A mountain of happy memories in British Columbia

Mount Robson is off limits for now – unless you live in this part of Canada – but the mere memory of camping and hiking among its lakes and wildlife makes our writer dance inside

Enveloped in an old-growth forest deep in British Columbia’s interior, we’re surrounded by lush plants – boreal moonwort and rough-fruited fairybells – and though we’re a thousand kilometres from the Pacific, it feels as though the coast is right beside us.

This year, the experience of setting up a tent and hiking the Berg Lake Trail, a 25km route through a provincial park on the British Columbia (BC)-Alberta border, and part of Mount Robson, highest peak in the Canadian Rockies, is only happening in my mind. BC’s provincial campsites are currently closed to non-residents, and though I live just an hour from the trailhead, I’m on the wrong side of a border in Alberta. Still, memories live on, and I’m OK with lying here on the sofa on a rainy Saturday, remembering a past summer weekend with friends.