A fabulous day on the mountain yesterday with June Tyzack. Tried posting from my hiking app but without too much success…must learn how to make it work!
Left Dynnryne @ 8.50am and drove to Nieta and were walking by 9.15am. A casual stroll along the Pipeline track for a few kms taking in the mountain scenery and views across the channel with a quick detour to Crispins Well along the way. Then a hard right turn onto the Wellington Falls Track. A total change from the vehicular track to a proper steep hiking tail. About 40 mins later around noon we arrived, and settled down for a “picnic” lunch and consulted the map.
Will we just retrace our steps back to the car, or take Milles track across the mountain then down Snake Plains track to connect with the pipeline track…sounds simple…let’s do it.
Can’t say it was a mistake…but it was so very different and so much harder. We were up above the tree line and encountering the last remnants of snow then muddy, boggy tracks from snow melt. Not much fun, but still passable with lots of rock hoping. However that then turned to nightmare with almost 2 hours of clambering over some of the biggest scree slopes on the planet!
Rocks, rocks, rocks, and even more rocks.
Eventually came to Snake plains turn off, and started the decent over the rocks down to the flat treeless plains…only to encounter an even more muddy track that was really difficult to traverse and keep dry. Eventually that plain returned to forest and connected back to the Pipeline track, and so off the the carpark arriving @ around 4.30pm
All in all around 7hr 15mins on the mountain with about 6hr 30 mins of actual walking time for 17.1kms.
I will try and post some pics when I can get them off our phones.
A great, exhausting day that is highly recommended. Hobart is blessed to have this mountain essentially as part of the city and accessible to all.