Te Araroa Trail – Day 69

Thursday, January 11, 2024
Distance/ Total: 9.8 km / 6.1 mi

I did sleep in until about 7:00 am this morning. I started my day off with another hot cup of coffee and checked out the PCT website to make sure I could log in.

A little before 7:30 am I checked the permit availability page and noticed it had already been updated to 50 per day (including the additional 15 per day they were releasing today). I tried to log in but it wouldn’t let until my assigned time.

At 7:30 I noticed the available permits started changing as people were logging in and reserving the permits. It was going pretty slow and I kept my eye on the 1st part of May. That was my preferred start time.

At 7:56 I logged in and selected May 2nd as my start date. I was #42 on that day. I was glad to get my date.

Claudio had to wait until 11:45 and we had to check out of the motel at 10:00. We slowly packed up, got everything together, and left the motel about 9:50. We were now on a mission to find some stove fuel. We checked a couple of stores, but was only able to find the mid-sized canister – too big to fit in my pot. But I needed fuel so I bought what they had.

We found a coffee shop to sit in and wait for Claudio’s PCT permit time and he ended up with May 24th – later than he wanted but he did get one. He can now watch for cancellations and change if he finds a better date.

After getting his permit we called for a taxi to take us back to the trail. It was was a quick 15 minute ride and we were hiking by 12:30. The 1st km was a roadwalk to the trailhead, then another km through some farm fields before getting into the bush. The trail was a little muddy and had lots of ups and downs – mostly ups. 1,000 ft of elevation gain over the next 7 km.

I was my usual tired self after taking a zero day and I just couldn’t muster up the energy to push up this trail. I took several breaks, and it took me about an hour longer than it should to reach the hut.

The hut was nice. A big food prep and eating area and two bedrooms with multiple bunks. It would sleep a total of 18. I picked out a bed and put my gear on it. I changed out of my sweaty clothes and we cooked dinner on the tables. I spent some time updating my blogs and am now getting ready to crawl into bed at 7:45 pm. I need a good nights rest so I have the energy for tomorrow. It will be about 9-10 hours of hard hiking to get to the hut we want to stay in.