Posts filed under 'Hiking/Trekking'
Not much to say of today except that we hiked out, had beers and showers and lots of yummy food, and slept at the campsite at Mt. Field National Park. I’ll never forget Gaye and I doing our Mission Impossible stunts in between doing loads of laundry and setting up the tents. It’s amazing how much you can entertain yourself when there are no televisions around!!
One last look out the mountains on our way out
We eventually figured out what this was, an iris I think
The girls drinking Evans last 2 beers!
April 12th, 2004
Going down. Today was an 800m downhill day, from the peaks to the plains, from the rocks back to the mud. We had a bit of a lazy morning packing up slowly and saying our goodbyes to Lake Cygnus. When we got to the top of the ridge we had some really unusual cloud formations as the wind and the cloud blew across the saddle. One minute cloud, the next minute clear. Once we crossed the saddle we were faced with the long downhill and beginning of the slosh through the mud. Mud on a trail going up is not much fun, but it is even less fun going down. We basically just put our heads down and pushed, or slid, through. At one point we stopped and I looked up to see a wedge tail eagle souring through the air currents above us. How cool!
It took about 2.5 hours to get down to the plains. Yes folks, that’s a long and steep downhill. We were quite happy at that point to take a break and know that the hardest work was behind us. It would only take another 1.5 – 2 hours to get to the campsite for the night. After lunch we started going through the mud, and at that point I realized that my thermarest was no longer tied to my backpack. It must have come loose while we were sliding down one of the rocks or roots or mud chutes, and where it could have actually been was a complete mystery. It was either go back up 2.5 hours to look for it or call it a loss. I decided to spare the group the hassle, especially knowing that we only had one more night to sleep out. Not having a thermarest can make for a very cold and uncomfortable night, so I was a bit worried about what I would have at the campsite to make some bedding. I tried to keep it out of my mind and assured myself that it would only be one cold night at worst.
We arrived at the campsite at around 4pm, and I was happy to see that there was plenty of eucalypt bark and tree branches to make my bed for the night. I must say that I MacGyvered-up a pretty decent and rather comfy bed of branches! It is actually more comfortable than the thin 3/4-length thermarest. Anyway it looks like I will be nice and warm for the night which is a comforting thought. For dinner tonight we are all making feasts of our remaining food since we know we will be back in civilization tomorrow. And Evan has finally decided to eat his giant Cherry Ripe chocolate bar that he has been lugging for 5 days now. Lucky for us girls he has decided to share!! Tomorrow it?s gonna be beers and showers and feasts of fresh food. The Western Arthurs have been good to us.
Hows that for a view
Great weather and great views
The neverending downhill
April 11th, 2004
Lake Oberon campsite. 4 km today in 4 hours. We got really lucky with the weather today. Although it rained off and on nearly all night, we woke up this morning to clear, calm skies. It was a cold night last night – Evan and Gaye both woke up to find ice on their tents. We made an attempt to dry out our gear before setting out, but the cloud was coming in and covering up the sun. Last night we were unsure if we were going to continue on or start to head back, but with the good weather this morning, we decided to go for it towards Oberon. And we were all really glad we did because the weather was absolutely perfect today. We had sun and a bit of cloud but absolutely no wind and that, my friends, is quite rare in the Western Arthur Range of Tasmania. It was a beautiful walk through the rocky peaks, and we had great views all around. It would certainly be an unpleasant walk in bad weather because the trail was pretty exposed.
We arrived at Square Lake at 12 noon where we passed 3 Aussie guys heading back from Oberon to Lake Cygnus. Those were the only people we’ve seen all day. The sun was out at lunch so I was able to dry out my tent – oh joy! It’s always a great feeling to get the tent dry. After a good hour’s rest and a fine lunch of apple, peanut butter, brazil nuts, an apricot bar, and 2 yummy chocolate biscuits from Gaye, we started out for the final 1.5 hours to Lake Oberon. We had a steep ascent and then a very steep descent to get down to Oberon. The views of the lake from the top of the ridge were fantastic! Even if we have bad weather going out, at least we had views today. The 3 of us are sharing one tent platform and it’s a bit cozy with 3 tents, but good fun as we’re all just laying in our sleeping bags and chatting at the moment. Hope it’s not too cold tonight!
Views above Square Lake
The beautiful Lake Oberon
Our cozy little tent platform
April 10th, 2004
Lake Cygnus campsite. I’ve reunited with my hiking partners today and we are all here tonight at Lake Cygnus. It was rainy this morning, but I got up anyway and walked back up to the ridge to look for Evan and Gaye. I got to the top of the ridge and everything was completely socked in with cloud, so I stopped and called out for them a few times. They called back but they seemed to be calling from somewhere off trail, and I didn’t want to risk losing the trail to look for them, so knowing that they were ok at that point, I just went back down to my tent to get warm and I waited for them down there. About an hour or so later they showed up, and it turns out that they did just camp on the ridge because they were tired and they didn’t want to get stuck hiking in the dark. As long as everyone was ok.
Since it was cold and raining and completely cloud covered today, we decided to just spend the day here at Cygnus and hope for a better day for hiking tomorrow. It’s been a lazy day just laying in our sleeping bags in our tents. I borrowed Evan’s Lonely Planet Tasmania book (since I didn’t bring a book), and I’ve been reading all the interesting bits aloud to the other guys all day. That’s the extent of entertainment when you are stuck in your tent in the rain all day!
Views from the ridge above Lake Cynus
Western Arthur Range
Time to go back to the tent!
April 9th, 2004
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