Milford Track, New Zealand

If you checked out Jed Micka’s Hiker’s Haute Route, Chamonix to Zermatt trip report you know that they are detailed, amusing with superb photos.

Here’s one of Jed’s earlier treks, the famed Milford Track. He couldn’t get a spot for an independent hike … so signed on for one a guided adventure. … A guided adventure being the kind where you have hot chocolate waiting at the hut. And hot showers.

It’s a fixed itinerary:

Day 1: Lake Te Anau to Glade House
Day 2: Glade House to Pompolona Lodge
Day 3: Pompolona Lodge to Quintin Lodge
Day 4: Quintin Lodge to Sandfly Point

Back in 2002 Jed was a “rookie” hiker with new untested gear. He writes his impressions at that time:

… It begins with a boat-ride from lake Te Anau to a drop-off point, from which one must traverse wetlands, temperate rainforest, suspension bridges, and an alpine pass, before finishing some 53km later, at Sandfly Point, on the edge of Milford Sound. Because of the delicate nature of the ecosystem and the inherent danger to the hikers (for some portions of the trail are routinely submersed under the very heavy rain and others traverse avalanche fields … 56 in all!) …

After arriving at Sandfly Point, weary, bitten, yet still elated, we boarded a ferry that took us to Mitre Lodge, where we had rooms, a hot meal, plenty of wine, and a dry pair of clothes waiting for us.

And although the hike was nominally finished for me, I knew that it was just a beginning: an introduction to the world of trekking that had already infected me with a desire to explore other regions of the planet. With this in mind I carefully catalogued the gear that worked well for me, and that which needed to be remedied before my next hike …

click over to Jed’s site to read more – The Milford Trek