#mtrobson

Trip length: 5 days / 4 nights. August 27 - August 31 Shorter hiking days gave me real downtime and a reset.

Campsites (by night):

Night 1: Whitehorn

Nights 2–3: Emperor Falls Campground

Night 4: Kinney Lake (made the exit day ~6 km and easy)

Trail conditions: Awesome, new trail is built well.

Emperor Hill: Up = grind. Down can trigger vertigo on exposed sections with loose tread.

Weather: Thunder and lightning at 7:00 a.m. on Day 4. Otherwise, full sun. Hottest afternoons hit 35° and required shade and river breaks. Coldest overnight: 10°C. I never wore my puffy.

Fuel/food: Brought 2 medium fuel canisters; 2 small would have been plenty. Front-pocket (Fanny Pack) snack kit (jerky, nuts, candy, Reese’s) worked great for the climb. Peak Refueling Beef Stroganoff was my favourite meal, although everything I took was great.

Comfort items that paid off: Camp chairs, e-readers, quilt instead of a sleeping bag.

Rest day: 100% worth it. Reading by the river, feet in the water, actual recovery.

Body notes: Pre-descent anxiety happens but eases once I’m moving. Feet swelled by the end; keep an eye on hydration and salt. Quads and calves worked hard, really hard. LOL

Route choice: Dropping to Kinney Lake before the final exit was smart. Short last day felt better than pushing through.

Daily Stats (Strava)

GPS stats aren't quite right, the box canyon surroundings means there's some signal jumping around.

Day 1 – Trailhead → Whitehorn: 13.37 km · 1,071 m · 4h 37m

Day 2 – Whitehorn → Emperor Falls: 7.39 km · 546 m · 3h 04m

(watch also showed ~700 m gain / ~7,500 steps)

Day 3 – Rest/explore near Emperor Falls (no major track logged)

Day 4 – Emperor Falls → Kinney Lake: 10.04 km · 584 m · 3h 49m

Day 5 – Kinney Lake → Trailhead: 7.36 km · 97 m · 2h 16m

Totals

Overall Distance: ~45 km including rest-day wandering

Total Elevation Gain: ~2,298 m

This was the day we were hiking out from Emperor Falls Campground, down that steep incline. I’ve done this hill up and down six times in the last ten years, and it never fails - the night before going down, I lose sleep from the anxiety. Uphill is tough, but downhill feels dangerous, especially since I suffer from vertigo. Some sections make me stare straight at my boots to keep from looking out and triggering it. In my mind, the absolute worst place to be would be on that hill during a storm, where the trail is loose and the cliffside is right there.

And sure enough, we woke up at 7:00 a.m. to thunder and lightning. The thought of heading out on a huge exposed slope during a storm had my nerves going. I didn’t want to deal with slick trail, rain, or wind. It was nerve-wracking - and as it turned out, for nothing. We put the rain covers on our packs, started hiking, and the storm drifted off in another direction. We never saw more than a couple drops of rain. The lightning and thunder disappeared, leaving us with a much cooler hiking day.

We made excellent time down the hill, heading for Kinney Lake. I don’t have as many photos from this day because we were moving at a steady clip. Incline is hard and slow, but decline is hard on the muscles, and by the time we rolled into Kinney Lake we were exhausted.

I had the best tent nap of my life. We cooked dinner on the picnic table beside the lake and felt ridiculously proud of our life choices - because now the last stretch would only be six kilometers with no real incline or decline. A calm, easy day ahead.

It had been a butt-kicking day - down Emperor Hill and down Whitehorn in one go - but it was also a great one. Spending the night at Kinney Lake before hiking out was the perfect way to close out the big climbs and descents of the trip.