Hike 11/23
KC and I originally planned to do the canyon swing. But, the morning was cold and rainy, so she had second thoughts. Not wanting to go on my own, I tried calling up to take a different Lord of the Ring scenic tour, but there wasn't any space. During breakfast, I decided to do the canyon swing after all, until the earthquake changed my mind.
Instead, I wound up hiking with EN to the Queenstown Gondola. 90 minutes of steady effort the entire time.
The hike to the gondola was probably about 60 minutes, but we had a detour. We started out on the path, which rose steadily, and was similar to a hike back home at Mt. Si. The path dumped out onto a gravel road, which we followed for a few minutes as there was a sign that pointed up the hill along one way. But, we had second thoughts, as the hike seemed to well paved - maybe this was the way for cars and trucks and there is a separate walking/hiking path similar to the one we used to get to this point. So we doubled back and went back and found another marked path that led up.
After about 15 minutes, it dumped out on a logging road and we again found a path to a log avalanche just up a hill. I climbed around but couldn't find the path on the other side. Since it was raining and wood gets slick, we decided to double back again and just follow the road up. Earlier, we passed some other hikers on the way up and they mentioned other hiking trails, and we were worried we had found a different one and might wind up hiking to another spot altogether!
So we hiked back down, and found it fairly tricky as the path was steep and muddy, and the rain picked up a bit. We got back to our original fork, and this time just followed the road up to the gondola.
Instead, I wound up hiking with EN to the Queenstown Gondola. 90 minutes of steady effort the entire time.
The hike to the gondola was probably about 60 minutes, but we had a detour. We started out on the path, which rose steadily, and was similar to a hike back home at Mt. Si. The path dumped out onto a gravel road, which we followed for a few minutes as there was a sign that pointed up the hill along one way. But, we had second thoughts, as the hike seemed to well paved - maybe this was the way for cars and trucks and there is a separate walking/hiking path similar to the one we used to get to this point. So we doubled back and went back and found another marked path that led up.
After about 15 minutes, it dumped out on a logging road and we again found a path to a log avalanche just up a hill. I climbed around but couldn't find the path on the other side. Since it was raining and wood gets slick, we decided to double back again and just follow the road up. Earlier, we passed some other hikers on the way up and they mentioned other hiking trails, and we were worried we had found a different one and might wind up hiking to another spot altogether!
So we hiked back down, and found it fairly tricky as the path was steep and muddy, and the rain picked up a bit. We got back to our original fork, and this time just followed the road up to the gondola.
posted by klbarrus at
4:00 PM
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