We had dinner last night in a pub in Valemount with an unfortunate ailment. They had a nice list of brews listed on tap, but none were available. Their tap is broken, and they’re down until replacement parts arrive. Seems like a significant problem for a brew pub, but they did serve up an excellent can of Valemount’s best, from the Three Ranges Brewery (Monashee, Cariboo, Rockies) just down the street.
While we ate, two serious-looking bike travelers wheeled past our window, outfitted in the ultralight bikepacking style. One of them entered the restaurant a few minutes later, looking fit but road-weary. I asked about their journey, and was impressed. They’re on a north-south tour of the continent, starting in the Northwest Territories. They’re following the spine of the continental divide, generally off-road. I felt just a bit sheepish describing our cushy program of car-aided day rides.
The view west from Valemount as we parked for dinner last night. We’d been watching this fire develop since we arrived yesterday, but it really exploded just recently. It wasn’t like this when we biked back to our room just an hour earlier.
We’re lucky with the weather again this morning. It rained a bit last night, but this morning it’s dry but mostly overcast. Visibility is good and the forecast calls for dry conditions until mid-afternoon. We have an early breakfast in our room and head off in the Jetta for Mount Robson. Our plan is to start from there and bike east along the highway toward the continental divide for as far as our legs and the weather are good for. We’re thinking of about a fifty mile round trip.
Driving north on Highway 5, following the route to Mount Robson we biked along yesterday
When we arrive at the visitor’s center, we’re disappointed to find that it’s starting to sprinkle, and the cloud cover is denser than back in Valemount. Visibility is quite good though, and exposure of the mountain is nearly as complete as yesterday.
We go into the visitor center to make use of their facilities, and I ask the host about biking within the park. There is very little, but she encourages me to consider hiking the trail along the Robson River to Kinney Lake. Rachael and I consider this and decide it’s an excellent idea. We’ll take a morning hike, and get a different view of the park while we see what’s happening with the weather. If it looks promising when we get back, we can still take a shorter afternoon ride.
It’s a great plan. The trail is beautiful, following closely along the river through old growth cedar/hemlock forest. The woods and their vegetation feel very familiar to me, like ones I hiked on the Olympic Peninsula as a young man. The river is both dramatic and colorful, an ice-blue torrent rushing through a narrow, rocky channel. We don’t quite have the trail to ourselves, but nearly so - we only see a few other parties on our hike to the lake.
As we near the lake we find spots where the trail is submerged, and have to scramble through rocks and brush to work around the, until the path appears again. We’re lucky to be here at this time - a few weeks earlier and I imagine we would need waders.
Kinney Lake is a marvel - an unreal pale blue that is very striking against the cliffs and peaks that surround it. One of the prettiest mountain lakes I can recall.
On our return, I see how lucky we were to have gotten such an early start. The trail is full of hikers and backpackers on the way it, and doesn’t give the wonderful feeling of solitude and serenity we experienced earlier. We pass easily a hundred hikers going the other way before we reach the car.
Back at the visitor center, we break out our bagels and trail mix, supplemented by milk and an ice cream sandwich - the same repast as yesterday, at the same spot. The weather seems fine and likely to hold for a few hours, so we unload the bikes and head east out the highway. Our plan is to ride fifteen miles and then turn back, which will take us out to Moose Lake.
It’s a good ride, though less dramatic than the amazing approach to Mount Robson yesterday. There’s a good shoulder The whole way, though it squeezes down in a few spots. Annoyingly, in one of these spots I run through some tar and have to listen to bits of gravel scraping against the frame for the next few miles. I stop to scrape it off the tire, but more just keeps accepting into the tire.
It’s an out and back, so we have the luxury of letting Rachael continue on ahead of me when I stop for pictures. She continues a mile and a half past our agreed turn back point before reversing directions. At exactly fifteen miles, I see her in the distance, racing my way.
I recognize this spot. It’s at the top of a rise beside Moose Lake, giving the first really good view east toward the mountains around Jasper. I still recall the excitement I felt at this spot then, and the photo I took (only one, since I had to spare my film back then in the pre-digital dark ages). And I remember my disappointment when we developed the film and it showed me nothing. I should dredge that photo up someday and add it to the journal as an example of what advances in technology have done for amateur photographers like me.
We get back to the car about four, just as the first rumblings of thunder appear. An hour later we’re walking into Caribou Grill again, and the first rains begin.
Our hike to Kinney Lake closely follows the pale blue Robson River.
We come abruptly to the lower end of Kinney Lake, formed by partial damming of the river from the alluvial fan of a tributary. The water is still quite high, and short stretches of the trail are still underwater. We probably couldn’t have taken this hike two weeks ago.
The view along Kinney Lake is incredible. The trail continues along the right side of the lake and bends raround the base of the mountain to Berg Lake, the source of the Robson River.
After lunch we hauled the bikes out of the car and headed east along the highway toward the continental divide. There’s not enough day left for that ride though - we’re just going out 15 miles and turning back.
I think this rock must be the iron-rich shale from the Arctomys formation that the information panel above describes. It looks like this band bends down to intersect the highway a few miles east of the peak.
The highway follows Moose Lake, a swelling of the Fraser, for about five miles. Even though it’s right by the road, you seldom see it because of the trees and can’t access it because of the CN rail line. Tantalizing, and a bit frustrating.
Coming back at me. Rachael has ridden on ahead for another mile and a half while I stopped for photos. This approach works well for us on out-and-back rides, and she typically rides two or three more miles than I do. Better than having her just stand by the road waiting for me to catch up.
The sky is a lot more turbulent when we return than when we left here. I heard the first rumble in the distance when we rode into the parking lot. We were lucky to get this ride in.
