BlogRoddus: Casey Hut 17-18th April 2010

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Casey Hut 17-18th April 2010

Uncle Roddus Tramping diary:Tramp no. 89

Casey Hut 17-18th April 2010

The Casey hut is a 16 bunk hut near the confluence of Casey stream and the Poulter river. it is a moderate trip to get to it from the Andrews shelter and to either come back the same way or follow the four wheel drive track down the poulter and over Binser saddle then back to the cars along the road, a pretty straight forward trip and a popular one. This trip had been on my to do list for quite some time after the last attempt never even left town for weather reasons. Some friends who had been reading some of my trip reports on this blog and others who knew I tramped had asked me about going out sometime and doing something. What with so many other things going on and tramps with the CTC taking a lot of my tramping time I haden't got round to organising anything. Ulrich said he wanted to do something before his holidays were over and I was looking for someone to do this trip with. I checked in with another couple of people but it was short notice and some were out of town and others had to work, so it was just the two of us.

We arrived at Andrews shelter about 9:20am on an overcast but warm Saturday morning, with a light norwest wind. The forcast was for cloud clearing and Sunday was to be fine. We decided to do the long way first, walk round to the start of the Binser Saddle track, over Binser Saddle, then up the Poulter to the Hut and then out the shorter track over Casey Saddle and along the Andrews Track. We left the car at 9:40am and had climbed the 500 or so meters to Binser saddle, throught beech forrest, by 11:30, stopping briefly at the clearing before the saddle to re fuel. The track was mostly clear of wind fall and is a very well used and easy to follow track. After a steep desent of 200 or so meters we qiuckly dropped down to Pete stream amd link up with the four wheel drive track which we follow almost all the way to the hut. Seven KM from the hut, there is a DOC sign saying the the rest of the track is a monitored mountainbike track to the Trust/Poulter Hut, and indeed, did 2 mountainbikers turn up at the casy hut for the night about 2 hours after we arrived.

The top part of our trek was much more scenic than the lower part, through Matagari country, and after Rabbit flat we headed back into the bush and then through a lovely garssy clearing after a small lake and before we left the mountain blke track and cut across the big flat bush area behind Casey Hut, which had some impressive specimens of Black beach. We got to the hut in 6 and 3/4 hours covering 22.7KM. With a weekend pack, I was feeling it. A plesent evening was had chatting with the 2 mountain bikers and the other couple who had come in over Casy saddle and the clear sky made for an impressive starry sky after dark.

Sunday Morning dawned fine as promised, and Ulrich and I set of at about 8:20am to trek the 13.8KM up the Casy Stream, over Casy Saddler and down the Andrews track. It was a most enjoyable walk out in brilliant sunshine, changing forrest and lovely open spaces along the saddle and Hallelujah flats. Saw some good camping spots but had fairly short breaks on the open areas as the sand flies wouldnt leave us alone each time we stopped. Some very impressive Red Beech in one of the gullies lower down and the song of the Kea near the Saddle. Got back to the car in 5 and 1/2 hours. Exellent trip.