Sunday, June 14, 2015

Hiking the GR1 - Stages 4 and 5

Distance: 30.1 km.  Elevation low/high/total: 155/532/1181 m.
Difficulty: 9.1/10.  Scenic: 7.8/10
And so we finished off the GR1 with a two day 30 km hike through the western end of the Parc de la Riviere Blue.
Click picture for photo album, the geotrack is here.

And now the GR1 full traverse has been accomplished.  My daughter, Kincso, and I (and, on various Stages accompaniment from Ildiko, Paul and Simon) made several treks over many months to hike the length of the hugely impressive GR1 put together by the tourism/park folks here in New Caledonia.  And, while we did hike it from beginning to end, we shortcutted the middle section as Stage 4B is an abbreviated section connecting Stages 3 and 6.  This weekend, my friend Paul and I completed the "skipped" sections, i.e., Stages 4 and 5.  We had hiked the six other sections in the generally intended direction, from east to west.  For logistical reasons (and doing the GR1 requires a LOT of logistical planning), we decided to start our hike at the "end" of Stage 5 and hike west to east, finishing at the "start" of Stage 4.  Because of the remoteness of the endpoints, much like Stages 6 and 7, we decided to do the two stages back to back and overnight at the Refuge offered between Stages 4 and 5.  

Weather, always an issue up in the mountains across this part of New Caledonia, could have been better but at least we didn't deal with a Category 1 cyclone like the last time we did a back-to-back stretch (Stages 6 and 7).  We set out in a light rain and ended in a light rain, but the rivers and creeks were fairly easily traversed and these two stages presented much like the other stages within the Parc de la Riviere Bleu.  The only real downside was that we were both breaking in new hiking boots and we had some serious foot blister issues the last half of day 2.  As on all the other Stages, we placed geocaches along each, bring the total placed along the length of GR1 to 10 (at the beginning, Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 4B, Stage 5, Stage 6, Stage 7, at the end).

A couple of final comments about this amazing outdoor resource provided for the public by the tourism bureau here.  The 130+ km trail has been meticulously cared for - from paths carved through almost impenetrable rain forest to steps built into steep slippery slopes to a multitude of constant signage pointing the way to go (and not to go).  The refuges provided in between stages (we used two of them - at Camp des Fougeres and Tristaniopsis) are extremely well built and provisioned.  At our stay at Tristaniopsis on this hike, we arrived to find a well stocked woodpile and kindling! and the shelters themselves are solid and watertight.  Somewhat puzzlingly, and sadly, on all our hikes we encountered only one other hiking group!  Whether this is a failure of advertising or a matter of indifference I can't say but on the plus side - O! the solitude!

When told of our completion, Ildiko asked so ... what's next?  Hmm, I have read that a companion set of hikes is nearly completed in the northern part of the island ....