Macetown to Rose's Hut

Ah, the days you're journaling by 2:30!

I took an easy-ish 10/11k day over from Macetown today.  The trail started off following/fording the way up the Arrow River.  There weren't any places where you had to be more than mid-calf in the water, but there sure were some might fine swimming holes!  If only I had done this section in the warmer afternoon.  None the less, I spent a lot of time slogging along in the river.  Most of the time, it was easier than criss crossing from bank to bank trying to avoid the spiny bushes.

I took my one and only dip right before the trail headed up to 1270m(?) Roses Saddle.  After leaving the lupine (and the very numerous thorny bushes) by the river, the trail went along a few ridges, climbing steadily and steeply up to one side of the saddle.  The low tussock and dusty rock make this area look nearly lunar.  Tons of lizards and butterflies, though not any of the irridescent violet butterflies I saw a few days back.

The trail zig zagged right back down the side of one ridge and the length of some others to get back to another creek and Rose's Hut.  I was considering heading to Highland Creek Hut tonight, but with a late-ish start (8:30) and a really hot day, I decided to save those two big climbs for tomorrow morning.  Hopefully, I'll manage to make it to Fern Burn tomorrow!  For now, creek laundry & leisure at a new (as of 2006) hut.

** Right around dinner time, a triple-crowner named Cloudwalker came into Roses' with his flapping-soled tennis shoes and long pony-tail braids.  He pulled out his milk and granola and started adding in anything he found in his pack.  The dried bananas, honey, and raisins, I understood, the other miscellany (dried veggies, TVP), I'll mark down to walking way too far in one day.   Cloudwalker had started my 4-day segment this morning, and he politely probed to see if he could make Queenstown that evening.  I (and everybody else who met him on the TA) think he's crazy.  I'm also sure he made it into town.  He claims that the TA has better scenery than either the AT, PCT, or CDT, but that as a whole package (trail conditions, scenery, resupplies, etc), the PCT wins handily.  He was trying to finish the TA quickly so that he could wrap up another long trail in Israel before he had to find a job again.  As the Kiwi's say, good on 'im.