Day 34 - Forest camp to Goat Pass hut

As cold and bitter as last night was, it was also incredibly rejuvenating. Being able to sleep in huts so often can be a luxury, and last night brought me nostalgic memories of what almost every night in the North Island was like. I found a large amount of comfort being in my cozy shelter, reading a book, and listening to the forest around me wake into the evening. There's probably more activity in these forest at sunset than any other time. I had a night with myself and the forest. These are my favorite types of nights.

I slept in later than I felt was nessesary as I knew the doc office opened around 9, and I was waiting for my response from Brooke to tell me what they think about the condition of the Deception River track. Brooke is my trail angel out here. She has saved me from two crazy storms, and is always there at the end of the day to lift my tired spirit. Brooke told me the track should be good, but I need to make my best judgment on my crossings throughout the day.

Within less than a Kilometer into the track I find Wietse with all his wet gear laying out and enjoying a hot cup of coffee. He tells me that Dan camped with him last night, and that he left about 45 minutes ago, which means of the river was too high he'd be back by now.

I should explain the route for today's trail. You climb the Otari River deep into the valley before breaking off and climbing over Goat Pass. What makes it so difficult is that there is no trail to follow, and hardly any markers. You make your best judgment climbing over rocks and bashing through the river. There were some parts where there was an informal trail to follow, but lots of scrambling and climbing over rocks with wet feet.

After a rope decent down a rock face and countless river crossings I run into Dan. He's sitting on a boulder with all his gear laid out on the rocks to dry. "I'm having a yard sale" he says. I joined him for a bit of a break. Wietse showed up shortly after and the three of us decided it would probably be better to tackle this scrabble valley climb as a team, so we continued forward as a troop. The three of us flowed we'll together. We didn't travel fast, but even traveling slow tends to be quite fast when youve been walking 20km or more for over a month straight.

Today I figured out that it has been about 11 days straight since I've had dry feet hiking. Wet feet are fine. Uncomfortable to slip into in the morning, but your feet warm up fast enough once you hit the trail. Getting rocks in my shoes after crossing a river is what drives me crazy. Big rocks are fine, I just have to slip off my shoe, empty them out and continue walking. But small rocks are my problem. They sneak into my socks as well as my boots, and sometimes their so small that they don't fall out if I tip my wet boot upside down, they just stick to the walls, and cause all sorts of damage when combined with friction.

It wasn't long before we reached Upper Deception Hut. It was only 2km to Goat Pass hut from here, but we heard it took two hours. We continued on with fear that the track might suddenly fall apart, but it never really did. We continued to climb, jump, balance, and slip our way up the river bed until we broke off an began climbing towards Goat Pass. It was a steep climb up a smaller river, but still fast flowing. We climbed over rocks that were forming waterfalls, until we reached Goat Pass hut.

Troy was at the hut when we arrived and to all of our disappointment we discover there is no fire place here. later on Into the evening Hary & Mary showed up. It was another night spent with a group of thru hikers that are becoming my hut room mates out here. Justin took off into Arthurs pass last night since he was fighting a cold, and Dylan tells me he's stopping the trail here and heading off to do other things. It was great hiking with Justin, I'm sure I'll see him again down the way.

As the sun started to set I could see off in the distance a rough sort of trail that led to the top of a possible lookout. There didn't seem to be any way of getting to the trail, but when I saw the light hitting the mountains with a low forming cloud cover of orange and black I knew I needed to go check it out. I told a few people I was going up, but nobody seemed interested. It was very wind and cold at the time, but I wasn't ready to give up that easily. I slipped into my down jacket, rain gear, hat and gloves, grabbed my camera, and set off on my own. As I stepped out the door of the hut I realized there was no where to even start. There was long grass and trees up to my waist in every direction, and I could hardly see where I was stepping. I followed the trail that led to the long drop, and then broke off into the long grass. I soon realized that it was all a bogy wet swamp, but I was determined. My shoes were already wet so what was there to loose. I stepped carefully through water and grass until I found a rough beaten track that looked like it could have been formed by an animal. It finally led to the track I was looking for, and I followed it to the top of the hill. I was rewarded with dramatic views of the valley and mountains, with peacefulness and solidarity. I spent close to an hour up there, taking in as much as I could. The winds did eventually pick up and nudge me to make my way back to the hut. It was the perfect way to spend my last night in the Arthur's Pass section of my trail. I'm excited for what I'm up against next.