Story by James Cannon, five year member of Sun Peaks Scouts
This year the Sun Peaks Scouts did one of the top ten hikes in Canada, Berg Lake.
Berg Lake trail is a backcountry, five day, 22 km backpacking trip to spectacular Berg Lake on the north side of Mount Robson. This is an extremely popular hike so we had to make reservations 12 months in advance.
In the months coming up to this trip we did lots of preparation including learning how to properly pack, use stoves, and cook hiking meals. We also did a number of smaller hiking trips as a group.
In June the older scouts wrote up a training plan for the group to complete. This involved doing five hikes of different distances and different amounts of weight in their packs to ensure that everyone would be able to complete the trip.
As is to be expected with a trip of this sort we had to fundraise a good amount of money. We were able to raise the money we needed by selling crafts at the local farmer’s market, through a GoFundMe page that one of our wonderful parents set up as well as receiving donations from the Kamloops area scouting organization and local business Sotheby’s Realty.
All summer the province was hot and smokey but while we were hiking to Berg Lake it was cloudy, with cooler weather and some rain. Thank goodness it cleared for a couple hours everyday so that we were able to enjoy the spectacular scenery. We did the 22 km into Berg Lake in two stints of 11 km a day.
The second stint of 11 km included a very strenuous climb up to Berg Lake through the Valley of a Thousand Waterfalls. We saw many people on the trail and they were all very impressed that kids aged 12 to 16 years old were carrying backpacks up to 50 pounds.
While at Berg Lake we were fortunate enough to be able to see from the lake all the way to the very top of stunning Mount Robson, the highest mountain in the Canadian Rockies. On the third day of the trip we did a day hike out to the Alberta border and then hiked to the toe of the Robson Glacier. On the fourth day we hiked 15 km to Kinney Lake where we stayed the final night before hiking 7 km out to the parking lot.
Colin Cannon one the scout group leaders said, “If the smiles and amount of laughter is an indication to how well the trip went then we had a fantastic adventure.”
Editor’s note: Sun Peaks Scouts is still looking for leaders for this year. Those interested can learn more here.
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