7-8 September 2019

Leader: Owen Cox

There were six of us on the trip. Friday night would have been bleak and there was plenty of fresh snow on the tops as we drove to Shannon on Saturday.

By the time we got to the top Mangahao dam we had fine, sunny weather, though it was still a bit nippy.

We walked up the lake bed and three of us did a couple of river crossings. The river was a bit more than nippy so we joined the others on the track. After a regroup at the bridge over the Mangahao, we headed up the gorge section of track which has a few scrambles and, in Marian’s words, ‘man steps’. At Harris Creek the valley opens out. We had lunch in the sun by the Harris Creek swing bridge. We followed the track to the slip about a kilometre or so below the hut. A couple of crossings avoid a bit of climb around the slip. Four of us carried on up the river to the hut. After a few crossings we were cold enough to wonder why. Only one person ducked the river. We got there just after 4:00pm.

On Sunday we went out down the track apart from the slip section and the last bit were we by walking down the riverbank and the lakeshore. We stopped at each of the bridges (Barra Stream, Harris Creek and the river bridge). Once again the weather was good except the last 10 or so minutes. We got to the cars just after it started to drizzle. Finished with a coffee in Shannon. A good trip with beautiful bush and river. About 6 hours up and 5 hours back down.

Those on the trip were:

Owen Cox, Wayne Williams, Marcia Goode, Chantal Heller, June Shelton, Patrick Liss

No photo album was created for this trip.