Rees-Dart Track, to Rock Shelter Hut
Trip Start
Jan 19, 2006
1
17
20
Trip End
Feb 23, 2006
Mt. Aspiring National Park,
New Zealand
Sunday, February 5, 2006
See some great maps of the Rees-Dart Track (including elevations changes). Maps are part of "Photodiary of a Nomad" at http://www.gang-gang.net/nomad.
Muddy Creek to Shelter Rock Hut - 16.4km
Woke up in Kinloch camping area, quite early, since Theo was a bit worried about
how long the drive (half of which is a gravel road) would take to Glenorchy. The morning was very cold (while in Calgary it was probably warmer at 15 degrees!) and we actually had our hiking pants on, which was a rarity for us
01) Leaving Muddy Creek to the grassy fields...
! Once at the bus pickup spot in Glenorchy, we did some last minute arranging, and had about a 5 minute waituntil the bus arrived, with a trailer in tow. All the bags got loaded into the trailer,
and off we went to the trailhead up the Rees valley. The bus was a mixture of hikers, many older hikers with kick-a*s legs (likely years of hiking!) and a few of us younger folk including some Germans. About 5 minutes on the paved road north of Glenorchy, we cut off on the Rees unsealed road and 15 minutes later were unloading our bags at Muddy Creek trailhead. All of the older (wiser) hikers had their gaiters on (leg coverings over their boots and calves), but for some reason Theo felt we didn't need our gaiters on despite hearing about the mud on the first day of this hike (and Nadine went along with his decision, that silly girl!).
The day had begun to heat up, so we were able to remove our pant legs and do the day in shorts. (The result was that all the other 10 people from the bus left the parking lot before us, and we proceeded to play catchup all day long). We crossed a few small rivers that required some rock hopping not to get wet, but we still did not see the need for gaiters. The path was dry, and it looked like there were just fields ahead with the mountains in the distance
02) View of mountains and glaciers in the distance
. It was nearly dusty out on the trail,what was all this talk of mud we had heard about this trail?? The first half of our day today would be along and in grazing lands. Our biggest challenge seemed to be missing stepping in the cow patties! Sometimes the grassy plain was cut over by the Rees river, and we had to sidle steeply up banks, only to drop back to the same plain. At other times there were small streams cutting through the plain, which we had to cross. Easily, in all cases. A few other places were minorly boggy, but nothing needing gaiters yet. Walking went fast and the views up ahead were already stunning.Then suddenly, the grassy plain struck at us, and we lost bigtime! Suddenly we
realized we had walked straight into a boggy section, and actually gone too far, and our boots were sinking. Theo yelled at Nadine to keep stepping on the grassy tossucks, and move quick! But no...Nadine paused, and Theo got out of there with only a dab of mud on his socks, but Nadine's boots got completely soaked, and also covered in filthy mud (remember they sometimes graze animals here!) There was no need to walk the rest of the day with wet boots. So while Nadine changed her boots, the 7 people we had already passed managed to pass us yet again. Nadine was mad at Theo, and gaiters were put on. And thankfully we got our gaiters on, as the ground continued to be boggy
03) Day was heating up, sunscreen on!
. We had to take our boots off and swap to our sandals for the crossing of 25 Mile Creek, and we saw the pair of German guys having to wash their muddy socks out in the river because they lacked gaiters entirely!The day continued to heat up as we hiked the grassy flats to the bush edge which marked the boundary of Mount Aspiring National Park. Ahead we could see views of glaciers on surrounding mountains. Theo began to hate the Uncinia Uncinata, commonly known as hook grass. This is a grass that has a seed with a hook at one end, and would catch its self on Theo's leg hairs. It uses this strategy to distribute its seeds, but unfortunately Theo would pull his leg hair off trying to remove the prickly grass from his legs!! We followed the track through the bush, stopped for a peanut butter and honey sandwich, and crossed a swing bridge crossing to the west bank of the river. The track continued through beech forest past Clarke Slip to the bush edge. Above the bush the track crossed several gullies - these are avalanche paths, and signs indicated that care should be taken crossing them in spring and early summer, when late snow may still pose an avalanche risk. Our feet were hot and we stopped to cool them off a bit as the sun baked us in our sun hats (Gilligan hats). We soon came to a foot bridge which crossed to the east bank of the river and to Shelter Rock Hut.
04) Stunning views!
There wasn't much of a tenting area at the hut, as most people stay in huts, but we found a nice soft grassy spot in 50m in front of the hut. Many of the hut hikers were already bored, sitting on the porch of the hut, not sure if they should cook dinner as it was a bit early at 4:30pm. They all seemed to watch us going about our duties of setting up the tent and our air mattresses/sleeping bags, and moving our stuff into the tent. We discovered that the "outhouse" actually had flush toilets!!!
We decided to head down to the river to have a soup and wash up, and that's when we discovered that our white gas fuel was low. It was only about 1/2 full, and we would need close to a full bottle (325ml) if we were to stay on the trail for 5 days. Apparently there had been some leakage, and as Theo had the stove lit already we panicked and made a full meal, not wanting to splurge our fuel on a soup appetizer! After a quick wash in the river we went back to the tent to ponder our plight - should we try to beg for fuel from people who were hiking the trail the other way and were likely on their last night, or should we wait til we were desperate at the end? We sat in our tent, fighting with the sandflies who had managed to invade our tent with a small army. We decided to see if anyone had white gas now, but as we walked through the hut we saw that everyone cooking had the small disposable propane canisters. We were dismayed, and went back to our tent to retire early, feeling that we may be ill-prepared for the upcoming days, even though we knew that people would boil water for us if we were desperate. A few keas cackled around the hut as we fell asleep.
