Hiking the GR1 - Stage 4B (Abbreviated Stages 4/5)

Distance: 13.9 km.  Elevation low/high/total: 155/206/352 m.
Difficulty: 4.5/10.  Scenic: 4.5/10

Filling in the missing segment, we completed our quest to hike the length of the GR1.  This particular segment, admittedly the easiest and serving as our GR1 coda, was 14 km long. 
Click pic for photo album. The geotrack for the hike is here: (gpx) (kml)

We did it!  Five different outings, some wild experiences, nearly 100 km total trekking through all manner of mountain/mud/brush/river/desert and Kincso and I can say that we have hiked the length of the Grande Randonée Nouvelle Calédonie 1 (GR NC1, usually just abbreviated as the GR1).  This particular section, Stage 4B, is the missing link between the end of Stage 3, which we completed at the beginning of April and Stages 6/7 which we completed during Tropical Cyclone Solo a couple of weeks ago.  Stage 4B is actually a shortcut for Stages 4 and 5 but time was running out and those shall await another time.

For this particular stage, we were joined by Ildiko and my friend Paul, with whom we've done a few other hikes.  Technically, this is the simplest of the Stages as most of it takes place along a level red dirt road.  The high hope we had was to see, in the wild, the national bird and symbol of New Caledonia - a Cagou, as seen above.  And we did!  We even got to spend some time close enough to one that it was hissing at us, a noise I had trouble believing at first could be made by such a beautiful bird.  We also placed, as we did on every Stage, a geocache along the way (linked here).  As of today, NONE of the caches has yet been found/logged - likely the result of so little trail traffic, as discussed below.

A couple of final comments on hiking this quite impressive trail.  The GR1 presents one with a nicely varied set of experiences.  The length and vertical range present varying levels of challenge and I would rate the whole thing as quite difficult.  The trail is very well maintained and marked, with one notable exception: there needs to be more distance markers.  Most stages are only marked at the 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 points but those are 4-6 km apart and it can be hours getting between them.  Many markers are placed all along the trail - to prevent getting lost - it would not be a chore to add a clip on distance marker at every 500 m point.  the other amazing thing we noticed was how utterly unoccupied we found the trail.  I think we passed one other set of hikers over the six stages we did.  Not sure why that is given the overall general healthy nature of folks here but a great deal of time and money went into creation of this national treasure and it seems a pity it's so underutilized.

Miss K (Kincso) heads off to Europe and then U Cal Berkeley in a couple of weeks, so I'll be losing a hiking buddy.  I think she gained a lot of self confidence and learned that persistence is one of her innate strengths - she's gonna be a great college student!  May these pages provide her with a reminder of time we spent together that will always rank among my favorite outdoor adventures.

Hiking the GR1 - Stages 6 and 7

An epic misadventure spread across two days.  We hiked 30 km, gained 1700 m of altitude and battled the onslaught of Cyclone Solo to conquer Stages 6 and 7 of the GR1.  Click above for picture album.  Geotracks here: (gpx) (kmz)

Kincso has been accepted, and likely will attend, U Cal Berkeley in the fall.  She leaves New Caledonia in less than a month.  We still had four sections of the GR1 to complete.  This weekend was the one penciled in to complete the final two legs (we'll fill in the skipped legs later) and we had my friend Paul along for the adventure.  Due to the remoteness and difficulty of access, you really need to do these two legs consecutively with an overnight at one of the refuges high up in the mountains.  There was news of a forming tropical storm (which became Cyclone Solo) but we apparently misread when it would strike New Caledonia, thinking we had until Sunday evening before the rains would hit.  We were wrong about that.

Ildiko dropped Kincso and me at a meeting point where Paul, his wife and sister picked us up and we headed for the Parc de la Riviere Bleu.  Once there we drove to the furthest point - Pont Perignon - where a park ranger took us deeper into the park to the start of Stage 6.  We hiked about 8.5 hours on Day 1, mostly through thick rain forest and relentlessly uphill for the second half of the day.  Many rivers were crossed and we had some soakings and Kincso got a nasty cut crossing a particularly slippery set of rocks.  We didn't make it to the end of Stage 6 - which was 15+  km but there was a smaller shelter at the 13 km stage and we spent the night there.  The A frame huts proved to be a huge benefit because the rains arrived shortly after we got there.  There was just enough firewood to warm a sandwich and some chicken bouillon.  We were inside by 7 pm and out of the torrential rains that fell all night long.  Upon waking, the scene outside was surreal.  Standing water everywhere and steady heavy rain.  Nothing we had was dry.  

We faced the final 3.7 km of Stage 6 - all uphill - to get to the start of Stage 7, which itself was a 15 km hike mostly downhill back to Dumbea.  The effect of the rain on the paths, the footing, the rivers, the red mud roads at the end - words can't do it justice.  This was without a doubt the toughest two day hike I have ever done, and Paul and Kincso concur.  Kudos to Kincso for persevering, and learning what amazing inner strength she has - and to Paul who was a positive force and morale booster the whole time.  Our pictures (link to full album at picture above) may not have captured the surrealist aspect of the whole hike: we went to great lengths to protect our electronics from the biblical rains and simply could not risk taking them out at times.  But hopefully we captured enough to paint a picture.  These two stages of the GR1 are in another league relative to the other stages, and we are all thrilled to have finished them off, likely never to be repeated.

We did place two more geocaches as we've done for each leg (linked here and here).  The final kicker to the whole hike was that the good park folks CLOSED the car park access where Ildiko was to  pick us up, and so just when we thought the whole ordeal was over ... we had to hike two more km out the access road to get back to the closed gate, thus extending the Day 2 hike to a full 10 hours done completely in totally wet cold clothing and footwear.  Good times.  How soon can we complete the other legs?

Hiking the GR1 - Stage 3

Distance: 15.3 km.  Elevation low/high/total: 163/491/555 m.
Difficulty: 5.0/10.  Scenic: 5.0/10

We had Simon along as company on the 15.4 km Stage 3 hike
Click on the pic for link to picture album, geotrack links: (kml) (gpx).

Less than two weeks after completing Stage 2 of the GR1 (the Nouvelle Calédonie Grande Randonée 1, or GR NC1 as it's officially titled), Miss K and I were able to tackle Stage 3, thanks to the willing participation of an SPC colleague, Simon Nichol.  Heading out on an early Good Friday (hence, work vacation day) morning, we drove to the western terminus of the hike, which is near the eastern entrance to the Parc de la Rivière Bleu, dropped his truck there and then the three of us drove over to Netcha which is the eastern terminus of the hike.  We managed to hit the trail just after 9:30 AM on a semi overcast, quite pleasant day for hiking.

While the overall length of the hike suggested  it might be a bit of a challenge, in fact this was the easiest of the 3 stages to date.  The 15.4 km hike took about 4.5 hours and involved two relatively modest hills (well, one was modest) and provided some spectacular vistas.  We crossed a couple of creeks as well as a mostly dry riverbed that was littered with thousands of huge boulders indicating that, on occasion, some serious flooding (from a typhoon, perhaps) washes through the valley here.  We placed a geocache (linked here) at the top of Agathis Pass, where we also enjoyed a nice lunch.  Next up is Stage 4, which is inside Parc de la Rivière Bleu, and hopefully we'll tackle that shortly.