January 31st
Queen Charlotte Track (km1741) -up from Torea saddle (km1781.5)
Mileage: 25mi/40.5km
I don’t have a lot to say about this day. It was just a nice, cruisey day. It was just starting to cloud-over when I woke up. Another remnant tropical storm is moving over the SI, with the main impact being Thursday and Friday. I was actually happy for the cloud-cover, as it wasn’t as hot.
The trail wound all around Endeavor Inlet and then up onto the main ridge. Just before going up the ridge, I stopped to load up on water. There are 2 campsites on the ridge that are supposed have water but both have run dry. I thought I might stay at the further one, so I collected nearly 4 liters. This is almost 8 extra lbs that I hated to carry, especially with all the little climbs.
I was surprised to see no more than 10 people all day long. Usually this track is very crowded. German Fabian, who got off the taxi with me yesterday, had a very lightweight backpack…just a daypack with some food and water and his borrowed tent strapped on. Well, if there’s any track you can get away with that, it’s this one.
At the end of the day, I ended up passing the last campsite on the ridge and headed down towards Torea saddle.
View from the cooking shelter.
There was a DOC campsite at Cowshed Bay that had water. I need not have carried all that water for 20 kms. But as I still had it, I bypassed this campsite and headed back up another big hill. I was searching for a campsite that Wired had stayed at atop the hill. I found it no problem but it wasn’t very flat. Oh well, it was after 6 pm and I was tired from carrying all that water. I made due, as I am good at doing by now.