The adventures started even before we headed to the Mt Robson park - we had to postpone or original booking due to the travel restrictions in place. I was very surprised we managed to find new spots as the trail was already fully booked for the rest of the season. So lesson number one - if you’re checking the DiscoverCamping website couple times a day every day, you’ll eventually get some spots 🙈
Since the ride to Mt Robson park from Vancouver is about 7 hours, we split it to 2 days and booked a campsite at North Thompson River park to stay for a night. That was a double mistake 😅
One - because it’s a bad idea to sleep in a tent before a trek - unless you’re sure you sleep well outdoors. Me, and my friend, too - didn’t sleep that well, so we were tired even before starting the trail.
And two - unless you really like REALLY loud trains - just don’t camp in the North Thompson River park!! Omg 🤦🏽♀️ We chose a campsite by the river, and the rails are literally on the other side of the river. And the trains run - I swear - every damn half an hour AT NIGHT.
But oh, well.
We ate dinner in Clearwater, and there was another mistake from my side - I ate some fat meat - and got an annoying indigestion that night we stayed at North Thompson River. Another lesson - watch what you eat before the trek!
The indigestion got worse the next day - the day we were supposed to start hiking. We waited for it to go away, and though it didn’t, I insisted that we start hiking anyway.
The way to Kinney lake camp that should have been the easiest part of the trek felt like forever and took us about 3 hours with many stops and at a really slow pace.
By the time we got to the camp though I felt much better.
Couple words about the Kinney lake camp - I chose it for 2 reasons. One is that I’m a fan of vibrant lakes more than of waterfalls or other nature features (in BC, you get to choose 😁), so I couldn’t miss the chance to shoot some sunsets and sunrises on such a beautiful lake.
And two - I tried to be strategic about splitting the load of the trip - 5-hour drive to Clearwater on the first day, than 2.5-hour drive to the trailhead and a 7km easy hike - on the second.
Anyway. Kinney lake is awesome.
Couple words about the tent pads. When you book the sites, you are assigned specific tent pad numbers in the reservation and we wondered whether you really need to stick to that specific tent. So it turns out - you don't. The ranger told us this in the orientation - as long as you are in the campground where you have booked the site - you can choose any available tent pad.
For the tent pad size - in my photo it appears bigger than it is due to lens distortion. But I would say, you could squeeze 2 tents like mine (Nemo Dragonfly 2p) in it, if really necessary. Probably won't be able to extend the 2 vestibules thought. I saw quite a few people putting 2 tents on a tent pad, and we were also told by a ranger it's absolutely ok.
The next day we started moving towards the Berg lake camp at about 11am and all was good… Until we stopped for a snack at Whitehorn and then the sickness hit me again.
So guys, the section between Whitehorn camp and Berg lake was the most awful hike of my life. Although it really really shouldn’t have been.
At some point in the beginning I felt I just can’t keep going. So I just sat on the ground for half an hour until I felt like I can go again. Then we needed to make few more stops. Our pace was crazy slow and I was really embarrassed.
We made it to the Berg lake camp at around 7pm and I couldn’t even get myself to go take photos of the sunset, although the weather was amazing.
But my sickness aside, what you can expect from the trail: in general, the trail is very well groomed along all the 21km. It reminded me of Elfin lakes trail or Garibaldi lake trail both in quality and in incline - there are a couple steeper sections, but for the most part, the elevation gain is really gradual and the trail is pretty even. It’s just long. On the contrary, for example, the Wedgemount lake trail is much nastier 😬 - it’s steeper and is the rocks & roots style all the way.
That being said, be aware that if it was raining the day before, or it is raining on the day of your hike - it is going to be crazy muddy after you reach Kinney lake.
So I wouldn’t say the trail itself is really hard - it is just very long. But wouldn’t advise doing the 21k in one day unless you’re really fit.
I woke up before the sunrise on the day 3 - feeling the sickness was gone. So I got out of the tent and oh, man! I have witnessed one of the most epic sunrise views in my life!
Will be definitely posting more photos from this sunrise on my instagram!
Then I went back to sleep, and later in the day we went to check out the Hargreaves lake. Ummm well.
So the plan was not to do the whole Toboggan-Hargreaves loop, but just to go up from the Hargreaves side and then down the same way - since we heard that side is less steep and wanted to save our breath and do the Snowbird pass after that.
The trail to the Hargreaves lake is fine until it turns right to the Toboggan falls direction, but then we had to search for the trail to the Hargreaves lake itself and it was not obvious at all. I think the real trail might have been covered by the huge snow patch that was in the area. Anyway, we found some kind of trail that went up on a really steep slope of partly loose rock and for me - it wasn’t at all a fun experience… Especially the way down later on. So beware 🤷🏽♀️
The weather was overcast on that day, but we managed to catch a couple glimpses of sun while on the ridge.
When we came back to the camp I realized I feel too weak to go on another hike. So my friend went to check out the (open section of) Snowbird pass by himself and I stayed at the camp for hot lunch and a nap 😁
The sky cleared up a bit towards the night and we had witnessed an amazing sunset.
View-wise, I am very happy with the choice to stay in the Berg lake camp over Marmot - it is really close to the lake like Marmot, but I personally think it has the best angle that showcases the enormous Berg glacier, which eliminates the need to hike in the dark for sunrise or sunset shots.
Also, we chose our camping spots on the farther side of the stream, so it was less crowded than in the main camp.
The next day it was raining from the early morning and at this point I was really happy that I brought along a tarp. I completely forgot to take pictures of it - but it’s a simple blue poly tarp, the kind you buy for $12 at Home Depot, or even cheaper, at MEC.
I was hesitant about whether to buy one at all, this one is a bit bulky and lighter options are significantly more expensive, but ended up buying this basic blue tarp. I would say it is a bit small and was just enough to cover our sitting area between the tent pads, but it did the job well. We could stay dry and cozy during breakfast while it was raining non-stop.
It was our time to head back to the Kinney lake camp where we booked the last night, we packed and started hiking. The way back was relatively without adventures, except of the really really muddy trail. We stopped at Whitehorn shelter for a snack, and had a hard time finding a place to sit - the shelter was full of people.
After arriving at Kinney lake shelter that wasn’t that crowded, first thing we did was to change to dry clothes - my top was soaked from sweat beneath the rain shell and I was starting getting cold. There I noticed that my clothes weren’t completely dry - despite the Osprey’s brand backpack rain cover and the water resistant sack they were in.
We were on a fence about staying the night at Kinney or hiking out the additional 7k to the trailhead. I was very tired and didn’t really want to hike further. But after resting for about an hour in the shelter and eating a meal I felt like I can make the additional 7k on a pretty even trail. At the same time I got more anxious about staying in the wet weather with possibly wet gear. So we ended up heading to the trailhead. Had to hop over an unruly stream that wasn’t there on day 1.
So there are a few lessons I have learned from that one rainy day I think are really important to share.
Anyhow, that trip definitely was much more of a challenge than I have expected due to my sickness, but Berg lake trail is incredibly amazing and I’m so grateful I could manage it despite feeling unwell.
I hope you will find my story useful and learn something so you have more enjoyable, safer trips in the future!
Let me know what you think and any questions in the comments below!
Cheers,
Oless
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