Since the slip at Otaki Forks, it’s been a bit of a ghost town once you get past Boille Flat. With most visitors now heading straight up to Feild Hut and on to the tops. The day trippers and car campers are gone, the caretaker/ranger’s house is empty, the road is rapidly disappearing and the carparks are all being overtaken by bush. The Otaki-Waiotauru area used to be bustling on weekends but it’s worth not forgetting that the area is still filled with fun day walks, swimming holes, and sweet camping spots.
Yesterday afternoon, on a whim, I thought I’d visit one of these little gems, the Sheridan Creek Log Hauler in you guessed it Sheridan Creek. The whole area has a history steeped in logging and forestry. Odlins Road used to travel the whole way through to Otaki from the Akatarawa summit and there are old tramways like the Waitewaewae Track scattered throughout the area, along with rusting relics and infrastructure. When bridges washed out, or slips took out tracks, it seemed that it was easier for these massive boilers to just be left in there. There are few others around, most notably though is the log hauler at the base old Waetewaiwai Track and Saddle Creek intersection.
The Sheridan Creek Log Hauler has been on my list of spots to visit for a while, I don’t know why I haven’t before because I just love stream travel. I parked up at the Blue Bluffs car park and jumped on my bike, given that the Blackgate campsite where the track starts is another 2km past the ranger’s house I wasn’t that excited about walking. I had Olive so we just rolled there at a cruisy pace, but with no dog, you could smash it out in ten or so minutes.
Bike hidden, we crossed the Waiotauru River and picked up the track on the other side as it crossed the river flats to reach the base of Sheridan Creek. Plenty of deer sign and scents had Olive on her toes and her nose was on full alert (she did bail up a pair of goats upstream a little). A single orange DOC marker showed where the track started, but from here on they are few and far between. The track pops in and out of the Creek as it climbs the 120m to the hauler and occasionally you’ll see a track marker on a terrace above the creek. It’s quicker travel out of the creek, but spotting where to get in and out is a challenge. Olive and I opted to stay in the creek for the bulk of the travel upstream, until we reached a beautiful deep pool and log jam. Backtracking we found the route on the TL a few meters back.
Not long after climbing around the emerald pool, a rebuilt section of the railway has been constructed through a small cutting to show just how serious the logging infrastructure was in the area. After a steep and slippery rope-aided descent back to the river, it is just a few minutes upstream to the historic log hauler itself. It sits under a well-built shelter, which provided a nice break from the rain.
Looking at my map, on the true right of the creek there are plenty of nice ridges to take you up to Field Track at •591 or Tirotiro Knob at •855 to make a nice loop out of it. On the true left, there are again plenty of spurs that lead to Rae Ridge and onto Dennan at •1214.
Today though it was back to the bike and the car. On the route down I made sure to find all the marked terrace sections of track and it was a much quicker exit. Keen to back on a nice day with the family for a bit more of an exploration and loop up to Field Hut.
