Sunday 11-7-10 Hiking Cobb Valley

We set the alarm for 6:30am, we wanted to get the hike in early and allow for plenty of day light if we did have to van troubles.  Luckily the tire still had air, and the weather was perfect. Under blue skies and in the warm morning sunshine both of us felt better about this place than the previous day, we signed the intentions log and set out for our hike.  

The trail was in great shape but pretty steep, we were in heavy beech forest for about an hour when we broke out of tree line to a gorgeous grassy meadows and ranges as far as you could see.  The hut was great and we wished we could have stayed in it, the lake was about 10min from the hut so we went to check it out.  The trail to the lake had a little snow on it and walking toward it the lake looked tiny and not really impressive.  Just further in over a small hill the lake opened up and was beautiful! The grassy meadows that were gold and reddish orange, snow capped peaks, and dark blue cold water, what a special place.  It reminded me of Twin Lakes out side of Baker City, just such a cool area and we were able to enjoy it on a perfectly calm morning in the sunshine.  We could have spent 3-4 days playing around this hut and exploring, but the huts have a two night maximum and we had a Skype meeting set up with our friends on Monday.  We had fun striking goofy poses for the camera, and decide to start heading out. 

Shabree stiff arm

The drive out seemed very different that the drive in, I was not on the cliff side which helped me, but gave Paul a sense of my horrific drive in,  I spent my time thinking of baby names to help out Martin and Katie and Beth and Brian who are having babies soon and the whole sketchy drive seemed a lot shorter.  I let out a big woo hoo once we made it to the T in the road to go to Motueka.  We arrived at Mc Kee camp ground feeling very exhausted from our hike and just a few hours of driving.  Driving here is so different, Paul could drive for hours back home and not feel fatigued, here after a few hours of very steep windy terrain it really wipes a person out.  There are bill boards all over the roads about fatigue and that drivers should pull over every few hours to rest. We defiantly get why.  It will be nice to chill and explore Nelson a little tomorrow before the Skype meeting then off to the east coast.

Sylvester Lake - Cobb Valley