Every man should pull a boat over a mountain once in his life. – Werner Herzog
July 30
Cairnes Creek to Howse River Flood Plain – 15.4 hard earned miles
This day was so long with so many events, I hardly can even wrap my head around it.
Right now I am attending to all my bruises and scrapes all over my body. They are super attractive.
THE DAY:
Alarm went off at 4:00 am to get a head start on attacking the Cairnes Creek Crossing.
Luckily, the creek level went down significantly and we were able to cross upstream.
The next obstacle was the Lambe Creek crossing. This is an interesting one, the bridge washed out a few years ago and it keeps relocating to different places in the creek. A part of the bridge is still in the creek and is needed for hikers to get across. Crazy.
Even more luck…a couple of days ago, Graham, a southbound hiker who is hiking with his wife and 2 kids, 4 1/2 and 7 built an extension to the existing bridge. It was genius, I say, genius. Be sure and admire his handiwork below. Yes I did get the kids ages right.
The rest of the day was hard work with lots of bush, downed trees to go up and over, brush, pocky plants, flood plain walking, and lots of biting flies.
Recommended extra gear if you were to just hike this section:
- Shin guards
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Clear hard plastic face mask
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Do this section as fast as you possibly can to get the beating over with.
Glad you enjoyed the Lambe Creek bridge!
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That bride sitting parallel with the river should be across’d. I can see why those people’s are still living in the wilderness!
If you’d brought some four foot beasts like cows or pigs the biting flies would have bited them instead but it’s too late to do that now . . .
But this is the real deal, walking in the wild country, not manicured like the AT and such. I hope your sense of achievement was correspondingly increased!
Wow; just wow. What a day. That sure looks and sounds like too much work.
Graham, you are a blessing.
Awesome! Great bridge construction by a dad whose first thought must have been getting his young kids across safely. 🙂 Glad you made it safely, albeit, a bit beat up.
Sounds like you more than earned your rest after your grueling day – still beautiful scenery tho!!