Silverpeaks Rosella Ridge via Cedar Spur
Sunday 20 May 2018
This was a trip the Otago Tramping Club did in November last year and it looked like an interesting trip. Four of us meet early at 7.30am and headed for the Silver Peaks car park, with the weather outlook looking not bad for the day with strong N/W winds changing to a cold front and rain by late afternoon.
We set off about 9am and took the Green Ridge Track to the old Green Hut site. We then took the track down the ridge, dropping steeply near the bottom to Possum Hut. After a wee break followed a good track down the South branch of the Waikouaiti River, which was more like a creek, for about a 1 km till we found the track we were looking for over the river. After crossing the river we followed a good track for about 200m until it split into two tracks. With no signs on which was the way to go we took the high track that went up. The track was well worn but in some places the ground cover was starting to take over.
After about an hour of uphill we came to another intersection with what was the other track that we had decided not to take further down. This time the tracks were marked and we found we had come up the Direct Spur track while the other track was the Cedar Spur track. From here it was a bit of a grunt up onto Rosealla Ridge arriving about 1pm. Lunch was had beside the Rosealla Ridge track in the bush to get out of the strong wind that had picked up.
We then followed the Rosealla Ridge track N/E over Little Pulpit Rock for about an hour, with great views when we weren’t getting bowled over by the wind, until we came to the Hunters Access track which took us steeply back down into the valley below. It was then back up the river track, checking the map a couple of times as there were a few tracks going in different directions and we wanted to take the direct track back up to the road near Possum hut. We starting the last steep climb up to the road about 4.30pm and got back to the Vehicle at 5.15pm just as the rain and the cold front started to come through.
It was a big day out, but a goodie. Thanks to John, Bess and Marian for your company for the day.
Neville
