Hector Ferguson Lake 15/05/10

Erez at Hector Ferguson Lake:
“This was a 2-day camping trip. Michele and I started hiking around 10:30. The first ~11 km of the trail are very well marked and we had no trouble getting to the Gold creek crossing. There are a few places where one needs to cross very minor creeks, but that is easily doable with no need to take the boots off. We set up camp at the sandy patches on the east side of Gold Creek, had lunch, and by 15:00 we continued to the lake. Gold Creek is now passable, with two branches to cross. The first crossing is wider but shallower and with no strong current. The second one is deeper and has a pretty strong current but with a stick and some careful stepping is not a problem. The level of the water was thigh-deep at the deepest place. After the creek the trail is more overgrown, but still pretty easy to follow. Very close to the lake there is a land slide and the trail is harder to find. You need to hike through the dry creek bed-rock a little up the slide and then veer left following the orange markers into the forest (thanks to Michele we added markers so this should be pretty obvious now). From other trip reports I read, I believe this is the place other people left the trail and got stuck. The marked trail does lead all the way to the lake. We stayed there for 1/2 an hour and hiked back to the camp for some nice dinner. This was an awesome trip.”