Mystery Lake

Shaz reports…

This trip was ambitious, with what appeared to be a 26km day when measured on the map.

We had a shaky and stressful start when the meet and greet with a potential new hiking dog buddy did not go well. In hindsight there is a lot I would have done differently, but the end result was the (understandably upset) retreat of the new party. But the journey, for us, continued.

We started at the Potts River car park. The route was a little unclear at the start, but followed the river for a short while before climbing up the bank, and the views just got better and better.

The views in the direction of the walk - heading up along the bank of the Potts River for a while. That’s Mirjam and Scruff in the middle distance. Liz and the other two dogs are ahead in the far distance. That long ridge in the background is the aptly-named Dog’s Range. We got up near the base of that final ridge.

It was stunning scenery - and warming up to a hot day.

View across the Potts River. The back left mountain of the two centre  bumps is Mt Potts, the snow-capped mountains in the far distance is above the Rangitata valley.

Previous trip reports had indicated that there was little water available for dogs, so I was carrying two litres just for dog-drinking but it turned out that for this trip it wasn’t necessary. There were lots of puddles and surface water. So much so that later in the trip we were detouring off path to avoid knee-deep stretches of water that the dogs loved.

Ahhh - Shanti and Maisy cooling off.

It took a little over three hours from the car park to reach Mystery Lake. At one point I thought we might be headed right over the top of the Dog Range to get to the lake, even though I knew that wasn’t the route!

We eventually stopped climbing and turned right on a level, then slightly downward journey to reach the lake for a swim and lunch break.

Nearly there… Mystery Lake in the distance (above) and Scruff and Shanti enjoying the water (below).

After a good swim for the dogs, and lunch for the humans we were off again. Plan A was to do a long loop, joining up with the Te Araroa Trail, then skirting Lake Clearwater to head back to the car. Plan B was to return by the route we had come - which would make it about a 16km walk. We were feeling refreshed and opted for Plan A.

Saying goodbye to Mystery Lake. Shanti loved swimming in the lake so much that he opted to swim most of its length rather than walk along the edge.

This was our route - it turned out to be 27.7km, not 26km, and the longest route we’d done with the dogs, and a tad longer than the humans longest 25km day on The Old Ghost Road. Suffice it to say that the humans were more knackered than the dogs - despite a lot of hare chasing by Maisy dog.

There was a second lunch (above)… by now we were battling a headwind that was getting stronger, and there was a good 8km still to go through stunning, but exposed, country (below).

Finally back at the Potts River (Below) - just 45 minutes to the car. I’d packed a flask of hot water with coffee sachets and miso soup which was waiting at the car. That was sounding really appealing right now.

The final descent done. That was a little hairy, trying to stay upright on a slippery vertical slope with a buffeting wind - but just an easy flat to go, now… fueled by the call of coffee.