When booking availability opened for the Berg Lake Trail in Northern B.C.’s Mount Robson Provincial Park at 7 a.m. on March 1, Whistler local Michelle Cormier was already logged on, eager to snag a highly coveted backcountry camping reservation and cross the world-renowned trail off of her list in 2021.
“We got super, super lucky and were actually booked at a site at Berg Lake on Canada Day,” she explained. Cormier and hiking partner Sarah Clarke planned to complete the approximately 23-kilometre trail over five days and four nights.
Whether that timing was, in fact, lucky is debatable.
Cormier and Clarke can now stake their claim as two of the last people to visit Berg Lake this season, after a record-breaking heat wave and rapidly melting snow pack earlier this summer caused the Robson River’s water levels to rise dramatically, prompting the park’s closure and the stranding of several hiking parties.
The pair was among several groups evacuated from the park by helicopter on July 2, after sections of the trail were washed out.
While Cormier and Clarke were warned of rising water levels prior to setting off on their trip on July 29 neither was prepared for the rapid escalation of the situation.
“[BC Parks] said, ‘Be prepared, because you’re going to be in knee deep water,’” Cormier recalled.
But as they traversed the first seven kilometres of the trail to Kinney Lake by bike, 5’3” Cormier said the water, in some spots, was hitting her at the waist rather than the knees. Upon arrival at their first destination, “the campsites were completely washed out, right next to the lake,” she recalled.
After a stop at Emperor Falls on their second night, the pair finally made it to Berg Lake on July 1, only to be met by a park ranger asking if they’d heard the news.
“We said, ‘No we haven’t, what’s going on?” Cormier recalled. “And he [said], ‘I’ve got some unfortunate news. The trail’s closed.’”
The ranger asked Cormier and Clarke to backtrack as far down as they could make it. But after already completing the five-kilometre trek from Emperor Falls to Berg Lake, Cormier said she didn’t feel comfortable adding another 21 kilometres onto the day’s trip—in scorching temperatures and while carrying 60-litre backpacks—in order to reach the trailhead.
Instead, the pair decided it was safer to wait it out at the Whitehorn Campsite, located at the 11-km mark. However, that night a violent storm moved in and the duo were pounded by hail, thunder, lighting and torrential rain—“the worst storm that I’ve ever experienced in my life,” Cormier said. The weather contributed even further to the already high water levels.
By morning, the raging river had washed out bridges and rendered the hike out too dangerous. The only way to get out of the area was with the help of search-and-rescue teams, said Cormier.
Within hours the duo, along with several other stranded hikers, was rescued and flown off the mountain in helicopters from Prince George—a “once-in-a-lifetime” experience that Cormier described as an unexpected highlight of an otherwise stressful situation. “I was pretty stoked about that. I’ve never been in a helicopter before,” she said with a laugh.
The evacuation, however, meant the pair had to abandon their mountain bikes, which were still locked at Kinney Lake.
Cormier was prepared to count the bikes as an unfortunate loss, but, just in case, gave search-and-rescue crews the locks’ combination and keys. But to her surprise, “they flew the heli and picked up the bikes.”
She added, “One of the rangers delivered the bikes to us at the brewery in Valemount. Talk about customer service.”
Reflecting on the trip, Cormier expressed her gratitude for B.C.’s search-and-rescue volunteers and BC Parks staff, and—particularly as the effects of climate change become clearer—cautioned other hikers to be “ready for anything” while out in the mountains.
“They did a phenomenal job,” she said. “You just never know what Mother Nature is going to throw at you. Always be prepared for the worst—that was definitely my biggest takeaway.”
After becoming one of the very last hikers to stand on Berg Lake’s shores in 2021, Cormier added that she’s “thanking her lucky stars” to have made it to the pinnacle of the trail, even if their time spent there was brief, and is already looking forward to returning to complete the trip.
The experience, “just gives me more motivation to go back,” she said.
BC Parks announced last week that the entire Berg Lake Trail system will remain closed for camping for the duration of the 2021 season, due to damage caused by the flooding.
