I woke up steady rain. The trail notes said the next section is 6-8 hours, 24k. A bunch of us talked about going into Arthur’s pass from there to check the weather and make sure the next section was doable (it has several dangerous river crossings, particularly after rain and when we left the long term forecast said heavy rain, but we all know how those change).
I stayed late at the hut not wanting to go out in the rain and sure that I could make the section in less than 6 hours.
I thought my timing paid off, as I left the hut the rain slowed to just a drizzle.
I got to the next hut, which was 8k, in an hour and a half, so I was making good time. I had lunch, then set off again.
If I had known how much the river was going to rise I wouldn’t have waited. I’m not sure if the others linked together or it was just lower when they crossed, but it was dangerous when I tried. First I went where the map said to cross, but a few steps in and I was waist deep and the current was pulling me. I checked the trail notes and they said to cross the rivers before they merge, which was upriver a bit. That made sense so I backtracked up the river and crossed the first one no problem. The second one I got about half way and again was waist deep with a strong current and it looked potentially deeper ahead, so I turned around. I went upriver a bit more and had the same issue. I checked my map to see if maybe that river split nearby, but no luck. I thought about going back to the last hut and staying there, but I decided to try one more time. I walked a bit further and found a spot where the river looked a little wider and calmer and the deepest part was on my side of the river. It was just a little less deep than the other spots and the current was a little weaker, so I was able to make it across. If I realized the river crossing was going to be that difficult I would have gotten an earlier start and I would have crossed with others.
There were a bunch of sections that had been washed out by the flood in December and the trail was gone. Many times the trail wasn’t marked well (or at all) and I got off course and had to find the trail again. On the plus side the sun was mostly shining.
The next part said it “might have some washouts where the trail has been diverted”… I swear it was all washouts. The path rise steeply along thin trails that were overgrown and many had sheer drops.
Eventually I made it to the footbridge a little after 7 haven taken me over 9 hours including lunch. Nobody was here when I got here so I figure they all got rides into Arthur’s pass, so I stuck my thumb out. There was some traffic, but not much. I realized that the only place to get food in Arthur’s pass closed at 8, so I was very unlikely to get there before and would eat my trail meal anyway, so I decided to camp and try in the morning.
It was definitely an adventure of a day and I learned my lesson about procrastinating.