The Forest

Thurs. 4 January:  The Forest

The mystery of the Marlborough Forest

Note: click on pictures for full size view.

There’s a large forest near here where strange things can start to happen to your mind.  Or perhaps it’s real.  Distances get distorted.  Items mysteriously disappear.

Today we walked across the northern half of the Marlborough Forest, from Jock Road in the north, all the way down to Roger Stevens Drive in the centre of the forest.  The maps give the distance as 13.3 kilometres.  But two separate GPS devices in use today measured 14.1 kilometres.  And some of the measured distances between interim waypoints seemed to stretch far longer than the map indicated.  Perhaps there’s something secret hidden within the forest, and disguised by some clever distortion of the map. 

And then somehow my colleague’s car keys jumped out of a deep pocket and disappeared into thin air.

Enjoy your hike through this forest, but be on the lookout for  strange happenings – and also keep an eye out for speeding snowmobiles!

Oh – and take your snowshoes, as the nice wide, well-packed tracks suddenly revert to narrow forest trails, choked by fallen trees, with half-frozen puddles hidden beneath the snow.

Starting out along Munster Road at the Jock River bridge

Brisk walk towards the forest down Munster Road

Entrance at Kettles Road

The trail draws us into the woods

A strangely attractive open section within the forest

Klondike Road:  snowshoes needed from here
(and happy to leave the snowmobiles behind)

Challenging final section of trail

Threading through the snowy trees near the end of our walk