Trip 015 - Leith Saddle / Morrison's Burn - Sullivans Dam

 

DATE: December 4, 2022
DEPART: 9am,Woodhaugh
LEADER: Saskia Bronstring (027 266 7703)
TRIP GRADE: E-M (4-6 hours)

Leith Saddle Walkway / Track between Leith Saddle and Swampy Summit is relatively recent (maybe dating from the early 1990’s?). Before this track existed, a common route from upper Leith Valley to Swampy was via Morrison’s Burn. The first recorded club trips were in 1925. Morrison’s Burn disappeared from the club programme in 1928 and didn’t return again until after the second world war. Trips in the 1950’s used the track to access the Swampy Tarns, and tracks in the Whare Flat area, such as the Arras and Hamel Tracks (unfortunately Antony Hamel does not know where the Hamel Track went – possibly in the Raingauge area). The most recent trips to the area were in 2013 & 2014.

Today, the track is used as part of the Three Peaks Race as part of the route between and Mt Cargill.

To make this a round trip, this tramp will head up the Leith Saddle Track, and then come back down the Powerline & Morrison’s Burn track to Leith Valley Road. A short road walk to Sullivans Dam, and then the option of walking around the dam itself, then up the Cloud Forests of Leith track and onward to the Leith Lookout. A track from here returns you to Leith Saddle.