Three Fingers to Bob’s Spur, Saturday July 3 2010. Map: BK37
Trampers: Murray White, Julia Mackie, Alison Greer, Colin McNatty, Geoff Donkin, Sue Martin, John Dobbs, John Marshall, Sue Marshall, Gordon Tapp, Ted Angove, Paul Exeter, Murray Goss, Isobel Holdaway, Jude Paton, Viv Bramley and Marc Marchal
It was a crispy cold Saturday morning when a large group set off towards the Ruahines. By the time we arrived at the start, the sun was starting to show and with no wind the promise was for a nice walk.
We walked over farmland to the fence and bushline to the start of the track. The first part of the track climbing Three Fingers was quite well maintained, although slippery in places. As we reached the first exposed parts of the ridge, the wind found us and it quickly became quite cold. Everyone was searching their backpacks for windbreakers.
Morning tea was in a sunny and reasonably sheltered spot. We had only been going again for a couple of minutes when we saw a goat in the bush calling out for its baby. From here on, the path is no longer marked and we worked our way further up through low shrub and skirting the tree line. The track then dips down into a small stream with a hunter’s bivvy on the other side amongst the trees. We climbed to the trig and stopped for a group photo.
We then made our way across looking for the ridge that would take us through to to Bob’s Spur. This proved a bit of a mission. After a couple of attempts, we found the trail and Julia tied some orange tape to the kanuka. The track goes in and out of the bush until it descends more steeply in bush. There were a few old markers here and there. After a short descent, we found a sheltered spot in the bush to have lunch. From here the trail disappears and bushbashing is the only way to go in the required direction, down.
Many falls, dirty bums and bloody knees later, we finally reached the highlight of the day, the shingle slide. A 150m run down in a minute or so, fantastic fun. From the bottom of the slide, we followed a path back to the farmland. And after crossing a couple of paddocks, we reached the vehicles in high spirits – a great day out.
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