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The Young Wilkin circuit is a popular three day tramp- starting and finishing at Makarora, a few miles North of the head of Lake Wanaka on the main road over the Haast pass to the West coast.
The track climbs the Young valley to the 1501m Gillespie pass and descends the Siberia valley to the Wilkin river, but the start involves a major river crossing maybe half a km wide
. The instructions (today) say that the route requires experience in river crossings, and to folllow the yellow markers crossing the Makarora river where the Young river joins it. If the water level is too high you need to make a roughly 10km detour to cross at Blue river -
Here are some pictures of the area
At the end of Lake WanakaI had done river crossings with Steve and Tam at Arthur's Pass, but this was Donna and my first solo tramp in serious back country and without anyone more experienced with us, we were a bit reluctant - I don't think there were any yellow markers in 2005!-
There was also an alternative
The Makarora jetboat will whisk you up ( and later back down ) the Wilkin river to Kevin Forks at the bottom of the Siberia track whence it is an easy one hours walk up to The flat floor of the valley and Siberia hut
Makarora jet boats( library photos)And indeed once up in the valley you can also fly in or out on this little planeI think a lot of day tourists fly in, walk down the broad easy track to the Wilkin and jetboat out
So we decided to Jetboat in, stay four nights at Siberia hut and jetboat back out again
Siberia hut (630m)- it burned down in 2014 but has since been replacedThe farmer who was allotted this area must have been a John Bunyan fan - or more likely a manic depressive: For as well as naming it the Siberia valley, he also called the two most prominent mountains Mount Awful and Mount Dreadful
There is a story - almost certainly apocryphal - that a climber asked his guide to take him from one to the other so that he could say he'd done the "awful dreadful traverse"
Being a holiday, there were several people at the hut, including a large Italian with an immense sack that included several changes of clothes and enough "trailmix" to last most people a month
During the night he snored mightily, but instead of prodding him - the usual remedy - the other occupants gathered up their mattresses one by one and crept out into the living room - like Haydn's Farewell symphony
However when Donna Joined the exodus she accidentally shone our torch in his eyes and woke him - whereupon he went back to sleep without snoring again all night. In the morning he was very apologetic
Crucible LakeAs well as Gillespie pass, there is a highly recommended side walk to Crucible Lake ( 1172m) below the highest nearby peak 2360m Mount Alba. The weather looking clear and settled, we decided to do this next day.
Map of the Siberia valleyThe route heads North West up the flat floor of the valley, crosses the river (not a major challenge)
and heads L up a side track.
Looking up the valley towards Mount DreadfulThe Siberia streamAnd crossing itThe stream descending from Crucible lake: the track starts on this side but crosses higher up There are fine waterfalls on the stream Views of the stream - we simply waded across somewhere here, as our boots were already wethigher - on the other side The forest thins and Mount Alba 2360m - appears at the backA wider view: near the forest margin a lot of white flowered Mountain Ribbonwood growsLooking up the valley above the forest: the lake is behind the moraine R of centre - where the stream comes down Mountain Cottonwood - cassiniaA kea - they are always aroundAs ever there were lots of flowers:-
Yellow MargueritesWhite and hybrid MargueritesL Gentians..... R Eyebright L.. white or cream Carrot ..... R.. WoollyheadsI thought this was an orchid of some kind, but it turns out to be the rare native forgetmenot Myosotis macrantha - though it took a whole team of eminent NZ botanists to identify it Crucible Lake and its setting are dramatic and impressive, but difficult to phtograph as you are so close to it. I was still using film
and didn't have the panorama feature than is universal on even quite modest digitals.
These are the photos:-
As it was early summer there was still as lot of surface ice, and on it a lot of rubble including some quite large stones resulting from the spring melt. These clearly end up on the lake floor and as this presumably happens every year , I wondered how long it will be before it fills. I couldn't find any info about its depth.
This is a library photo taken when all the ice had gone - The sides look to be sloping steeply down - suggesting that it's quite deep From the moraine looking back down the valley We returned the same way to the hut .