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ROARING STAG MEDIUM TRIP (5-7 Feb) - Crawfdrd Lindsay It's amazing’ how memorable certain days.cr weekends become when you do a lot of walking. ©d: remember the first time when we really broke). : the 'rules', by making a moonlight walk across Scotland's highest plateau in late November. There was a continuous snow cover from the valley f£tobr ‘and ‘in ‘Yeneral this was firm and a joy to walk on. .How we'came to be on ‘top in the dark is easily explained; ‘it was still, clear and a full moon. So we had a pleasant walk and s.uperb moonlit. views of highland Scotland. ° : . ae . - hye. In ° many ways the Roaring Stag trip will be. just as wamozahis in, years ° to CONE « although possibly for different reasons. Friday; night..came with a reasonable forecast for the weekend, and an optimistic set of trips eneted at Putara roadend. There was a strange familiarity to the conditions, ‘mild and muggy with a gentle drizzle.--Saturday morning saw us make our way to Roaring Stag Lodge in a pouring drizzle. The I: way was enlivened by two crossings. of usually small side atreamay which, ne honestly, I found a bit, frightening. ws " We arrived at the hut and founé two, deerstalkers already installed. Several of us did not know that trampers and deerstalkers do not get on (we were told this later by better informed people), so we spent a very pleasant day im conversation. The Ruamahanga River was a little brown and fuller than it should have been, so we defetred our walk. :: down stream. . DP oe tress es 2 ! 5 sn ee ‘. fT, Sunday arrived with a Scotch mist and the tiver had eteared, so Marshall rounded up his troops and we boldly set off and finished the trip arriving on SH2 about 15.30. My memories of the day are mainly of wading the river five times, ‘just to make sure we had thoroughly wet feet, and in between times, walking through a tepid shower in the bush. A memorable day, but one I hope never to repeat. eo
~ 2h isha: In the evening, back in Wellington, . ee, was. flicking through a book on walking and scrambling in the Lake District and came across the following passage which should explain the outsider's view of tramping: "... there is one place where: there is absolutely no alternative to wading through a pool up to the waist in water, so it (the, route). ‘is never iikely to become popular". Oo in ar oat