MOTHER NATURE’S DREAM WORLD AWAITS ALONG THE BERG LAKE TRAIL
Magnificent Rockies provide the backdrop for a hiker’s paradise, Pamela Roth writes.
Happily nestled inside my sleeping bag, I awaken to the sound of thunder in the middle of the night. Panic briefly sets in until my brain realizes, that isn’t thunder; it’s the sound of an enormous piece of ice breaking off the Berg Glacier.
Berg Glacier runs down the northern face of Mount Robson — the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies at 3,954 metres.
It took two days of hiking with a 40-pound backpack to reach this fairy tale world of massive glaciers, deafening waterfalls, fast-flowing rivers, cyan lakes and mountains so steep they don’t have trees. And even though I have seen the Rocky Mountains several times, they never cease to amaze me with their rugged beauty.
Located in Mount Robson Provincial Park along the eastern edge of B.C., the Berg Lake Trail is a moderate 23-kilometre hike with an elevation gain of 800 metres. Traversing three bio-geoclimatic zones, the hike is listed among the best in the Canadian Rockies since Mount Robson, and the four glaciers surrounding it, is the star of the show.
Hiking into the backcountry had been in the back of my mind for a few years, so I was thrilled when my friend Megan managed to book three nights of camping along the trail in early August. Due to snow, hiking season in the Rockies typically lasts from only about mid-June to mid-September — if you’re lucky.
After two days driving from Victoria, I tingle with excitement as we pull into the parking lot of the trailhead, located just past the Mount Robson Visitor Centre on Highway 16. The big adventure had finally arrived, but the moment I open my car door it starts pouring rain.
Thankfully, the downpour doesn’t last long as we make our way through old-growth cedar forest and arrive at the silt-laden waters of Kinney Lake 4.5 kilometres later. The wide, well-packed trail to Kinney Lake follows the fast-flowing Robson River and is mainly flat, with only a 134-metre elevation change. Mountain bikes are allowed as far as Kinney Lake, which is the first of seven campgrounds along the trail. After Kinney Lake is when the scenery transforms into a dream world as the trail enters the appropriately named Valley of a Thousand Falls.
“It feels like I’m in Lord of the Rings,” says Megan’s husband
Troy, as we stop to admire seven waterfalls tumbling from the cliffs surrounding Whitehorn Campground — our destination for the night at kilometre 11.
The next day is when the real work begins as the trail gains about 500 metres in elevation over five kilometres through more than 20 switchbacks that feel like they’ll never end.
Eventually, they do end at the spectacular Emperor Falls that plunge 43 metres over a cliff to
slam into a small ledge, causing an explosion of water and a shower of mist that drenches those who get too close. From there, the trail flattens again as it skirts the Robson River through a valley that soon reveals the star of the show.
“It doesn’t even look real!” I shout with excitement once we finally arrive at Berg Lake, where we’re treated with clear skies and 25 C temperatures as we gaze at the two glaciers creeping down Mount Robson’s snowy peak.
We waste no time trading in our heavy backpacks for day packs to explore the surrounding area, which many hikers spend two to three days doing by making their base camp at the two backcountry campgrounds located at each end of the lakes (Marmot and Berg Lake).
The area has several day hikes, including the challenging Snowbird Pass (22 kilometres return) that travels along the moraine of the Robson Glacier.
At six kilometres long, the Robson Glacier is the king of glaciers in the area.
Since we have only one night in the area, we choose the six-kilometre Hargreaves Lake Route, which quickly climbs to a viewpoint — Hargreaves Glacier, a glacier too beautiful and too large to comprehend.