McKirdy Meadows (Robson Valley, British Columbia, Canada) – 6.7 Miles

  For our greatest adventure yet (aka, our honeymoon), Mrs Huggins and I travelled to Canada!

  Our two-week-long road trip would take us from Vancouver, all the way through British Columbia and down through the Rockies. I now sit here on the other side of what has been a very busy few weeks, feet up as we rediscover normal life, and let me tell you – we had the best time.  Of course, we couldn’t miss the opportunity to expand our walking (or perhaps ‘Hiking’ on this occasion) to a whole new continent. However, unlike the UK, hiking in this part of the world presented a significant (and to us Brits, rather intimidating) danger.

  Bears.

  Of course, we did the research. Logically, you can look at the statistics and read the advice and reasonably justify a belief that everything will be fine.

  Logically.

  However, this was not a problem of logic; this was a problem of the unknown.

  We discussed the issue, and both agreed that we would still like to try hiking in Canada, but would surely spend the whole time looking around, terrified of a bear encounter (even if part of me secretly wanted one) and thus unable to fully enjoy the experience. We therefore settled on the idea of finding a guide. And so, after further research, we found ourselves in touch with http://robsonbackcountryadventures.ca/, who we hoped would both be able to show us the beauty of Canada, whilst also preventing us from being eaten. After chatting with them about what we were after, they suggested a hike up to ‘McKirdy Meadows’, which would give a decent level of elevation, distance and plenty of wildflowers to see at the top.

  And so we awoke early on the morning of Monday 28^th July, day eight of our honeymoon, in the small alpine town of Sun Peaks. As it turns out, Canada is rather large, and the day’s meeting point in Valemount was still a few hours’ drive away, and so we set off at half past six in the morning, fully equipped with both a Bear-bell and Bear-spray, both of which we had purchased the previous week.

  We arrived at the “Petro-Canada” at ten o’clock, to find our guide and hiking Guru for the day, Joy. We were also rather pleased to find that we would also be joined by Joy’s dog, Suka, a rescued Labrador-cross, and all-round good girl. Almost immediately, I confessed my nervousness regarding bears. Joy listened, understood and reassured me not to worry, showing (of course) no sign of concern herself. This obvious confidence was at once very reassuring, however she did inform us that Bear Bells are next to useless, and are more of a nuisance than a benefit (we quickly un-bear-belled Beth’s bag). In brighter news, Joy told us we did not have to worry about the scent of sun-cream attracting bears – which was great, as the day was bright and already hot.  After we had signed a couple of waivers (not something our walks usually require!), we jumped into Joy’s car, and she drove us out of town and up a bumpy track for ten minutes of so, until we eventually reached the trailhead – and so we began.

  The car quickly disappeared behind us as we entered the trees, and the path started to climb straight away. Joy naturally led the way, and Suka wandered about behind, bringing up the rear. Their presence put the overwhelming concern of bears to (almost) the back of our minds immediately, which was fantastic and allowed us to fully enjoy the experience. As we rose steadily through the forest, Joy was able to inform us about the local flora and fauna that we could see around us, which included a dark lichen named ‘Witches Beard’. The presence of Witches Beard indicates the presence of pure air, and hang from the trees like great clumps of Black Bear fur (which I initially thought it was). Also present along the ground were an abundance of shiny rocks which glittered in the sunlight, called Mica, which were certainly eye-catching along the way.

  We continued upward at a decent pace as the path grew steeper. It was certainly far more challenging than our usual bumbling footpaths, and we eventually had to take a pause, as Beth began to feel a little wobbly following the fast ascent. We took a couple of minutes, and Beth ate some of her trusty fizzy laces, and when we set-off again we went at a slightly slower.  Soon after we reached our first proper break spot. The spot in question was a bench, which faced out through an opening in the trees, looking down over the forest sweeping away across the great valley to the shores of a lake at its base, with mountains rising up at its rear. This was exactly what we had come for, and it was even more breath-taking than we had dreamed it would be. It was the perfect place to stop and breathe it all in, enjoying a little water and a snack – including Suka, who gobbled up a couple of her much-loved cookies.

  We carried on our way ever upward, and eventually the trees began to thin. As they did so, views of the snow-capped Mount Robson opened up to our left, the highest point in the Canadian Rockies, standing at a whopping 12,972 feet! Shortly after the path began to level out, still steadily heading up, but at a much shallower rate. Trees continued to dot the open, grassy meadow, which was littered with an abundance of Alpine flowers, which Joy again helped us identify.  This included the distinctive ‘Hippies’, which were named for their appearance, and amongst the other colourful flowers, our guide was also able to show us ‘where the bear wipes his bum’. This was actually a phenomenon where parts of a tree go mouldy beneath the snow, leaving clumps looking rather brown – there was more to the process than this, but honestly looking back all I can picture is the bear wiping his backside!

  We made our way through the meadow, admiring stunning views near and far. The day was hot, and as the path continued to rise, so did the number of insects showing an interest in us. We eventually turned a corner to begin our walk along the ridge, and the promise of lunch at the peak was tantalisingly close. A few minutes later and we reached the summit, which gave up rewarding views of the mountains and valleys before us. We settled down on the rocks to enjoy our well-earned lunches (and cookies), whilst admiring our surroundings. Beautiful as it was, it eventually became increasingly hard to ignore the number of insects buzzing around and nibbling at us – even freshly applied insect spray seemed to have no effect! Poor old Suka seemed to be suffering the most, attempting to avoid the worst of it by submerging herself amongst the foliage as much as she possibly could – although a few tummy scratches did distract both her and I for a while.

  Lunch break over, we began the descent, which initially continued along the ridge, before the trees began to reappear around us. As we headed back down, Joy went through with us how she would handle a hypothetical bear encounter, as well as how Suka would handle it too. Whilst she (Suka) may alert us to the presence of a bear by returning quietly and standing behind Joy, it turns out she also has the unfortunate habit of reacting to any unexpected humans on the trail in the same manner – so you can’t be certain which lies ahead! We took a brief pause when we reached a cabin, which sat next to a small stream and a patch of colourful flowers and danced with Butterflies. After this, Suka and Joy played a very enthusiastic game of fetch as we continued on to meet back up with the trail we had climbed earlier. Before the hike, Beth was a little concerned that her knees may not be very pleased with her, but thanks to her knee braces, a pole and her being fitter than she gives herself credit for, she managed the climb down just fine.  And then suddenly, we turned a corner and through the trees before us was the car – hike complete, and we had not been eaten.

  Overall, the hike took us just over five hours, and we ascended 700 meters to a height of 6659 feet. I don’t know if this counted as ‘the back country’ (as the Canadians refer to it) or not, but I am going to say that it did! This was a fantastic chance to experience the breathtaking beauty of both Canada and British Columbia, with a walk which certainly tested our legs, but also didn’t leave us exhausted for the next few days of our trip. We were also very grateful to Joy, whom we would like to say a huge thank-you to, for taking us on an excellent hike, being a wonderful guide and making us so comfortable that we virtually forgot about the remote presence of bears – to any one looking for the same experience in either the Robson Valley or Jasper National Park, we couldn’t recommend them highly enough!

  We would also like to give a special shout-out to Suka. This special lady’s presence not only added an additional feeling of security, but her adventurous spirit combined with a sweet nature and unwavering loyalty and obedience to Joy was one of the delights of our holiday – we can say with absolute certainty that she is Canada’s greatest dog.

  And so together we drove back down to the Petro-Canada and bid farewell to Joy and Suka, who had gifted us with the perfect day. We jumped back into our rental car, which whisked us away to the next stage of our adventure, bites and all, deeper into the Rockies, and whatever awaited us next…