Come Away With Us: Mt Robson and braving the cold

     Starbucks is such a great place for a blog post, especially when you've been at 5385 ft and camping in the Canadian wilderness for the past 4 days.

     Mt Robson has easily been the most beautiful place we've camped/seen/been to thus far in Canada, and is in contention for one of the most beautiful places in the world in our experience. We hiked in the 13 mile, very much steep uphill train in the rain, never what you hope for to start, but were blown away by the beauty of the place the next morning when we woke up to a winter wonderland. (It also helped that we ended up staying in the covered log shelter with other brave hikers and not our tent the whole trip.) After enjoying our sunny, snowy playground, the following 2 days proved to be as perfect as can be, puffy white clouds slowly drifting by, and the sun proudly blazing, illuminating everything in a magical way. We attempted hiking another long trail, Snowbird Pass, for a view of a massive icefield, but our limited shoes and gear made us turn around about 1 1/2 hrs from the finish, which was just fine by us as we later found out that there was 1 1/2 food snow for the last half mile or so. Our tennis shoes were grateful we spared them. The last night was a bit chilly, we woke up to the nearby creek being partly frozen over, and a thin ice layer over the land, but with the wonderful company of new international friends that we made while camping there, and Mt Robson beaming majestically overhead, we had nothing to complain about as we hiked the 13 miles out.

   It was truly a spectacular place, and we were sad to leave it. As we drove along towards Banff and stopped at Lake Louise, we have both come to the conclusion that Mt Robson, the largest peak in the Canadian Rockies, offers the best array of scenery and enjoyment to be had anywhere, with less people traffic. With the massive peak boasting 3 separate glaciers as its source, the Crayola box like turqoiuse lake, amazing waterfalls, and ranges of snow peaked mountains as far as you can see, it's hard to think of anything you'd like to see in the mountains that it doesn't have, if you're willing to brave the hike and camping.

     After Mt Robson, we camped overnight at an unknown site name along the famous Icefield route between Jasper and Banff national parks, truly a breathtaking drive with new sky scraping mountains at every turn, and discovered that our tent continues not to be waterproof. =( It collects condensation at the roof and walls and will fall on us throughout the night. Unless, of course, it's cold enough that the water actually freezes before it can fall off (i.e., last night). So we'll be experimenting tonight in Glacier National Park, USA, hoping that our new techniques will keep us warm and dry. =D

     So sad to leave Canada in a few hours, but feeling full of sweet memories and experiences that will stay with us as we continue our adventures.

Here are a few of our trip pictures, but this is a link to the album with so much more amazing pictures! oh boy
https://picasaweb.google.com/117860913937238604610/MtRobsonBackpacking