Although the sky was quite clear when I went to bed, it started raining at some point during the night and it was bucketing down when I woke up. I waited a while trying to decide what to do. Continuing would mean that I would have to go back through the very overgrown trail to rejoin the main trail and get drenched again, even if the rain let up. I finally decided to continue down the Berg lake trail to the highway and get myself to McBride to dry out and then somehow rejoin the trail. I also knew more heavy rain was forecast for the next day or two. I felt good about my decision, especially when I tweaked something in my back packing up. The rain did let up just after I started off, making me somewhat doubt my decision, but it was too late. I made it back to Berg lake and some hikers took my picture there since I took theirs.

After the lake, there’s a flood plain that had some ladder bridges over some of the channels and also some rock hop bridges.

Heading down in elevation, the trail passed a bunch of waterfalls in the Valley of a thousand falls.

After a few more kms, the trail reached Kinney lake, a widening of the Robson River. The lake was a beautiful colour.

I stopped for lunch there and then did the last few kms into the visitor centre. It started to rain again just before I got there, so it was good timing. A worker from the visitor centre offered to drive me to McBride after her shift, so I hung out at the cafe sipping tea and eating cake until then. It poured the whole time and was raining so hard in McBride that I decided to eat my camping dinner of couscous instead of going out in the deluge.

I was hoping my back would feel better tomorrow and that I could head back to trail up a forestry road near McBride. However, it’s a 45km road and then a 6km side trail to rejoin the GDT and a Facebook query informed me that the road is not frequented much so a hitch would be far from certain. I also didn’t hear back from the outfitter that might have been able to take me there. My timeline would be very tight if I had to walk.

My decision was made the next day when my back was worse off than the day before, this would be the end of my hike. I deliberated trying to organise a road trip for the week I have left before my flight, but nothing AI suggested really took my fancy and so I decided to move up my flight and head home.

So I still have not completed the GDT although it did originally end at Mt Robson. So section G will have to wait for another year…

The VIA train up to Prince George was very slow, but I got to sit in the elevated bubble car for a lot of the way.