30 August 2016, Tuesday

We postponed our breakfast from 6:30 am to 7:30 am since we were up late packing. I was also busy posting the blog until after 11 pm. Maurice cooks us a breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast. By 10 am we are at the trailhead after a brief stop at the visitor center to try to catch Mt. Robson without cloud cover for a photo. It is a magnificent mountain! This may be our only chance to get a view of the peak. Rain showers (now with a slight chance of snow) will be moving in over the next 2 days, and it looks like this weather willl park over us for the following 5 days of our trip.

We do our best to soak up as much sunshine as possible as we climb. The Robson River flows swiftly down near the trail, its water powder blue from rock flour ground fine by the glaciers above. Many day hikers and some backpackers pass by as we go on our way.  

At last we come to a suspension bridge over the river. A sign on the bridge warns that only one hiker at a time should cross. Immediately after the bridge we arrive at Whitehorn Campground. Here, there is a beautiful cooking shelter, food storage containers, a dishwashing station and even a composting toilet. What luxury!  We set up our tent and then cook dinner at the shelter where we have a conversation with Mike, who has spent months over the course of several years hiking the Canadian Rockies. He is from Missouri but says the Canadian Rockies are, by far, his favorite hiking destination.

After dinner O and I sit on the rocky flood plain of the Robson River and gaze at the rock walls above. Without any effort at all I can see six waterfalls coursing down from the glaciers above. Tomorrow we continue up the Valley of a Thousand Falls.