Day 90: Not Feeling Like Yourself? Eat a Snickers
January 8, 2020
Kilometers: 2148.2-2171.8
Morrison Footbridge Campsite to Sanctuary Backpackers in Arthur’s Pass
I woke up and laid in my tent awhile. I knew we had a long day ahead of us but I also knew it was cloudy and cold outside with thousands of sandflies waiting for me to open my tent. I eventually got up and started to pack my stuff up in a hurry while holding a conversation with a German TA northbound hiker named Martin who had also camped at the site.
He told me he knew I was American before even seeing me just by seeing my tent and pack. It’s funny how I’ve also started to notice how the brands of gear people have correlate with certain parts of the world as well.
As soon as I was packed I took off. I couldn’t wait for Charlie and Peter with the amount of sandflies around. It was just before 8 and I headed towards the valley that would eventually lead me over Goats Pass.
The track we hiked today is quite famous. Each year there is a race held along it on the second weekend in February. Runners run up the valley zig zagging across the river, the trail eventually turns into a stream, then over the pass and then 10kms down hill from there with some more river crossings. It’s 24kms and the best finish in about three hours. That time is extremely impressive after having hiked the course. In preparation for the race next month there were a couple different groups of runners that passed us today.
It was not my morning to say the least. A few kms after leaving the campsite I realized I forgot two of my tent stakes behind. I have been carrying two extra but it was still annoying. Damn Martin distracting me as I packed.
I then had issues with my hiking poles. One of the screws came loose on one of them so I had to stop twice and use the Swiss Army knife to tighten them back up.
Next came the most crucial issue. The trail lead straight up a fairly narrow valley with a huge river running down the middle. The trail would cross the river every once in awhile. At one point I stopped seeing trail markers. I figured it was just a poorly marked section and kept on going, knowing that the way was up. However, I eventually found myself somewhat trapped at one point with huge boulders surrounding me on three sides and a deep and fast river on the other. I had to rock climb a 15 meter high cliff face with my pack on to get out of this situation. This is when I realized I probably was no longer on the trail.
And finally, I lost one of the black plastic ear pieces that go on headphones while taking off one of my shoes to get pebbles out of it. This was frustrating as I scoured the ground for minutes before giving up. Luckily, I found an extra one on the ferry over to the South Island I can replace it with. So i’m at net zero for plastic earpieces so far.
All these unfortunate events had me feeling not like myself. So, I took a breath and ate a snickers bar before continuing on. The commercials are quite accurate as it gave me the energy and focused me up on the rest of the climb. Maybe I should just switch to snickers bars for breakfast (joking mom).
As for the first part of the day in general, it was hard. It was cold out and the frequent river crossings through frigid water ensured that you couldn’t gain much body heat. It was 14kms to the hut near the top of the pass and it took me four and a half hours. I barely stopped and felt like I was making super slow progress at times. That being said it was a really beautiful setting.
I also got to see a blue duck today. The blue duck is a super rare species. So rare that you’re supposed to report sightings to the visitor center. I will do that tomorrow.
The last km to the hut was straight up a stream with tall vegetation on each side. The water was coming down but I was going up. At this point it began to drizzle. The rocks were slippery and I avoided a few falls that could have been bad. I was extremely happy to see the hut.
When I got to the hut I emptied my food bag and started eating. I would be in town soon where my resupply box and real food awaited me so it was time to finish everything else. As I finished eating Charlie and Peter arrived. The rain had picked up and they got caught in the worst of it. I didn’t wait around for them as I was determined to get off the mountain and into civilization (little did I know, Arthur’s pass very barley counts as civilization).
As I stepped out of the hut preparing for a miserable 10km hike to the highway it stopped raining. About time my luck for the day had started to shift. I walked over the pass, which has boardwalk on it. Hard to believe I had been climbing over boulders and up fast moving creeks all day just to get to the top, which had hundreds of meters of boardwalks on it. However, I didn’t complain.
The last ten kms took me just over two hours. On the way down I listened to my audiobooks “Prisoners of Geography”, which i’m already more than half way through, and “Deep Survival” by Laurence Gonzalez, which I thought was a fitting book for this adventure.
I arrived at the highway and stuck my thumb out. About ten minutes into trying the third car I saw stopped and offered me a ride. I got to Arthur’s pass quickly to find out that there was not a single bed available in the whole hamlet (doesn’t deserve the title of town).
I walked over to the backpackers where I’d sent my bounce box and paid to set up my tent. Luckily the place still had showers.
I rendezvoused with Charlie and peter, who didn’t have any luck hitching and had to walk the 5kms into town, at the only restaurant in town. We had pizzas and beer. We then returned to our tents.
We will be taking it slow in the morning, eating a big breakfast and giving me some time to upload blog posts. The cell service in this country is impressively terrible so hopefully I can upload the last few days.