Day 103: Rocks Hut to Hacket Hut/Road End (20km*; 1850km total)

*includes 6km diversion off trail to road end. Not counted in total trail kilometers.

Audrey was up with the larks this morning! She quietly grabbed all her gear and went and got ready and breakfasted outside so as not to wake anyone. I went and joined here shortly before she was ready to head off. We wished each other good walk and she set off down the hill. I made breakfast outside as well, but soon enough Melissa and Simon were up. The sky was crystal blue and it was promising to be another gorgeous day!

I had planned to set out early-ish, but got chatting to Melissa and Simon and didn't head away until 9:30. This seems to be becoming a bit of a habit! Unfortunately there is no reception at the hut (despite its elevation) and I wasn't able to txt or ring my friend Richard, with whom I've arranged to meet somewhere along the track between Hacket Hut and the road end any time after 4pm. He's very kindly offered to pick me up and put me up for the night before dropping me off again tomorrow morning to walk back in to Hacket Hut and continue the trail. I'd said I'd call him from Rocks Hut to confirm, falsely assuming there'd be reception on the ridge. Oh well. I walked on and hoped for the best, checking my phone at intermittent high points to see if I could get a message out to say I was on schedule. Finally I did manage to get first a txt and then a call through. All systems are go!

It's supposed to be a 4-5hr walk to Brownings Hut, so I broke it up by stopping every 1.5hrs or so for a rest break and a snack. The walk along the ridge is nice with a few ups and downs and a section through one epic tree fall. Basically the entire forest on one side of the hill has been pretty much levelled, and we're talking big trees. It isn't recent however as young trees have begun growing up through the carnage and the trail is a well beaten route around the upended root-bowls and trunks. All the damage looks like it is around the same age however so at some point several years back there must have been one hell of a storm up here!

The Desolation of ...some massive storm. I must find out which!

After travelling along the ridge, popping out of the forest and crossing over low scrubby hillsides with some excellent view, the trail follows a long decent down to the hut. This passes the turn off to Roebuck Hut where TA used to go (I would find out later that Richard had been in touch with my Mum and told her I was at Rocks Hut, at which point she thought I'd got lost as it turns out that she was looking at an old map of the trail route, which bypasses Rocks Hut and instead goes from Middy to Roebuck...let it be noted that I did provide Mum with a digital copy of the UP-TO-DATE trail route maps, she just reverted to the slightly outdated (but still good!) book of the trail instead).

Lovely view on a lovely day

Looking back toward, Mt Richmond...?

After a steady decent and then a scramble down a section of track-come-dry-stream-bed you're at Brownings Hut. It's a nice hut (though very bright green!) set in a grassy clearing which today was bathed in blazing sunshine--so much so that I nearly got sunstroke sitting at the picnic table outside to have lunch! Unfortunately some idiot had left toilet paper scattered about. Fortunately it didn't look particularly soiled so I gathered it up as best I could and disposed of it down the bog before lathering my hands in hand sanitizer.

Brownings Hut

After a nice long lunch and perusal of the log book I set off. The sign says its three hours to Hacket Hut from Brownings but that's generous. After clambering down through massive boulders to a river bed you think it might take more, but the timing is fairly generous. I took the turn off a kilometer or so back from the hut to veer out to the road end.  I had a break at the junction where a second track leads down from Hacket Hut. I was running early and Richard and I had agreed to meet somewhere between here and the carpark, so there was no hurry to make it out to the road. I set off again at 3, thinking I could probably do the 4.7km to the road end by 4pm.

Yep, that's the track down from Brownings Hut coming
down there on the left hand side.

The track sidles alongside a river, passing under the eves of a pine plantation, crossing an ultramafic belt, past the turn off to an old titanium mine, and then back through pine country before crossing a very sturdy swing bridge. It then makes its way along a 4WD track to one final footbridge over the river to picnic area at the road end. I got there smack on 4pm and sat to have a snack while I waited for Richard. In ten minutes or so he arrived, pulling up in his zippy little blue car. I felt bad when I saw the walking poles in the back that I had deprived him of a walk, but I was pleased with myself for making good time...getting faster, getting fitter!

Richard astounded me by producing an amazing picnic afternoon tea including the choice of cold beer, iced coffee or iced chocolate (no contest there...I went with the chocolate), grapes, yoghurt and an apple. OMG hiker heaven! When the grapes and iced drinks were gone we bundled my gear into the back of the car and set off for Nelson. Over the course of the next couple of hours I was able to shower, plan the next section, take a trip to the supermarket to buy the 8-days' food I'd decided I wanted to take (2 days' spare), returned home, and was being treated to a home-cooked steak dinner. Incredible. I did the dishes while Richard beat his ailing washing machine into submission so I could wash my clothes. After I'd hung my clothes out to dry under the porch (protected from the forecast rain) Richard took me through some old family photos of he and his kids hiking in the Richmond Ranges. It's obviously a part of the world they all love very much, and after having just a taste of it myself I can see why.

For a trip down memory lane, and I suspect for my amusement, Richard also showed me some other photos of his family growing up. Richard's son was my first boss, through whom I met and am now friends with his family, and it was weird to see him as a young twenty-something...with long hair! What my ex-colleague Kristen would say if he could see! (Although if memory serves me right Kristen once showed us a photo of himself as a young man and he'd had a haircut very similar!). Richard also introduced me through photos to the beloved old family trekka jeep. It certainly looks like they have had many excellent adventures in the hills behind Nelson!

I crashed into bed at 10pm, I'm looking forward to this next section...it's supposed to be one of the highlights of the TA...although the forecast really doesn't look good. The thought of hiking in the rain over Mt Rintoul, about which the trail notes say that "particular care needs to be taken and trampers should be prepared to wait out adverse weather" is not all that appealing! Not to mention there probably won't be a view if it's raining! Fingers crossed the weather holds a few days more.