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.