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It was still quite dark at 7am when I got up after a long and
comfortable night's sleep, though I'm bothered by some pain in my
right shoulder. It was cold and foggy outside and I quickly put on
some extra clothes as I began pottering around the cabin packing up.
Visibility was still only about 30m when I set off at 8:30 and it
was cold for the first half hour, but then I climbed above the cloud
into beautiful clear skies with various mountain tops poking through
the sea of clouds below.
The walking was pleasant along a logging
road but mostly uphill until I passed Mt Singleton (1343m). Then it
was more logging roads along Champion Spur which was being actively
logged and the new work meant that I missed a turn and ended up
walking a few km further. It also made navigation difficult later on
as I sought a deviation trail recommended by the guidebook because
of bad conditions down along Black River. I stopped for lunch on a
log in the sun, still a bit unsure of whether I was on the right
trail. And as it turned out, I wasn't. But I didn't find out until I
had walked about another 5km and descended some treacherous
firetrail for an elevation loss of over 600m! Curses! I was on
some cliffs overlooking the Black River, but about 5km downstream of
where I needed to be. I considered a few options but, in the end,
decided I was safest to return the way I had come.
Two hours later
and very dehydrated, I reached the track junction I had dismissed on
the way down. In my defence, a number of the trails have different
names on maps and this one wasn't marked at all. Anyway, my plans of
reaching my food dump at a civilized hour and partying were
abandoned and I descended again to the Black River, reaching it at
6:45pm.
There was a small place to put a tent a short distance up a
track from the river and I camped there. I had time to have a total
immersion wash in the shallow and cold river before having dinner. I
have about 6km of tough trail to my food dump and have decided to
postpone breakfast until I get there, then try and make up most of
the ground I have lost today. There were plenty of places I would
rather have been on a sunny Friday afternoon than unnecessarily
slogging up that extra hill with no water.
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