Black Birch Track
- 6 hr – 3 hr return by the same track
- Medium
Well cut and marked track along true left of BB stream. The track leaves the stream to sidle across the crest of a spur at 400m and then drops to cross the northern branch of B.B. stream. From this point it is well marked but only lightly trimmed. It then climbs steeply to Pt 835 and continues a further 500m along the ridge to the Black Birch Bivvy. The Marlborough Deerstalkers hope to clear the track some more in Nov, 2015.
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Walking time
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1 day
6 hr – 3 hr
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Distance
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6.0km |
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Type
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Return by the same track
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Grade
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Medium
Some steep sections and some unpleasant scrubby sections booby-trapped with boulders in the last half hour to the biv. Grades explained
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Bookings
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No bookings — open access
No — open access
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Starts
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At Awatere Headworks - intake of water for residents of Awatere Valley. |
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Ends
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Black Birch Bivvy |
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Maps
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-
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Altitude
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200m
–
850m
Altitude change 650m
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Unable to find out where public easement begins but Blairich Station and Matt at Renwick DoC can inform you (03) 572 9100.
There is a marginal strip up Black Birch Stream which allows access to the broad grassy terraces downstream of the Awatere Headworks. Continue along the true left of the stream and you will see your first orange triangle. Keep on the true left of the stream and soon you will be travelling between a deeply incised ferny yazoo stream parallel to the main stream and a fenceline.
You will enter tall kanuka forest. Here the track is well cut and marked. There are old alloy nameplates at some small streams (Schwass, Dick and Robert are still legible). A MTB trail has recently been cut down from the ridgeline to the true left of Schwass Stream. The bottom end will be cut in the first week of December, 2015. It is currently marked with pink cruise tape.
The track crosses a larger sidestream that was formerly bridged From here it rises gently to cross the crest of a spur at 400m a.s.l., drops down to cross the northern tributary of Black Birch Stream. From this point it is well marked but only lightly trimmed. It then climbs steeply to Pt 835 and continues a further 500m along the ridge to the Black Birch Bivvy.