Day 91: Middy Creek Hut to Browning Hut (1835-1850)
Tuesday, February 28
The two northbound hikers got up around 6 so they could start hiking at 7. The ladies left around 7:30 and Sara and I headed out around 8. I ingeniously forgot my hiking poles, but luckily Sara noticed before we got very far and I hurried back to the hut to get them. The day started with a nice suspension bridge. They always wiggle a little more than I'd like, but I'm just paranoid.
Now that I've downloaded West Wing episodes on my phone, I usually start my morning listening to podcast episodes about the shows I watched the night before and then start listening to my news podcasts. I usually have enough news and West Wing podcasts to last me a few days. Once I'm out of news podcasts I listen to This American Life, Criminal, 99 Percent Invisible, Radio Diaries, Reply All, Radio Lab, and a few others that are currently in season. Or I start binge listening to new shows I haven't tried yet to see if I like them. If I run out of podcasts, I have lots of audiobooks on my phone, but I haven't gotten sick of podcasts yet. Maybe it'll happen before this 8-day stretch is over. We'll see.
The trail up to Rocks Hut was almost all uphill, but it was a nice trail and easy to follow. I got ahead of everyone and when I got to the turnoff for the hut I stabbed my hiking poles into the ground in the direction of the hut so Sara would know I definitely went there and didn't continue on the trail.
I got there around 10:15 and the hut was so nice. It had a flushing toilet! It also had a pesky weka nosing around and a little bright green bird that serenaded us. I read and signed the Hut book, ate some snacks and got some water. While reading it over I noticed that a group of 4 Kiwi ladies had stayed at Rocks Hut last night and planned to stay at the 6-bunk Hacket Hut tonight.
Before long Sara and I headed to Browning Hut. While we were on the trail we crossed paths with 6 TA hikers headed northbound. The first two we met were nice Canadians guys from Victoria. They told us that this was the hardest section on the South Island and that when we got to St Arnaud we could hike to Angelus Hut instead of taking the TA straight out of town. It doesn't really add time or distance to the hike, but it takes you over a ridge with great views instead of down through a valley. Sara said the French-Canadian told her that last night too. It sounds like a good idea to me!
I made it to Browning Hut around 2:45 and Sara came soon after. We had planned to go an hour further to Hacket Hut, but this hut was really nice and we could easily start at 7 instead of 8 tomorrow to make up the hour if we wanted. With those 4 Kiwis ahead of us, we knew the hut would at least be full with the two of us. And there was no way to know if there would be any hikers headed in the opposite direction wanting to stay there too.
We decided to stay at Browning and talked and filtered water. There was a rack in the hut for hunters to place their guns. I don't think I've seen one of those in a hut yet. After talking for a bit we decided to make dinner. We still had the hut to ourselves so we decided to watch Spaceballs. I had downloaded it on my phone since Sara had never seen it. She used her engineer skills to come up with a great way to hang my phone and we stacked up the mattresses so we could lounge and watch the movie. What a great way to end a day of hiking!
After the movie we were still the only ones in the hut so we got ready for bed and each slept on three mattresses. Sara read the murder mystery book she's been enjoying and I watched a few West Wing episodes before drifting off to sleep.
The ramp up to the morning swing bridge. It was nice to have this set up. Usually you have to wiggle under the wires supporting the bridge to get on it.
There really was a flushing toilet!
Some beautiful views today.
More beautiful views.
Browning Hut
Inside Browning Hut.
Our sweet as movie set up.