LindaT376
I did it!For over 50 years, I have wanted to hike the Berg Lake Trail, descending from behind Mt. Robson, the tallest peak in the Canadian Rockies, with its turquoise blue lake with its glacier tumbling down into it, and past 4 major and many minor waterfalls, for a distance of 23 kilometers, or nearly 14 miles! It descends 2,610 feet, or over a net of half a mile vertically downhill! Please see the map and the vertical profile of the trail to get a proper view of my journey.I knew that at my age, I could never do the uphill part, but I thought that at least I could do to downhill part. So I took a helicopter (Robson Helimagic) up to the upper trailhead and then made my way down. The helicopter pilot was great!I cannot say I just walked, as in a leisurely stroll, letting gravity do all the work. The trail had many, many ups and downs. So my impression that there would be no arduous uphill hiking was dead wrong.But I did it!I could not find anyone to do it with me, so I did it alone. It was at the top of my “bucket list”, and I did it. I was properly prepared, with hiking shoes, a backpack with the essentials, and a hiking pole (absolutely essential).Here are some pictures from the helicopter ride to the upper trailhead. The lake below is Kinney Lake, which is near the lower end of the trail. We are headed much farther north to the upper trailhead.The trail follows the river you can see way into the background of the picture below. We are headed there and beyond, behind the mountain. The upper end of Kinney Lake is beneath us.I had the mental expectation of gorgeous views, with the sunshine hitting the mountain, glacier and lake in all their glory, as in one of my pictures. This is what it was supposed to look like.Unfortunately. As soon as the helicopter dropped me off, it began to “mist”, and then the “mist” turned to rain. Soon, I was crossing a huge moraine and boulder slope on a one-foot wide trail. The wind started, and I was pelted with rain. I thought “is this really happening?” Here is a map of the trail. The helicopter took me to number 7 at the top of the map. I hiked “down” (and up) over the red dotted line to the Berg Lake Trailhead at the bottom of the map. The steepest part was where the waterfalls are.As for the trail, on the part that was supposed to be the worst, yes it was, but I expected that. I slipped and fell a few times, but the only thing that was injured was my pride, since one time someone was coming down the trail behind me and helped me get up. I felt like a big “klutz”. Here’s a picture of the condition of the trail in one part. A little bit fuzzy, but you can see that the rain on the rocks made it slippery.I had a rain poncho, but I waited too long to put it on, so I was already wet. Later, when the rain seemed to stop, I took it off, only to have it start raining again. Here I am during one of the breaks from the rain, but I am already soaked. The bandana was to protect my ears at the beginning because of the wind. At this point it was not windy, but it kept my wet hair from falling in my eyes. Don’t I look like a rugged mountaineer? I am not as fat as I look, I had many layers of clothing.After the “worst downhill part”, I expected it to get easier. But it didn’t. The trail goes up and down, over small tributaries that lead to the mighty and turbulent Robson River, with its myriad of waterfalls. Regardless of these complaints, here are some pictures of some of the majestic waterfalls I passed by.Note: I have reached my limit on pictures, so the rest you will have to imagine, unless I can post another!!!!!Here is the view of where I am going after the waterfalls end.There are many “bridges”, one of which was an actual swinging suspension bridge. But others were merely two two-by fours or sixes across a waterway. In one place, the water was deep, but the bridge consisted of only a single two by six. The other had been washed downstream. At that point, my legs felt like rubber. I did not trust myself to walk across it upright. I tried to “shimmy” on my butt to get across, but eventually put my feet in the water, up to my knees, just to push myself across. I hiked the rest of the way with heavy, wet jeans and sloshing hiking shoes. If this were a warm and sunshiny day, it would have been fun and even refreshing. But I was tired, wet and alone. I should have gotten a picture, but I was too wet to care about it.Along the way, there were camp shelters, with lots of people in them, happily cooking food and trying to dry out. But most of them were campers, and were staying overnight. I applaud them for getting there, either uphill or downhill, with all of their camping gear and food. But I had to get to the bottom and to the safety of my beautiful RAV4 and my sleeping bag. I thought I could do it in 8 hours, and that was being generous. In fact it took me over 11 hours. Thank goodness, in Canada, at that time of year, darkness does not set in until nearly 11 PM. I had been dropped off by helicopter at about 10 AM. I think I finally arrived at the parking lot about 9PM.I have to laugh when I read that the most popular part of the hike is, what was for me, the last 7 kilometers (only about 4.5 miles) coming down from Kinney Lake. It was truly up and down, and up and down, and up and down. I saw people hiking uphill toward the lake at about 8:30 PM carrying umbrellas, like they were out for a leisurely evening stroll! I also saw people hiking on the treacherous parts with flip-flops! The ease with which I saw so many people making the hike with no apparent effort, made me realize my age. I have wanted to do this for over 53 years, and some people were only ½ or even 1/3 of that.Nevertheless, I did it! Despite the terrible weather, the sights were spectacular. Most of all, I appreciate the beautiful aroma of the forest. No matter how many pictures and even videos I took, I was keenly aware that there is nothing can capture that aroma. There was a point along the trail where the forest becomes a rainforest, due to the orographic effects of the huge Mt. Robson. I took a picture, but nothing can really capture the beauty. This is just a poor example. My cameras ran out of battery power.Could my experience have been better? Of course! Was it worth it? Definitely yes!Let me say, however, that I checked the weather forecast on a Monday, and the Weather Channel predicted an 80% chance of rain for my reservation date of Friday, the 18th of July. By email, I asked Robson Helimagic if I could postpone my trip to the following Monday (The helicopter only goes on Mondays and Fridays). Yes, I was told, but according to EnviroCanada, there was no chance of rain on Friday. So, I went ahead with Friday. For the next few days I was camping, and out of the computer loop of weather forecasting. The weather on the day before looked nice, but when I woke up on “the big day”, it looked not so nice. Unfortunately, my worst weather fears materialized. I am sure they knew. I wish they would have told me. But maybe I would have chickened out. I’m glad I didn’t. I don’t think waiting until Monday would have been any better.Here are pictures of the day before, and the morning of the “big day”.The day before, from my campsite along the Robson River:The morning of the Big Day, again from my campsite:The week before it had been relatively hot in this area. People were complaining about the 80 degree weather. I can say that it was not cold. Maybe in the low 70’s. Any colder and the rain would have made it even more uncomfortable after I had gotten so wet.My last words:Just make sure of the weather forecast first. I recommend doing this hike in July, which I did. I just was unlucky about the weather that particular day.