This was an overnight trip up into the High Country with the main objective to GPS log and photograph the final section of the Wilberforce River headwaters. In the last few months all the other sections in the Wilberforce Valley area have been ridden and GPS logged however this section is hands-down the most challenging. The views up in the headwaters were absolutely worth the effort of wrestling the bikes over the large rocks and across deep rivers; this is simply an amazing place to be.
Gentle gravel roads to kick off the trip
With snow melt underway, the rivers were higher than they had been over the last couple of months
The river crossings near the Unknown and Wilberforce junction were a bit of a challenge
Once we were past the junction, some well formed 4X4 tracks made it an easy task to progress about 3 km up the valley
Once the 4X4 tracks faded away, it was back to riding virgin riverbed or remnants of tracks that have been partly washed away from previous Floods
As we progressed up the valley we reached the first of the rock screes. Fairly easy going at first
We then reached one of the most challenging screes. This scree was very wide with many large rocks and boulders loosely packed from recent floods
The further up we rode, the larger the rocks and the more challenging it became
This river was almost a showstopper. We searched for quite some time to find a safe place to cross, even then it required three of us to ferry each bike across so we didn't get dragged downstream
From this point we only had a short distance to go to reach the hut, but the rocks made it slow going
Finally we made it to the hut!
Later in the afternoon a group of 5 hikers arrived. Rather than pack into the hut like sardines, we decided to give them the hut and setup camp on the riverbed
Firewood was scarce but we scrounged up enough for a nice warm fire
Packing up the next morning and heading out
To be fair it was easier heading down the valley than up the valley as we had already picked the best lines the day before. There were still some challenges to tackle however, this steep river bank with almost no run-up being one of them
One of the last stops to look over the river as we picked our crossing spot before heading out of the valley
