Bob's Camp Biv and Pinchgut

From the weekend 15th - 16th January

A full blown nor-wester, with rain and cloud forecast for the Canterbury High Country saw us heading to the Canterbury Foothills, where the forests would at least provide some protection from the weather. We linked Bob’s Camp and Pinchgut Hut by using the recently remarked tracks on Cattle Peak and Whare Ridge. These tracks, whilst still graded easy are certainly more challenging then the popular day trips to the foothills summits and in my opinion create one of the more worthwhile circuits in the Canterbury Foothills.

We started at Wooded Gully late in the morning and climbed up on to the Mount Thomas Ridge using the main wooded gully track, a popular well graded track that climbs gently up through native bush. A couple of hours later saw us pop out on the ridge above the Whare Stream and we climbed up to Point 1043 where we stopped for lunch, having to sit in the shade because the sun was so strong.

From here we headed North West across the tops. First on an open rocky section, though low sub alpine scrub and then onwards back in to the bush though low stunted forest for an hour or so. Eventually the track broke back out from the bush to tussock slopes and we reached the short spur track to Bob’s Camp Biv.

The two person biv is in good condition, but quite frankly looks like an air raid shelter; luckily there was a good camp spot next to it which we took. Running water was difficult to find. There was a slightly manky pool within 30m of the biv, but finding fresh running water required a descent of around 150m in to the head of the Cattle Stream through moderate scrub. A large outdoor fireplace and meat locker complete the accessories at the biv.

The logbook gives the following information about the biv:

Bob’s Camp is named after Bob Beuege who used to hunt and possum Mt Thomas Forest and had a fly camp on this site. Still actively hunting at about 70+ years old.

We had met a gentleman of that age at the top of track 2, with white ancient hair and a body burnt pink from the sun. After reading the logbook it was easy to believe that it had been Bob….

The wind got up during the night and became quite ferocious, - the bush protected us from almost all of it, though the noise of the wind in the trees kept us awake and also a branch falling on the tent at one point didn’t help matters.

The Sunday morning was a blue sky day but the wind hadn’t abated one bit. The top’s sections of the route presented no danger though and were short lived so we enjoyed getting blown over repeatedly in the biggest wind guests. We took the Cattle Peak route down to Pinchgut Hut which is a nice tops route that drops down a wide ridge, dipping in and out of the bush most of the way.

Morning tea was taken at the hut, which has a beautiful log cabin style construction inside and, judging from the hut book sees quite a bit of traffic, though there had only been one person there the previous night.

We now faced a 600m climb back up to the Mt Thomas Ridge, which we took very slowly. Despite the wind the day was a scorcher. As we neared the top of the ridge, the wind finally started to abate and the day got even hotter.

We didn’t mess about getting back to Wooded Gully – and headed straight down track 2 from the Mount Thomas Ridge. This provided a direct, if somewhat uninteresting descent, the last part through clear felled forest. This open area really reflected the afternoon heat and it was great to get back to the car park and cool off in the shade.