glows.
We packed up all our gear, stored it for the night and headed for bed around 11:00pm. So tired!
To Be Continued in the next post (not enough room in this one!)