Guest Room to Shelter
20.8 miles
Mile 937.1
I woke up in the comfy guest room bed disappointed to find the weather hadn’t changed a bit. After packing up, I thanked Paul and Jess for their hospitality before heading bak out into the rain.
Their house was only a short walk back to the trail, where I spent some time on a forest track before joining a 4wd trail.
I reached the halfway point, woot!
After a bit of a road walk I reached the Backtrack Trail. It was a short route through the mountains that deposited me onto a forest road.
I continued down the hazy gravel road until reaching Burton’s Track.
Here things got muddy, as it was a proper tramping trail.
After a few hours of trudging along the slippery trail I reach the first of three notable river crossings.
I found two hikers at the first crossing who planned on spending the night there in hopes the water level would go down by morning. I was tempted to do the same until they mentioned a girl had made it across earlier…if she could do it, so could I.
I made it across, but just barely. About an hour later I reached a river that put the last crossing to shame. This behemoth, swollen from the last two days of rain, took quite a bit of time, trial and error and patience to cross, but eventually I made my way to the other side.
The relief I felt from making it across was dashed moments later when I found I had to recross the same river just up the trail. Damnit!
When I approached the third river crossing I found a girl walking along the river bank searching for a safe place to cross. After a good hour of scouting the river bank in the pouring rain we managed to ford the river. I wouldn’t of been able to do it if she hadn’t lended me one of her trekking poles. The water came up to my chest, and was moving quick…it was no joke.
Safely on the other side of the river, Emily and I pushed on together. It was so nice to finally have someone to chat with, making the time pass quickly.
At about 6:00 PM we reached a shelter. I’d only planned on escaping the rain for a bit before carrying on, but after finding it equipped with chairs, a table and a clean dry floor I decided to spend the night. It was a good choice.
Cheers!