Waiohine area part 2 - Beef Creek

Day two mopping up spot heights in the Waiohine gorge area begins with a leisurely breakfast at brother number one's home in Carterton. It's a little difficult summoning the resolve to leave the warmth for what I suspect the day will bring.

The planned foray is into a scrub infested corner of the forest park between the Waiohine road and Mt Dick. I am not expecting it to be pleasant at all - so, the question is why bother? The answer: an unusual concentration of six awkwardly located spot heights. 

What:   Navigation day trip

Where: Beef Creek

Who:    Solo

When:  15 October 2017

Why:    Tidy up some loose ends

Today's loop on the right - yesterday's efforts on the left

Looking across Beef Creek from Mt Dick the impression is of regenerating scrub with few patches of forest. I'm hoping that hunters have carved out a few routes because if they haven't there will be plenty of scratches and little enjoyment.

There's a wee layby below the Devil Creek ford. I park up and, around 8.20am, check out the creek, quickly deciding that this is not the best route. A detour up the road to a gate has me first passing an old shearing shed then up onto a sheep paddock via a handy style.

There's a farm track up to the next terrace at the foot of the spur - I scan the face for any sign of a track but can't see anything. However a gate is suggestive so I cast around and find an overgrown track to the left of the gate. Someone a while back has cleared a path along the track which zigs, zags and zigs up the face of the spur. It starts to rain.

There's a plateau at the top and a bit of a trail which I find and lose and find again. The rain settles in and it gets colder.

The scrub is in the process of shifting to bush so it's pretty dense to push through and in a rare few patches it's starting to open up under the canopy. But mostly it's just hard work and easy to lose the old trail. The rain strengthens and briefly changes to hail.

At the ridge top I'm hopeful of a cut track but no such luck. There's a very old fence line through the scrub and an old trail that comes and goes. It's not far to the spur I want to descend but hard to gauge location and progress so I overshoot - resorting to climbing a tree to get my bearings. Back at the correct spot a bearing takes me to the spur and it's encouraging to see some old bait bags stapled to trees - someone has been here before ... some time ago. Another positive development is the rain easing.

It's a tricky descent. The spur is complex and the trail is mostly illegible. Somehow though I drop into a clearing in the saddle before a short climb to 317. Three spots down for the day.

I head north to follow the spur down to a junction on the creek, there's no real trail down but some strong animal trails at the bottom which help progress. From here it's a creek bash, but at least the rain has completely cleared and the sun is making its way down to the valley floor.

Looking at the catchment I'm expecting a dark, dank stream choked with rotten tree fall. What I find is a shelving floor - mossy gorges and a gentle stream - mercifully relatively clear of overgrowth and log jambs.  Not really pretty but it has some character.

I count the junctions, and watch the compass and time to make sure I don't pass spot height 294 - the sole purpose for being down here. At about the expected time an unmarked stream comes in on my right. From the map there is only one place it could be coming from, so I strike directly up the untracked bank to scrabble to the top of a knob - 294 and four down. It's about 1.15.

294 - not a lot to see

 
 At this point the day takes a decided turn for the better. The knob is mossy with sparse trees and an old fence that gives every indication of going my way.  It's also a chance to check out the surrounding hills and enjoy a bit of sun.  I briefly contemplate dropping to the stream again and heading up another spur to just south of my next target spot height - but it's a departure from my stated intentions so I follow the fence and start scrambling up the steep wee spur.

The thing about old fences is that you expect that they will be easy to follow. I've found that they only are if enough people have had the same thought, or if it used to be beside an access road. Neither apply here - however a few animals have followed the spur so it's not so bad.

Towards the top I stray left into more open forest but keep working upwards until I pop out on the track to Mt Dick (1.55). Here the forest is tall and open. I whistle up towards pt 581 and cast around a little to find my way around the top of the Beef Creek catchment to follow the true right side south - back towards my starting point.

Mt Dick track - not much to see but I am heading over there

It's good fast travel with a mostly strong foot trail to just short of 532, then it starts to get scrubby again. 532 (about 2.40) gives some nice views of my travels from yesterday afternoon (I can see where I went wrong) but also marks the trail becoming a bit easy to lose so it's a bit slower getting to my final spot at 510 (6 down).

Came down that ridge yesterday - view west(ish) over Devil Creek 

Scrubby territory - looking south

I completely lose the trail on the climb after 510 but am confident that I've found the spur I came up in the morning - damned if I can find where I walked though.

On the trip down, at about 400m, I drift onto the left hand spur which turns out to have no trails on it. It's three kinds of tough going visiting various indignities on the body. You sort of get used to the odd poke in the eye but whilst extracting myself from some enthusiastic bush lawyer I manage to poke myself in the ear and once up the nose - far enough to make the eyes water.

The wrong spur deposits me to a stream - following a bit of a hunch, I cross and sidle back on to the plateau emerging directly onto my track from the morning. Just the zig, zag, zig to go.

The grass is impossibly green in the late afternoon sun and the paddock is extremely nice to walk on - with out any noticeable tendency to rend flesh or poke sensitive bits. It's a nice amble in the afternoon sun over the style and past the old shearing shed to get back to the car about 5pm.

Postscript

I don't recommend repeating this route, or at least wait 50 years until the bush is a decent height. As a rule of thumb the further north you are in the catchment the better the bush.

If you take your time there are trails to be found (and easily lost) up the 228 spur. Trails on the ridge between 510 and 481 are variable and the scrub a bit unpleasant. The spur down to the creek via 317 is tricky and any trail difficult to follow. The creek itself was pretty good travelling. There are probably three options to get to 294 - the side creek to the west is quite close to the saddle so you could probably get up that way, otherwise follow the stream around the base and come up to the saddle from the other side. Travel from the saddle to the knob is easier than the way I came up (from the south).

The spur to the ridge is partially trailed and a bit of a grunt. Quite doable though. From the top around the top of the catchment to point 532 is pleasurable going - you need to keep your eyes peeled to pick the right spot to leave the Mt Dick track though. After that the scrub starts again. There have been old efforts to cut a trail but it is easily lost - someone may recut it though. Don't take the left hand spur on the way down to 228.

Blue Range and around about

What with one thing and another it's been weeks since I've been tramping. A rotten forecast precludes most of the areas on my list - tops and rivers will be places best avoided in the promised conditions. There is however one place I have been storing up for just such an occasion...

In the foothills of the Tararuas somewhere north and west of Masterton is Blue Range. At various times I have wandered down it, past the top end of it (along the Ruamahanga River) and parallel with it (down the 'SK Valleys').  It's a great place for those with a compass and a bent to leave the path well trod (although sufficient people have done so to form some pretty well worn grooves in places). In the course of these excursions I have always noted the unnamed stream running north from Blue Range hut to the Ruamahanga River and thought that it and its eastern ridge would be well worth an explore. 

I can't find much on the intranet apart from a trip report on Windy Hill tops traversing part of the eastern ridge, but I find no reference to the stream. Casting a calibrated eye across the map I figure that a loop to the hut is easily done in a day followed by a wander back to the road end via Rovers Hill (TTC did a nice wee day trip to Blue Range hut and exiting this way). All going well it might even be achievable in a day (finishing under lights). To make things a little more challenging I'll head clockwise; i.e. down the ridge and up the stream - the trickier direction of travel for both.

What:    Navigation trip
Where:  The stream north of Blue Range Hut that really should have a name
Why:     New territory and a bit of a challenge navigating down a ridge and up a stream
Who:     Solo
When:   30 April 2017
Map:      See below, small bit missed off in the north, near the mouth of the stream

At 7am the clag is low on the hills and there is one large camper van in the car-park. I've not come in at Kiriwhakapapa before and am impressed with the pretty wee valley and tidy camp spot. The tracks are also well formed.

Kiriwhakapapa Road end

About 7.20am I head into the quiet, damp bush along a wide track that follows an old tramway. Shortly, my route heads off to follow Reef Creek north passing through an impressive grove of Redwood.

There's been a bit of rain but the track surface is very good. After a while the wide track changes to a more familiar tramping track and climbs a spur about 600 vertical meters to an intersection. Right to Blue Range Hut or left to the Waingawa River. It's taken about an hour of very pleasant walking.

Blue Range near spot height  978

The track winds up and starts to follow the edge of the catchment, skirting below Te Mara and reaching the high point of the day, around 1050m.  The occasional break in the canopy confirms that although the rain is holding off it won't be for too long - and there's not a huge amount to see.

The 'view' probably the base of spurs leading up towards Mitre and other peaks

Along the ridge from 910m there is a loud whirring as a flock of birds explode from the canopy above. I can't tell what they are but there are large groups forming and coursing through the tree tops. Possibly preparatory for migration? - although it seems somewhat late in the season.

Otherwise there's not much in the way of bird life for the rest of the day apart from the odd Kereru noisily lumbering off, the high pitched twit of a rifleman and a far off tui.  Possibly a kaka too but I'm not so sure what they sound like.

I'm leaving the formed track just as it starts to drop towards the Waingawa River so reckon it will be pretty easy to find the right spot. Sure enough it's hard to miss - there's a DOC sign making sure you don't accidentally continue to wander along the ridge.

Waingawa left - unmarked ridge track continues to right

The ridge route is a common way to get to Cow Saddle so there's a good ground trail for the 0.3km to 970.  After that it gets a bit less clear. I note a couple of old markers and someone has numbered some trees but little else.

Tree H 171, what ever that's about

There's a few spots where the trail wanders away from me, particularly approaching 790 but nothing too dramatic. I potter along happily to 595 checking the compass periodically. The toe of the ridge doesn't have a well defined line so I just follow the compass and choose the path of least resistance. There's a few scrambly bits but nothing difficult. There's a bit of a soggy area on the flat at the bottom but about 11.40 I'm on the Ruamahanga River track pretty much where I was aiming for - about five minutes from the stream.

Tiny wee toadstools of the decidedly blue variety

Thoroughly unremarkable piece of track but a welcome sight none-the-less 

The track drops to the stream which is tea coloured with beer foam in the eddies. I stop for a bite to eat during which no-one passes - hardly surprising given the forecast. The rain gently starts to set in.

The stream is up but not formidable however the navigation promises to be tricky. The stream flows in a reasonably straight north east direction with lots of tributaries. The trick will be telling which side streams are marked on the map and which aren't. There's little chances of any views to surrounding landmarks, and average speed will be hard to judge (stream travel is generally slow).

I'm planning to try to count side streams, take bearings on the longer stretches, note the directions of bends and alignment of stream confluences, and guess that rate of travel is likely to be between 1 to 2 km/h.  Good theory but a fair amount of the way I'm not 100% sure whether I'm here or there on the map.

Despite the rain the stream valley is pretty. It shelves gently up with occasional terraces. There's a few log jambs and boulders to clamber over but nothing difficult. The biggest risk is injury from slipping on the slick rocks. After an hour I am nursing a wee collection of bruises - I'd have to say this type of travel probably carries a higher risk of injury than most others.

There are a few areas where I think there is a ground trail on a terrace but it's pretty hard to tell as there is a lot of animal sign and I see no markers.

I work out where I am near my target spur but mistake an unmarked stream for one on the map so end up heading up one spur early. There's no worries though as it will either reach the hut or Blue Range - either way I'm relaxed. The lower slopes are typically manky with the trees opening out further up. It's not too steep and around 300m to the top.

At the top I follow the range briefly south west then take a bearing and strike across to the spur with the hut, arriving a bit after 3.10pm (there was just one scrubby bit on the traverse).

It's a great wee hut with a nice feel to it but I figure there is enough daylight left to get me close enough to my destination to be able to finish by torchlight. I stay long enough for food, water top-up and fill out the log book (including a comment on my previous entry).

A bit soggy at Blue Range hut

View from outside the hut

It's raining steadily now and pretty much keeps it up for the rest of the afternoon. I check my head-torch is handy and take a bearing back to Blue Range.

There's a good ground trail along the ridge with just a bit of kanuka and totara that has a tendency to poke you in the face or be tougher then expected to push through.

I don't notice any markings between 810 and 927 to indicate the spur towards Rovers Hill but don't have any real trouble finding it - electing to over shoot slightly and pick it up on back tracking.

A ground trail becomes apparent as my route drops to a saddle then winds over 810 and onto Rovers Hill (with one very old marker noted en route). It's getting decidedly dim so I pause to form a plan of attack for when I inevitably lose the ground trail. The land form is simple but I don't want to drop into Reef Creek any higher up than necessary.

Just past Rovers Hill a morepork (and the inability to see the ground) signals that it is time to break out the torch. I manage to follow the trail for a surprisingly long time, then lose it, find it again, before losing it permanently around 650m, about 300m vertical to the creek on a not too steep slope.

Bashing down, supple jack is a constant irritation and the ground is periodically loose and rocky. I trend left across the slope aiming to hook up with a marked creek. This provides slightly firmer footing and periodically the sight of a cray fish scuttling away from the light.

It's a relief to reach Reef Creek but it doesn't provide pleasant travel. The rocks and logs are slippery in the rain and tricky to clamber around in the dark. Eventually a stream joins from the right - if I am where I think then the track should cross it quite close to Reef Creek. It feels like a long scramble before I see some old boards in the stream bed and shortly after, a track marker.

The wide and beautiful track allows bruised and weary legs to swing along at a better clip than has been possible for a good wee while.  The rain drifts through the torch light. It's not long before the huge trunks of the redwood grove emerge from the gloom glowing pale in the light. Wide and straight they are an improbably orderly sight after the chaos of  the native bush.
 
A sign announces that it is 0.1 km and 10 minutes to the car park - that's pretty slow travel!

At about 7.15pm and almost 12 hours after leaving, I squelch across the car park to chuck wet gear into the car. The camper van has been replaced by a caravan - I leave them for the prospect of hot soup and a hot bath at home.

Despite the rain, a great wee day trip - the rain was no great hardship but I could be tempted to head back up the stream in better weather.