La Couvelee

Distance: 7.5 km.  Elevation low/high/total: 53/267/495 m.

Difficulty: 7.0/10.  Scenic: 6.9/10

An "upside down" hike compared to usual in that we parked up the mountain and bushwhacked down to a river.  Click the pic for a photo album and the geotrack is here.  A more complete geotrack with the route to the top of the hang gliding take off location is here.

The next river valley over from Dumbea is called La Couvelee.  That there is a hike there is not well advertised.  Nevertheless, we tracked it down and Paul and I set off for our more-or-less-regular bi-monthly hike.  the day was not promising, weather-wise, so we diverted from the start of our hike to explore the nearby mountain top which is an authorized hang gliding take off location, complete with specialized track and wind sock.  The drive up there was a bit dicey, but then that's why I got a Land Rover.  Need to upgrade my tires though, some of the slipping and sliding along the rain-coated cliff edge road was a bit panic inducing.  Up at the summit, the weather whistled by and we enjoyed the mist and drizzle.  

The hike itself started a bit further down the mountain and was unusual in that we started off hiking down the mountain, literally bushwhacking our way for a about a kilometer through dense brush and trees with nary a trail to follow.  The geotrack shows how different our return route, bushwhacking uphill, was from the downhill part.  In all, not a long hike but our legs got pretty beat up and it was exhausting enough fighting uphill at the end of the hike that we feel we got in a full day's worth.  And the swimming down at the river was sa-weet!