Another nice morning! We ate a lot of oats this morning since we knew we had a big climb ahead of us. Paul and I felt these were the heaviest packs we have ever carried, it must be the fact that we did not backpack at all this year back home. We set out on the trail that started straight up. The sign said 4hr till the Panikire hut, out last hut of the walk. We found it a bit strange that they mark all the hikes or tramps by time rather than milage or Km's. They also have no postings letting you know how close you are to your destination. They do let you know that you are two minutes away from the hut which makes us laugh because you can see about 10 min before you get to it. It was a very steep hike, but was the most scenic and fun part of the trail! There were all of these natural steps made out of the roots of trees. A lot of these steps were very big, past my waist. Paul would have to go ahead of me on some and help hoist me up since my short legs had a hard time reaching the steps! It was exhausting, but so rewarding! We reached out hut in 3 hrs! It was nice, but not as nice as the night before!
It was infuriating when we found other people left their rubbish. You are to pack out your rubbish, there are no garbage cans. Once we changed we had to clean up the hut. We scrubbed the counters and added the rubbish to our own to pack it out. Also at every hut there is a log book that you are to sign and date, and give your next destination and write whatever else you like. These are not only fun to read, but important for search and rescue to know you last whereabouts and future destination if something were to happen. Our log book at this hut had all of the pages ripped out! Ugh, it put such a bad taste in our mouths that people who should love the backcontry be so selfish and disrespectful!
We spent most of the afternoon sunbathing on the deck and wandering if we would luck out and have another hut to ourselves. Around 7pm and no people we knew the hut was all ours! Paul and I played many games of speed and go fish! I won most games of speed and Paul straight dominated go fish! It was fun to play cards. We have such a fun time harassing each other in friendly competition.
Around 8:30pm it's dark and I could hardly keep my eyes open. It was very windy, so it was hard to fall asleep. Once the wind and rain stopped, I was just about to fall asleep when i heard a little critter running around. This rat/mouse/thing sounded like he was running right for us to share our sleeping bag! I jumped out of the bag and sealed the entrance. Paul wondering why I'm breathing heavy, and freaking out, I told him to listen for our new friend. In stead of listening the wind we became mouse detectives. This f*&$% thing kept us up for hours. Once we get settled he would charge us again. We would shine our head lamps but never found him. We think he was actually underneath us but it sure did not sound like it. Right when the wind picked back up the mouse stopped making noise, at this point we are so tired we just start laughing like crazy because we could not do anything else. Once we finally got very little sleep our alarm went off at 6:40am. Ugh…
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