The landscape today was drastic and welcomed. We started back on the gravel road this morning in the Glenthorne Station and began walking by the Harper River. A few South Bounders we met last week gave us advice on this section. "When in doubt, follow the river.". And that's exactly what we didn't do, at first anyway. The gravel road turned into a dirt road passing through one farm gate to the next and veered off to another valley. We followed the road because the topographic map showed the same, but then realized that we there was no road or track. We should have "followed the river." Now we are bushwhacking 5ft tall tussock bushes and falling into bog as deep as my knees. For some reason I get panicky when fight through tall thick tussock. Shadow usually stays a few feet in front of me to find the bog holes. My foot slipped while crossing on and I fell into a thigh deep hole. I screamed like Freddy Krueger or the Swamp Thang had grabbed me. It took a few seconds (that felt like minutes) for Shadow to figure out how to get me out. My pack was too heavy to get up and I had no where for my feet to go, but back into the bog. The dark, warm, green fungus bog. He resulted to grabbing my arms and pulling me out. The rest of the tussock crossing was slow going, but once we were out our asses were back hugging the river. The river bed is were we stayed for the rest of the day fording the Harper River. Just before lunch we ran into two more SoBo (South-Bounders) from New Zealand. One was the first recorded Kiwi to hike the AT in 1981.
Once we left the station's property the trail changed to an absolute dream. We entered a beech forest and joined an actual trail! With dirt and soft fallen leaves. Our feet felt so good and we were hiking so fast, we bypassed the first hut and went on to the next. You could tell we were getting into a more touristy hiking area because there were now bridges that crossed the river versus having to ford it.
The West Harper Hut was a little too historic for us to sleep (dirt floors and canvas gurney side bunks) so we camped. Our elevation has been must lower lately which means no more morning frost and hello SANDFLIES!
Our trail
More trail in the river bed.
Rock formation called Pinnacles.
Nice Trail!
West Harper Hut.
Country Mouse and Shadow
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