Pelion to Windy Ridge, Mt. Ossa side trip
Trip Start
Jan 19, 2006
1
7
20
Trip End
Feb 23, 2006
Cradle Mountain National Park, Tasmania,
Australia
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Big plans for today, hoping to climb Mt. Ossa in addition to making our way down south. Mt. Ossa is Tasmania's highest peak at 1617m. First ones up again (poor Theo, Nadine likes to set the alarm for 6am!) and the marsh flies are a bit calmer. Quick breakfast of our favourite oatmeal and we are on the trail at 7:30am. As we leave the area we see some smaller wallabies in the denser brush, may be called pademelons. The morning is cool but the sky is clear and it obviously will be another hot day. We leave the plains of Pelion and climb through rainforest along Douglas Creek for 4km towards Pelion Gap (mountain passes are called gaps here). Many King Billy pines along the way. The sky remains blue and it will be a great day for a summit of Mt. Ossa! We reach Pelion Gap and drops our packs down, taking some water and food and gortex jackets in smaller fanny packs (top of our packs convert to fanny packs)
01) A bit cool as we left Pelion...
. We transversed the southern slopes of Mt. Doris to a saddle, and then began our ascent of Mt. Ossa. Steep scrambling was required in sections, as the mountain once again was made up of dolerite boulders and columns. Mt. Ossa and Mt. Pelion were both named from Greek mythology by explorers to the area (who weren't Greek!). We were alone on the summit (okay Stanwee was there too!) and we could see our progress from the days before, being able to see Barn Bluff, Cradle Mt. and Cradle Lake in the distance. Lots of little skinks along the way (little geckos things on rocks!). As we descended we finally saw some hikers making their way up, and it was nice to be off the mountain as the day heated up and the swarms arrived. Back at Pelion Gap we could see many backpacks lined up, as people were not only dropping their bags to summit Mt. Ossa but also the smaller Mt. Pelion East. Back on the trail towards the next hut, Kia Ora, when we came upon another snake on the trail, this one took off quickly when it heard us coming! We were back on full snake watch!The sun was out at full force now, as it was noon. The trail continued through Pinestone valley, scattered with boulders once carried by glaciers, then deposited with thr retreat of the ice. The hours dragged a bit in the heat, and our feet were a bit sore and getting more blistered. We crossed a small ridge and then descended steadily to Kia Ora Creek, and eventually saw a ranger hut off the track, and soon were at the Kia Ora hut
02) Trail very rooty at times...
. Unfortunately the hut was filled with kids who were totally out of control! They were hiking with their parents (3 families we think). Their parents had climbed Mt. Pelion East while 10+ kids walked ahead to secure space in the hut. We were tired and hot (plus it was between the "fly"ing time hours of 10-2 when the buzz of the march flies was enough to make us totally insane) but also seeking solitude, so we had a bite and got some water and carried onward to the next hut, Windy Ridge. It was after 2pm, so still bloody hot! Just after the hut Nadine saw a little white-lipped snake (baby, only 6 inches!)! We picked up speed for a bit to avoid seeing a mama or pappa snake! We passed the historic Du Cane hut soon, after which the trail entered taller trees that sheltered us a bit more from the sun, but this also meant that the trail become significantly more rooty. Time dragged on. We took breaks at the two intersections to the falls, side trips we were going to have to skip because our day was getting rather long and our feet were killing us.Of course, after the second falls intersection, the trail started to climb to Du Cane gap, and thus we started leaving the trees. We were walking straight into the sun, climbing around 200 meters of elevation to the pass which basically had no view. It was all in the trees! The other side gave us some relief from the heat though, as it entered extremely an extremely rooty downslope towards Windy Ridge hut. We had walked 24km that day, with a big mountain scramble as well, and we were dragging our feet into the camping area after 10 hours of effort. Unfortunately Windy Ridge hut has no real stream to wash up near it (well, a little dribble about 100 meters south), so we had to make do. We talked quite a bit with the young ranger who was handling the south end of the trail, or "bubble boy" as Theo called him (see the pictures to find out why), and this convinced us that we would go to Pine Valley as an extra side trip for the next day.
One additional thing happened. Late at night, Theo heard a noise in front of the tent, and looking out found that a possum was chewing at the garbage bag Nadine had placed over her pack in the tent vestibule. How rude! The little guy was not at all afraid of being yelled at, and Theo had to get out of the tent and confront him, in his underwear and with bare feet! There was a male and a slightly smaller female, looking rather upset that their attempt at stealing some food had been foiled. The rest of the night was uneventful as Nadine brought her food smelly backpack into the tent!
