“In your actions don’t procrastinate. In your conversations don’t confuse. In your thoughts don’t wander. In your soul don’t be passive or aggressive. In your life don’t be all about business.”
-Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Pine through mist, Four Peaks. Pentax MX, Cinstill 800, Nov 2025.
Day 16
It dawned clear again and for a brief few hours it was hard to believe it could ever rain again.
We left Hanging Lake at 8 am and headed towards Thwaites Plateau. I showed Gabe the old campsite beneath the old Scoparia trees, it is one of the oldest stands I know of.
There were some tricky notches to negotiate around Four Peaks and we passed the packs to each other on at least four occasions. It was handy having three people to do this. We tore a hole in my bow bag that had my helmet in it during one of the pack hauls, it will be a repair job for tomorrow.
There was a steady mizzle most of the day, although it wasn’t relentless; the swirling mist created a moody ambience with the great rock towers of the Eastern Arthurs rising up all around us.
Countless scoparia thickets, dwarfed rainforest patches and alpine moors kept us company. We arrived to Goon moor around 3pm and we decided to push on.
The descent to Stuart Saddle brought us to an area of deepish snow again. About knee deep in the drifts. I had to take a break about a hundred metres to eat some emergency snacks as I was spent and was worried I would slip and fall. It was a relief to arrive to the very wet campsite and platforms covered in soggy snow.
A slight clearing in the mist! Pentax MX, Cinstill 800, Nov 2025.
It’s near the end of the trip with food rations dwindling and fatigue setting in. The talk with Gabe is more and more about the foods we will get to eat when we finish the trip. I don’t think either of us expected to be walking through snow int he Arthurs in late November. I joked that this trip has been more raftwalking than packrafting, given the ratio of walking to rafting has been far from even, with about 11 days of walking and 5 days of paddling (with the paddling days being significantly shorter on average). We also agreed that about a third block of chocolate (80g) is about the right amount of chocolate rations per day. (Which means my ration of 3 blocks for 18 days was half of the appropriate amount)! Although one could probably always conclude this at the end of a big expedition, that the quantity of chocolate was about half of what was actually needed!
Pandanni and Scoparia. Pentax MX, Cinstill 800, Nov 2025.
Day 17
We woke to find our tent had gotten a lot smaller. About six inches of snow fell over the night, which made our pyramid tent sag in a fair bit at the sides.
We left Stuart Saddle just a bit after 8am. Packing up was unpleasant due to how wet and cold everything was. I felt for Gabe as he only had his scrub gloves and no overpants and we still had to climb over the Boiler Plates in what was effectively a snowstorm.
Grant reluctantly wore his thermals today, then declared he was overheating when we started walking uphill. This was while I had everything on and was just warm enough!
Pandanni in rainforest. Pentax MX, Cinstill 800, Nov 2025.
It was awesome seeing icicles dripping off the rocks and to break trail through powder; and to observe firsthand the harshness of the climate the vegetation up here has to deal with! It is a world unto its own, the alpine eco-system of the South-West!
It took us about an hour and a half to reach the high point of the Boiler Plates, from where the descent begins. At first there were some notches that were quite steep but later we dropped into the scrub and we were getting drenched by snow falling on us, it was probably at about 500m in elevation where the snow finally disappeared.
The new trackwork built to replace the old trackwork burnt in the 2019 fires was a welcome reprieve for us. Pass Creek tempted us as it had enough water in it to paddle it but the banks didn’t seem too friendly and given the small size of the creek, river wide strainers were a likely possibility. We concluded that me and Grant would be hanging on for dear life while Gabe would have the time of his life. So we went with the safe option to walk to Cracroft Crossing to put in there tomorrow, and while I’m sure Gabe was disappointed with this decision he accepted the majority vote with good grace.
There was a rope across Pass Creek which we used to haul the packs across on, then used it as a handrail to cross ourselves. Strike Creek looked friendlier and was easy wade across.
We got to Cracroft Crossing at 5pm. I sewed up the hole in my bow bag. After our seven day portage, we were ready to put in on the river the next day!
Misty cliffs, Eastern Arthurs. Pentax MX, Cinstill 800, Nov 2025.
-A.S. Brushy Creek, 21/3/2026