[5] In 2002, Marion Boatwright from North Carolina and his wife Susan Cook from Christchurch came across overgrown farmland at the end of the Mōkihinui Gorge that they thought suitable for a lodge.

The artist's partner, Steve Stack, a local West Coaster with an intimate knowledge of the back-country, subsequently became friends with Boatwright.

Whilst the dam was to go immediately upstream of their property, their land was needed for three years for construction activity and they would have to move away during that time.

[8] Boatwright and his wife learned from the local Department of Conservation (DoC) manager, Bob Dickson, that a proposed tramping route along the Mōkihinui Gorge was part of a longer dray road that had never been completed.

[9] Shortly after in early 2007, Boatwright was handed the original of an 1886 survey plan for a "Lyell and Mokihinui Road"; the owner of the map had been told that the Rough & Tumble lodge is an appropriate place for preserving local historic artefacts.

Rossiter was a keen mountain biker and played rugby, and his employer was looking for opportunities to "give back to the community".

[14] When Dickson, the DoC manager, supported that a track be investigated, the group formed the Mokihinui-Lyell Backcountry Trust (MLBT) and had it incorporated in July 2008.

[15][16] The trust embarked on getting a cost estimate and with financial help from Meridian Energy, a DoC field work specialist—Mal Hansen—was flown into the south branch.

The trust then engaged an outdoor recreation specialist—Kay Booth—with forecasting potential user numbers, and an economist—Geoff Butcher—with estimating the economic benefits for the local community.

When the digger operators had been recruited the project suffered a significant setback, with a once-in-75-year rainstorm event having swept thousands of trees and many tons of debris onto the track.

Dickson cautioned that, based on what DoC knew about the project, the trust would have a "snowball's chance in hell" to receive any grants.

John Dunn, the NZCT project manager, informed Boatwright that of the 18 proposals that had been accepted, the Old Ghost Road was the top ranked one.

The plan was to meet the other trustees at the Lyell Saddle helipad a week later and when he emerged, his face said it all: the south branch of the Mōkihinui River could not fulfil the dream.

And on that flight, the eventual route would be agreed on – from the Lyell Saddle to Goat Creek Hut where the track would rejoin the Mōkihinui River's south branch.

[23][24] In addition, the New Zealand Cycle Trail team accepted that the Mōkihinui Gorge section would be left unresolved until the Meridian Energy proposal for a dam had been resolved.

[26] The trustees agreed to split tasks: Rossiter would deal with administrative work, negotiate with partners, and write the DoC environmental impact report.

In addition, the chairmanship of the trust moved from Boatwright to Rossiter as the initial chair was to permanently relocate back to North Carolina.

The solution was to employ the corduroy road construction method with beech trees chainsawed lengthwise to produce the needed logs.

The trust responded by moving crews from the high country into the Mōkihinui Gorge and Boatwright mobilised himself and three friends to build Specimen Point Hut as a winter base for the track builders.

[33] Following the cancellation of the Mokihinui Hydro project, work began to add the catchment area to the adjacent Kahurangi National Park.