Mystery Lake, Canterbury, New Zealand

JF_Dog Walks Mystery Lake-5396.jpg — MYSTERY LAKE

SOUTH CANTERBURY

Location:
South Canterbury
For this track, you can find the “Potts River Track” on Google, Park on the Lake Clearwater side of the Potts River bridge, it’s pretty obvious with the signage and whatnot.

Time:
6.45 hours return.
With the dog, photos, snow, and a track partially washed away.

Difficulty.
Easy

Dogs:
Under effective control

The weather had been rough, and I was aware the snowline would be creeping down. Charlie and I wanted to get out as we had a spare day and knew there would be a weather window. I had my eye on something down this way as that was where the weather was best. I was also looking for something that wouldn’t require ice axes and crampons.

The start of the track by the bridge has fallen victim to the flooding in the area which has destroyed the track and created river channels right up to the edge of the valley. This first km is a bit tricky and you have to jump the river and pick lines that work. It’s all fun and games. Watch out for the pest traps if you have your dog off the lead.

Once we got a bit further in, we realised that nothing had thawed here in a while and every bit of water was ice - so this made some of the sections pretty treacherous, especially any rock stretch with clear black ice on it.

It was relatively slow going and the distance was 21.00km, so once we reached the lake we didn’t try getting up any higher. The snow was pretty deep and hard to walk in by then.

Bit windy up by the lake but beautiful and calm on the way down a bit lower.

As usual, first up the iPhone dump, then the Z50 snaps for the rest.
Real beautiful spot here.

On the road in. A fresh coat of snow to welcome us.

Charlie sporting his Further Faster Mountain Dog bandana.

Ran into the lake only to find it was frozen solid, much to his disappointment. However, found a spring to jump into further along. Must have been freezing cold in there…