Friday 7th April 2023
We joined the Easter Trip to Lake Christabel with the intention of only doing part of the route to see how our dog Henry would cope on a long hike. The party headed for the end of Palmers Road which you enter on the hairpin bend of SH7 near Springs Junction. Although you travel on a formed gravel road you will need a 4×4 to go beyond the Lake Christabel trail head to the Robinson track as there are about seven creeks to cross.
Once you arrive at your starting point there is adequate parking and a clear DOC sign indicating the start of the track. The track heads into a mature forest and with good canopy cover the ground is dry underfoot. This leads uphill to the edge of farming paddocks which are clearly deliniated by large deer fences (and a visible DOC sign telling you to stay on the track) which you pass beside for a good 40 mins. Mostly you are heading downhill along these fences, so remember that if you come back this way as it will be uphill at the end of your journey! At the end of the farm is another DOC sign telling you the same thing you saw 40 mins back and this is where you get into proper tramping territory with bush and every 15meters a nice big boggy patch in the middle of the track to either walk through and get your dry clean boots dirty or attempt to walk around and slowing your journey down. There is about 15 minutes of this forest trek before you reach a descent down towards the river valley, where you will find a large orange triangle with a message saying 30mins to carpark which only rivals Bill Clintons lies…anyway from there you head across overgrown paddocks with the Upper Grey River on your right there track is indicated by warratahs with orange ducting over the tops.
When you get close to the river you have two options, you can carry on with the marked track to a swing bridge or you can cross the river here by foot and walk along the other bank and pass under the swing bridge on the other side. We did the swing bridge going in, but the river crossing coming out as the flow was passable on foot. The swing bridge route gets knarly and steep with very wet tree roots to cope with and becomes almost a sheer cliff by the time you reach the bridge. If the river is in flood this is your only route.
Past the swing bridge its a walk along the riverbank until you reach Lynches Flat which you should keep right on the river here. As the flats open up and you see the big trees in the middle you can start moving away from the river bed and keep to the right of the trees, there you will notice an orange marker on the end tree. From here you walk directly towards a terrace, which is about 1m higher than where you are standing. The track is not walked often so if you are lucky you may find some crumpled grass and can follow this. Once you are up on that terrace you keep walking until you reach the bush line and then you will find the track. This way saves you some time as following the river will add another 30-40mins to your journey time.
After the flats the track is well posted with markers and basically follows the edge of the river on the southern side, now be warned the track has been eaten away by the river in places so you may have to bush bash in a few meters to travel safely. We did spend some time walking up the river but this will involve crossing several times. There is only one point where you have to climb above a bowl in the river which is impassable short of swimming. This can be tricky with a heavy pack but there are trees to grab for support and doesn’t last for more than 400m. After that it is back to a gentle walk along the river bank until you reach the ‘slip’.
At the slip, you will have to go up and over as the river is slowly eschewing the hillside. You can safely go about 20m up the slip and then come down the scree back to the river. We did it when the river was flowing normally but if it is in flood you wouldn’t be safe going back down to river level as there are some dangerous log jams you wouldn’t want to get swept into. Take some time to work out the best navigation for this. As you pass round the bend of the slip you climb up to a point where a hat has been nailed to a tree. This point onwards is a lovely gentle forest walk with a good track and its of a level contour. The hat marks 2km to the hut. Walking at a tired pace from here to Mid Robinson hut should take you 45mins.
Seeing the swingbridge is the sign you have reached the hut as it is located on the other bank just 20m from the bridge in a large open paddock well groomed by deer grazing. The access to the bridge deck is steep and slippery when wet so make sure you grip those wires well. The hut has a wood burning stove and axe so you can gather firewood to light it and get warm. There are six bunks with standard DOC mattresses though our group found the top bunks to be a bit close to the rafters. Plenty of space outside to camp if you wanted to and in summer months you could sit around the campfire.
Two of our group were going onto Top Robinson Hut from here but Graeme, Henry our dog and I were exiting back the way we came. I did enjoy this route and would do it again as an overnight trip probably in the spring or summer.
Trampers – Graeme Field, Euan Mackenzie, Candis Hawkins, Brent Robinson & Henry
