Mt Aspiring National Park continues north from Fjordland heading inland toward even higher mountains. Most of the tracks involved climbing over a passes many of which were highlights in and of themselves. I was warmed up and into a good routine at this point so things were really starting to roll. The Routeburn and Rees/Dart Tracks in particular were fabulous. Bad weather and fatigue messed things up on the Wilkins/Young Track whose only fault was not being quite as spectacular as the others.
The Routeburn Track is kind of its own animal. It goes along a ridge but not on top. It follows a river but not in a valley. It has falls and lakes where you don't expect them. And it's spectacular in ways that other tracks aren't.
After the hike in to MacKenzie Lake it follows a spectacular route up to and along the Serpentine Ridge and over the
Harris Saddle with magnificent views of even higher mountains across the Hollyford Valley. From the Harris Saddle a side trail ascends Conical Hill which gives a 360' view of it all. The descent follows the Route Burn (burn is Scottish for river) from Harris Lake down to a flat valley before descending further to the pick-up point.Rees/Dart Track follows a pretty conventional route, valley-pass-valley with a twist. It's not a tramp on the Rees-Dart without a side trip to the Dart Glacier. AT hikers will seldom stray a foot from the trail without food being involved but at this point I was over my south-to-north thru-hiking plan and willing to accept things on their own terms.
The side trip was a chance to see the 'river of ice' from all sides and better understand this force of nature that has carved out so much of the landscape. Above the Dart Glacier was the Cascade Saddle from which I had hoped to get a look at Mt Aspiring. Cloudy weather prevented that but it was still an impressive view 4000 feet down to the valley below.
Wilkins/Young Track was the one that was one too many. Hiker fatigue was creeping in, I was coming down with a cold, the town near the trailhead was pricier even though it was smaller and the weather turned bad. It had its moments but it was clearly time to take a break, recover my health and proceed from there.
