After three weekends off SOTA due to weather (1) and contests (2), I was keen to get out for a walk! The weather looked good so Dave ZL3DRN and I decided to head to Mt Bruce in the Craigieburn Forest Park Conservation Area ZLFF-0024 - just a bit further along than Mt Horrible which we did earlier in the year.
The morning dawned foggy which is always a good sign. We were keen to get an early start to get up before the heat of the day and a forecast Nor West change in the afternoon so left home at 6am, picked up Dave at Sheffield and arrived at the Cora Lynn Road DOC carpark just before 8am. There were plenty of cars there already but this is deceiving as it is the terminus of the Cass-Lagoon Saddle track. Dave assured me they wouldn't be heading for the summit and so it proved.
Heading off up the well marked track, the going is pretty easy until you emerge from the bush (manuka and beech) and strike off up the slope towards the ridge. We had 4 Kea above us at this point - a great sight. There's no track from here so it's a matter of tussock bashing your way up a fairly steep grade. Lots of micro-rests (to admire the view you understand...) were required on the way up but before too long, we arrived at the ridge and made our way along to the summit. Spectacular views abound. The weather was great with just a light breeze. As we surveyed the horizon, big fluffy cumulus were already forming out towards the West and we resolved to keep an eye on them.
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| Nearly there... |
There's no trig, just a pipe sticking out of the ground which was perfect to bungee the pole to. We were about an hour early (now there's a surprise!) so we took our time setting up the gear and had a look around. Mt Horrible looked quite insignificant from this altitude! We spotted a couple down in the saddle moving towards the summit and just as we started calling on 2m and HF, they arrived. Very fast, fit and carrying a hunting bow and substantial packs. We took a few moments to chat and they revealed that they had not had any luck hunting but were thoroughly enjoying the scenery and the walk.
I had modelled the VHF coverage using the excellent VE2DBE website and it had shown a very poor chance of any contacts back to Christchurch. However Mark ZL3AB was activating up near Hanmer so we set up the 5/8 wave Flowerpot on the mast to give it a try. I couldn't trigger any of the Canterbury repeaters but heard 147.05 about S3.
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| Looking West up the Bealey River towards Arthurs Pass. |
Meanwhile Dave was plugging away on HF and got his 4 contacts on 60m and 40m including Warren ZL2AJ on Tuhua ZL1/MW-071. I worked Warren too and then hit the CW end of the band and picked up another S2S with Andrew VK1AD on Mt Coree VK1/AC-023. John VK4TJ and Andre ZL1TM rounded out my 4. A bit of a battle for a change! I moved to 20m and worked Peter VK3PF and Gerard VK2IO. With that, the first puff of Nor West hit us so we conferred and decided to pack up and head down off the summit into the top of the valley for lunch. Just as we switched off we got an alert that John ZL3MR was on a summit and calling. Switching the gear back on we found him with a good 40m signal from Mt Lyndon ZL3/CB-460. With John in our logs and no spots for/from Mark, we packed up and headed down the ridge to find a suitable scree for a rapid (and fun!) descent.
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| Waimakariri River, SH73 snaking round Mt Horrible and some nice scree! |
We moved down the stream from it's source until we found the start of the old Broad Stream track. It's still well marked with plenty of orange triangles but it is not shown on the current topo maps. It was a nice sheltered spot so we stopped and had a 30 minute lunch break with nice views right down the valley to Mt Horrible and Woolshed Hill.
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| Lunch - Mt Horrible slopes on the right, Woolshed Hill on the left |
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| Track entrance, back into the Beech and out of the hot sun! |
On with the packs and down the track. There are several sections where the track has been washed out or covered with slips so you need to keep your wits about you and search carefully for the next marker. Failing that, just following the stream down will do although there would be a lot of boulder hopping required.
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| There's an orange triangle under that lot... |
At the bottom end of the valley you can either climb a bluff and follow triangles across to the carpark in the conservation area, cross the paddock (with prior permission from Cora Lynn Station Wilderness Lodge) or carry on down to the SH73 bridge and walk back along the highway and up Cora Lynn Road. Don't try a hybrid of the first two options like we did, I am still picking gorse spikes out of my hands...
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| Boulder hopping in the lower section |
A big day and a very nice summit - highly recommend this one to fit activators.
Getting there: head on SH73 to Cora Lynn Road, go through the gate to the DOC carpark
Permission: None required however asking about crossing the paddock will make the end of the day easier!
Walking: 11.2 km circuit with 1100m of vertical gain
Times: 2 hours 40 min to the summit. About 3 hours for the exit via Broad Stream (inc. 30 mins for lunch).
2m coverage: Nil
Cell: patchy but 4G coverage on the summit VF and Spark/Skinny
