End of the Road

Today was our last day on the Track, and alas, the return to reality and responsibility will soon occur. Well, not really, we're still on holiday for another two weeks. I had arranged for a shuttle to pick us up at 2:30, giving us a fair bit of time to finish. We had 17 km to hike today, but allegedly none of it was uphill, so it would be pretty quick compared to other days. We packed up the tent and left by right around 7, giving us a solid 7 hours to hike. The boys and Iris asked if they could hitch a ride with us on the shuttle and we were stoked. This would save us a significant amount of money, so as long as there was space we'd be down. What was more shocking that the request was that the boys were awake in time to ask us.

They had planned to stop at Burt Nichols yesterday and then make it to Narcissus today, but after stopping at Burt Nichols in the early afternoon, they realized it was still pretty early and that they had absolutely nothing to do. They were so bored they decided to pack up and hike another three hours to hang out with everyone.

We started the hike with our raincoats at the the ready because it looked pretty cloudy. Our weather luck just wouldn't quite make it

misty morning view from one the beaches of Lake St. Clair

Today's ecosystem was another total shift from what we'd seen on previous days. We spent the entire day walking besides a lake and so it allowed for plants requiring more water to prosper. One of the coolest parts was a giant fern forest (note, the forest was that big, but the ferns were). There are no pictures as the camera hates me.

There was a light drizzle off and on for most of the way, but it fit the mood of the day; we were a bit more pensive and lost in thought. Brooding, but without the negative connotation. By the way, remember how there wasn't supposed to be any uphill. That was a lie. You see, the guide described today as "undulating." That's code for hilly. There were also a lot of downed branches and tree bits to climb over.

The boys passed us on the way to Echo Hut (about a third of the way) where they planned to have lunch. We got there a few minutes after they did and they asked Isabel the time (she's the only one of the five of us that had a watch). It was 9:10 am. They were shocked. Normally they had barely gotten out of bed let alone have already hiked at this time of day.

We continued as the boys relaxed at the hut and things were uneventful until I realized by packcover had fallen off (packcover keeps the pack dry). I dropped my bag and ran back to find it. I got to the cover at the same time as Mark and Craig were getting it. They said they would have gotten it for me and we had a nice little chat, before I sprinted back to my waiting lady (Isabel).

We continued and eventually made it to signs for the visitor center, meaning the Track was officially over. It was only revealed to us by following the signs that the visitor center was still 2 km away from the end of the Track. On the way to the visitor center we heard a couple noisy birds that I shushed. Then I realized they were black cockatoos, which are awesome! Of course I apologized and told them to be as noisy as they wanted.

Side note, Isabel pointed out that at the end of each day of hiking we saw an animal. Day 1: Wombay up close, pademelon, wallaby. Day 2: Wallaby with joey. Day 3: Echidna. Day 4: Platypus. Day 5: Black Cockatoos
Finally we made it to the end. The bathroom was the first stop, then officially de-registering from the hike. Then it was picture time.

She loves when I take pictures of her when she's not paying attention

We made it! Also, we definitely aren't wearing the same clothes as the first day just without the top layer

James arrived a bit after, finally having tired of waiting for Ben and Riley. Mark and Craig were next, proudly finishing in their ever stoic manner. Then Ben and Riley limped to the finish where Riley crumpled into a heap on the ground.
Then it was it was time for real food and more importantly beers. Isabel and I got burgers and shared our chips (fries) making us the more popular people in the group. As we ate, drank, and made merry, Iris arrived and received a welcoming party from Mark and I. Then she joined us and got some ice cream coffee drink of which I am very jealous. Mark and Craig headed off for their ride to Hobart a little after, and then it was time for us to grab the shuttle.
The shuttle was a few minutes late, but it came, phew. At first most of what we did was nap, but then we got to talking about many things. The highlight was James explaining that Aussie dramas suck because no one in an Aussie accent can sound dramatic.
We arrived back at the Cradle Mountain Visitor Center and parted ways. On our drive out of the park we saw another echidna, just in case we didn't see one hiking.
We got to the Cradle Chalet at 6:02 to find reception ended at 6. We rang the doorbell until the same woman as last week came down and checked us in. She had no recollection of us despite us having been there only a few days ago in the offseason no less. We got situated and drove back to Cradle for dinner as we knew there was no chance of getting any where we were staying. We learned that Entres here are apps, and Mains are Entres. The food was great, and we even ate wallaby. Also, one doesn't tip in Australia, which is fantastic and stops meals from getting too out of hand.
The drive back to the chalet was uneventful except a few very stupid possums. There was one sitting in the middle of the road completely unconcerned about cars. To get it to move we actually had to stop the car and I ran and chased it. We made it without hitting any animals and basically passed out the moment we hit the bed.

Riding a High

Today was, in my mind, going to be the either the toughest or second toughest day of hiking (yesterday was pretty hard). Isabel and I got up and out pretty early, which is much easier to do when there's no nonsense of dealing with a igloo masquerading as a tent. Isabel did have breakfast, but her wont is to do so while I am still in bed. Then it was walking time. We were the first ones to leave the hut, though Mark and Craig and Iris were all up, as was James. He checked with his traveling companions and they told him to wake them in three hours.

You can't just up and a hug a tree, you need to get to know it first, shake its hand, etc

The morning was misty, but much warmer than yesterday, and so we found ourselves shedding layers rapidly. Usually we start by wearing just about all the clothing that we brought, and gradually getting down to tshirt and shorts (and yes shoes smart ass, we keep those on as well). Again we made awesome, arriving at Pelion Gap (where the side track to Mt. Ossa is and the halfway point to the next hut) in under 2 hours. 

There was a funny sign about currawongs getting into peoples packs, that we laughed about. We took a bit of a break and left our bags by the sign pictured above. Then we started climbing the tallest peak in Tasmania (I thought this was pretty impressive, but I did some research and realized that this peak is barely in the top 50 highest mountains in Australia, sigh). It's 5305, about 40 ft higher than Katahdin and thus the tallest mountain I've ever gone up. 

We didn't no what to expect because it was impossible to compare it Cradle Mountain before started the climb. You see, our guide rated Cradle as Moderate to Difficult. Osaa was rated Medium to Hard. They use different scales within the same book. Sigh. The answer, for those who are curious, is that it was easier. It was higher and more distance. It also took more time, but there was a lot less rock scrambling. There was much more snow, too but only one part was particularly sketchy, and less so that the sketchy Cradle part.

I did manage to get my first war wound of the Track. As we were the first ones up the mountain for the day and because there are no people around now that we're past Cradle, the snow was mostly untouched. There were some very faint tracks from where someone had been a few days ago, but for the most part I was breaking trail. This meant using my feet as shovels, really kicking my toe in to make good holds. At one point I got just a little too close to a rock and my foot fell through the snow and shin got a little scraped on the rock. Luckily I didn't need to find an icepack for it. It was just a scratch so we continued. It was fun breaking trail and made me feel like a badass. Also that first bit was on the sketchy snow with a drop. There was a very long snow bit, but it felt much safer and easier to manage.

Lots of Snow (this probably two thirds up the long snowy bit(

Some of this longer bit was actually pretty steep, so I got annoyed and just ran up it to get it over with. Isabel took her time and thus didn't look like an idiot flailing his way up to the rocks. Finally we hit the top...and there was no marker. We climbed on all the largest rocks and looked everywhere for a sign that said we made it. Nothing. Well, we did, and we made it to the end of the trail trail and not because we got lost.

View of/from the Top of Tasmania

After some searching and lazing we headed back down

We Thought This was Mark and Craig...it wasn't, two day hikers, but it's still a nice photo of them on the easy long snow

To my left is the sketchy snow. Right in the center is Mark and Craig

We made it back down without incident, passing all our companions and two strangers on their way up. Everyone thanked us for breaking trail and thus making it much easier for them to climb than us. Basically I'm saying Isabel and I had it the toughest and are the toughest. The two strangers said they didn't want to go down the sketchy part so they were going to make their own trail down the front of the mountain. Because that's totally safer than following an already made path...
We got down to the bottom and found that the currawongs had raided our bags. They got most of my peanuts and banana chips (luckily they didn't get the chocolate chips I was going to add). They also threw a pair of my boxers on the ground just to add insult to injury. I may have spent the rest of the day swearing at every currawong we saw.
After lunch we started the trek the rest of the way to Kia Ora Hut (our stop for the night) and that part was pretty, but uneventful. There are no pictures because as of last night the camera has started misbehaving as well as having low battery. We made it to the final sprint to the hut (for the bathroom) when we see an echidna! I think Tasmanian echidnas are my favorite Australian animal, they're just so cute (other than their puggles) with their funny nose and shambling gait. I tried to take a picture but the camera just laughed at me.
We managed to get to the hut just before 3pm, and Mark had told us about a stream maybe 100 meters past the hut to wash off in. It was nice and warm out, so I went to wash off my cut and Isabel wanted to clean off too. Here's the problem, The stream was glacier melt. I put a foot in and nearly lost it, Isabel put a foot in and let out the most girlish shriek I've ever heard her make. It was cleansing in an ice bath sort of way, but we only ever put our feet in and then cupped water onto the rest of ourselves.
A little while later the boys got in and we told them about the stream. We warned them about the temperature as well, but they were unfazed. We heard their screams from the hut. Meanwhile when Mark and Craig got in they went swimming with no yells of anguish, as one would expect from the stoic bushmen they are. It turns out this is Mark's fourth time doing the OLT, but the first time he'd made it up Mount Ossa. The previous times there had been weather issues stopping him. He called his wife from the top and her response was, "finally, now you've made it up there you can stop doing the bloody Track."
We spent the rest of the day hanging out with everyone and having the boys educate us on Australian politics. Apparently Abbot is an example of what to expect if Trump became president. He appointed actually himself the Women's Minister. Sigh. But they booted him out hooray!
Another note, apparently my trail blazing is now obsolete. Isabel butt slid down some of it rather than kind of jogging down it as I did, and apparently everyone else did the same, pretty much obliterating any evidence that it ever existed. Good luck to whoever is next.
All in all it was a really fun day and much less difficult than anticipated. It was especially nice that so much of the active day was spent without a pack on. We've had outrageously gorgeous weather so far, and I hope it continues for the next two days. Then it can rain all it wants.

The Longest Day

"If I didn't have such a big pack I'd pat myself on the back."-Me

Before I do anything else, I must address a grievous error in the previous post. I referred to the backpack I've brought here from the United States as "my pack." This is false, the backpack belongs to my dear vet student brother. In return for using it, I am expected to tutor him on the hibernation patterns of echidnas. All he, or you, needs to know about is this: they sleep and they sleep around (true story I wrote that on an exam when I was studying Tasmanian fuana. For more information on echidnas please see the post from a few years ago). Two other facts for fun: 1, spell check thought echidna was actually a misspelling of enchilada; 2, baby echidnas are called puggles and they are not cute.

Second thing to address is my other horrible mistake. Isabel and I were both pretty tired so we went to sleep immediately last night. Then we woke up about halfway through the night because it was so horribly, cripplingly cold. We each put on lots of layers in our sleeping bags, but I'm not sure if we really got much sleep for the rest of the night. We were just waiting for it to be light enough so that we could start moving around and warm up.
It turns out that all the dew froze because it still below freezing, and we thus found little ice pellets sticking to our tent and especially on the metal poles.

the shiny bits are ice and the not dark black on the pole is also frost

I am smart and threw on my gloves to take care of disassembling the tent. The gloves were cheap and not waterproof so all the frost melted in my hands and soon I had to take the gloves off in order to keep my fingers. Honestly the gloves had only made things worse. This meant during the beginning of the morning I had to resort to (wool) sock gloves, a trick I picked up running in Maine. It was shocking that it was this cold. Why would it be the same temperature as yesterday morning? How could we have predicted that? Estimates are that at the coldest it got down to -7 C (19 F) (no one got up to look at the thermometer during the night. I did try to take a picture of it in the morning, but my hands were shaking to much). Finally we got the tent packed and my hands almost warm again, and then it was travel time.

Our view for much of yesterday and today: Barn Bluff. We passed it yesterday and lost sight of it today

Today was tough, possibly the hardest day we'll have out here. We combined two days into one, and hiked from Waterfall Valley to Pelion Hut, passing the Windemere Hut on the way. Getting to Windemere was a breeze. We opted not to do a side trip to Lake Will because we had enough distance to travel already today, but I still took a picture of it

Lake Will

Anyway, we cruised to Windemere, stopping for lunch a little bit before it because we figured it was still an hour away. We were wrong, Windemere Lake appeared maybe 10 minutes later and then we made it to the hut (it had a crayfish drawing on the door). We hung out there for a little while despite having just stopped for lunch. It was a pretty hut and the lake was beautiful.

She loves all the pictures I take of her

Isabel stuck her feet in, but I was not so brave, and took pictures of her instead.

Part one of the day had been a rousing success, and it was time to press on. We then spent the longest four hours of our lives muddily slogging  another 12km or so to Pelion Hut. Part of the problem is that we probably saw the next Pelion after 4k, but rather than heading towards it, we had to skirt a huge vale through muddy and indistinct forests.

Why go straight (which includes a kind of canyon that you can't see from this picture) when you can go around instead?

Adding to the feeling that it was taking forever was the fact that once we were in the forest, there were no landmarks. The one alledged place to keep an eye out for was never marked, only adding to our confusion. Once we started going uphill we knew we things would be fine, as our map also gave us a good idea of where the elevation changes were. Still, for a while we were a bit worried we were lost. There just weren't many trail markers in the forest (probably in part because it was impossible to miss the trail. Here's how to find it: you see the only trail in the forest, stay on it).

I also want to break here to talk about the rangers. They maintained the trail amazingly and made sure the huts were clean and really did a great job making our lives a little easier. Here's an example

It doesn't need to be bigger, it's starts to look worse when expanded

We met another guy part way in. He had forgotten a camera at a little bridge that we had passed a moment before. He grabbed the camera and started running back towards Pelion Hut. I offered to let him carry my pack for me, but he demurred. Apparently he had his own 3km up the path and didn't feel like being generous. Jerk. We limped our way into camp and all but collapsed in the doorway. This was a much bigger hut than Waterfall Valley, able to sleep probably thirty people. On top of that it had four separate sleeping rooms off of the dining area. Privacy! The guy we met before and his two companions had one room, and a Taiwanese girl had another. We claimed a third. Mark and Craig got there a little after us and claimed the fourth. Let's introduce the new characters. The three guys were from SA (South Australia) and kind of doing a gap year/no money for Uni year. They were named James, Riley, and Ben. James being the one we met before, and arguably responsible for forgetting the camera. They will hereafter be referred to as "the boys." The young woman from Thaiwan was named Iris, and is considered by all to be a total badass. She was hiking solo, which we all agree is impressive. Finally there are still Mark and Craig, who actually have an identical Track itinerary to us, so we'll be seeing them a few more times. As for tomorrow, we're all going to the same place, the Kia Orra hut via Mount Ossa (sidetrip up the tallest mountain in Tasmania). 

I almost forgot what made the day worth it. When we got to camp we saw a wallaby! Why does no one seem excited about this? I forgot to mention the wallaby also had a joey, does that help?

Honestly it's a little cuter in concept than in reality, but that's ok

An important update on food. Mark had extra cutlery and took pity on me, especially when Isabel's fancy travel spork broke (we fixed it with tape).

And a final note. the chooks did calm last night, it was probably too cold to strut around after dark. I'm also wondering if their yelling at us was in fact a warning about how cold it was going to get. Maybe they were trying to look out for us and we just didn't listen. Sigh. Tonight we're inside and warm.

Picture Porn

"Good thing you have your camera for the worst sunset yet."-The ever supportive Isabel Low

And so our trek has begun. There was no post yesterday as we drove all day. The only two things worth mentioning are that we stopped at a wildlife park on the way and got to snuggle a seven month old wombat. There are no pictures as I don't want to incite too much jealously. Also, I didn't have the camera for that part. The other thing of note is that we got to our lodge for the night, packed our bags for the hike and then walked to the reception/dining area. Closed. Have you seen our pattern yet? We ended up driving 50 km on windy road to Devonport in order to get crappy Chinese food, perfect pre hike supplies.

That brings us to today. To quote the Low family "we're off like a herd of turtles." You see, we got up nice and early to drive to the Cradle Mountain Visitor Center to pick up our passes be on our way. We also wanted to get some gas as the unexpected extra 100 km last night left us quite low. So we got there, all bright eyes and bushy tailed, just before 7:30,. The center didn't open until 8...We wait until 8 and get everything sorted. We even purchased gloves because it was about 25 F that morning. I asked the ranger helping us about getting gas and he explained that the gas is run by the cafe, which doesn't open until 9. So we wait until nine, get gas, get a muffin, and get our asses on the shuttle to the start of the Track.

So, a bit before 10, a full two and a half hours after we got to the visit center, we are ready to begin our track. We registered and put down our itinerary and took the necessary photo at the beginning.

Yes, that is a stencil of a wombat

Then we started walking. I kid you not, within 3 minutes we saw a wombat. We didn't see it's leash, but I'm pretty sure the rangers put it there to keep everyone happy, like that moose we saw at Katahdin. Our other theory is that it was to convince anyone who just wanted to see a wombat that they didn't need to do the entire Track, they could just turn around and go home. I would consider this both an excellent and auspicious start to our journey.

We then walked through button grass moorland for a bit, which was pretty, in a brown sort of way. 

My Bag is Huge

The moorland was mostly flat, but then we started a gentle climb. Within a few minutes of the elevation change we were in a rainforest. There was no warning or sign or anything like that. One moment we were walking through these plains, and then we went around a bend and were in a rain forest. The rain forest only lasted a few minutes before it abruptly transformed into a deciduous forest. At this point our gentle climb has become a little more taxing, but we're still pretty fresh and soon after that we were rewarded by getting to the iconic Cradle Lake

This is Cradle Lake

We took a nice little break there because afterwards we would start the steepest part of the Overland Track (OLT). It wasn't going to be our steepest part because we are planning to a few sides trips up mountains, including Cradle Mountain.

Then we climbed the steepest part. Hooray. I know there was a lot of suspense there on whether we'd make it or not. The entire way was gorgeous, and I have to restrain myself with the pictures. Anyway, about halfway through the Track for the day, we dropped our packs and left them in a little hut along side the backpacks of other two OLT hikers who had started before us and were also taking some time to climb Cradle Mountain . We then played the "are they the other hikers or just day hikers?" game. We lost. 

The reason we needed to climb Cradle was that we're in the Cradle Mountain National Park. How can we go there, walk right by the Mountain, and not climb it? We can't. Cradle Mountain gets it name from the fact that to a drunk Australian with poor eye sight who's lost in the bush, it vaguely looks like a cradle.

Probably wouldn't be a very comfortable cradle

This climb was fun for the most part. Isabel and I both love scrambling over rocks, plus it was such a relief to get a break from my pack. Atlas may have the world on his shoulders, but I'm lugging around a tent. Anyway the climb was great until we went over the first mini peak and found some of the less exposed area. This area had snow. We had walked over a little on the way to the mountain, but we had poo-pooed it. As New Englanders we know what real snow is, not this adorable Aussie dusting. Then we saw this and realized that we had been just a teensy bit arrogant. Still, we're brave and never even considered (out loud) turning back. We traversed the snow successfully and even safely.

That's Me, and I know it looks pretty steep if I fall, well that's only because it absolutely is. Here's what it looked like if I had gone left (which would have made no sense as the peak was to the right...)

Just a little drop off over there. And yes, this is Australia, not Europe. Gorgeous though, isn't it?

We made it all the way to the top, and were able to see everything surrounding. It was awesome.

That's me thinking deep thoughts, pondering existence and such

We climbed back down, which is probably even more impressive. We just made sure not to look down during the little snow traverse part. Then it was lunch time. (Yep, we did all of this before lunch time. Saw a wombat, hiked a bit, then climbed a mountain, no big deal). Lunch was pb&j on tortilla, a wonderful little wrap chock full of calories to help power us along. We hiked another few hours and made it to the Waterfall Valley Hut (it had a wombat drawing on the door). It was quite nice, with enough room to sleep maybe 20 cramped people and there were only two other hikers in the area, Mark and Craig. They were a pair of friends from Queensland and were friendly and welcoming. They decided to sleep in the Old Waterfall Valley Hut, a dot further down the track because it was cozier and I think they wanted to make sure that they didn't disturb us and vice versa. I decided that tonight we'd use the tent despite have plenty of room inside. My reasoning is: if I carried the damn thing all the way here, we were going to use it. There was a nice grassy area that we were able to set it up. Then we had dinner, a camp stove meal. We decided to make a game of it deciding what to eat for dinner by sticking a hand into my pack, which has all our meals at the bottom, and seeing what we grab. Tonight was a backpackers chana. I forgot silverware in America, so Isabel had grabbed me a plastic fork to use. After a day of traveling in my bag it looked like this:

The biggest laugh of the night, if not the entire trip came from Isabel watching me try to eat with this former fork. Every time I got a chickpea, it would roll off as I lifted the piece of plastic to my mouth. After her appetite for my humiliation was sated, she relented and shared her spork with me. We ate around sunset and I had my camera at the ready...And the sunset was non existent, leading to Isabel's quote at the top. Once we got back in our tent, we realized that all the grassland nearby was in fact Chook (native hen, think grumpy wild chicken) territory. So they were stalking around clucking and screaming at everything, including our tent. All I can say is I hope their not nocturnal. 

I'll end this with a picture of the wombat we saw once we got to the hut. We also saw other animals that I have pictures of, but I guess this is probably enough pictures for now

Saint Patrick's Day

Let me guess, you saw the title and assumed that it was going to be all about drinking. Well guess what, you're wrong. Only the second half is going to be about drinking. The first half will be about what I did earlier in the day. So last week Gav asked me if I was interested in going out to some park and doing a five hour hike or something, and I said sure. I didn't really go out Friday because Wednesday was still hitting me pretty hard. So Gav gave me a call that morning to essentially tell me be ready to get my ass out of bed. He had invited a couple other people, but between rugby practice and the previous night's festivities, they were both unavailable. We set off and I did my best not to sleep in the car, which is almost a given for me. We went out hiking and it was not what I expected. I thought we were going to be on trails for most of it, but when we were on trails it was pretty waterlogged and trying to dodge the really wet parts. Luckily I had waterproof shoes, but Gav was less lucky. Once we got through that part we got to the actual mountain part, Mount Field East. We didn't hike all the way from the bottom, where we started seemed a good deal of the way up. So when we got to the mountainy part, the terrain became very rocky and we started hopping from rock to rock all the way up. As we got higher the wind got worse and worse and worse until it felt like nature was literally trying to throw us off the mountain. We persevered and made it up. Then we had some chips on top of the mountain. We got some epic pictures,  And there was also a rainbow we saw a bunch.We actually got a cool view where you could just see the top of the rainbow over the mountain so it looked like it was sitting on top of the mountain. the internet is being mean and not putting them up. They are on facebook though.
We did have a little trouble with the way back because there was one point that we couldn't find the trail back and it took many incorrect turns to finally find the real one. We survived and then to look at some waterfalls. Those are also on facebook. It was fun, but probably good that not too many other people came because it was a kinda physically demanding.
We got back around 6:30 and after grabbing dinner, Tess came in to yell at everyone for not being at her birthday party yet. Some of us shuffled over and became involved in a game of battle shots. THis is not Conant's version, it was exactly like battleship only with drinking. I played with Ira, we won even though Tess and Emily kept cheating and telling us the wrong answers. So that was fun for a while, there was some wii sports, attempted trick shots with ping pong balls, a defeat in root and won conversations. After that we did go out, though there was a lengthy break back in Fisher is Millsy room. Caitlin may or may not have gotten a concussion, we weren't sure. My mouth and the english language did fail me and say some incorrect things. A group of people were in Millsy room, mainly the Saint Pat's kids. It was a good time involving more beer and photobooth. then we eventually left and went down to lower house. while we were in line i ended up talking to some Norwegian girls, pretty random, and I was pretty drunk at that point. One of them gave me a giant green hat. From Lower House we went to Irish, because of the holiday. It was less packed than we expected. They did have lots of Guinness, which was absolutely disgusting. Even after having drunken a lot, it still was disgusting. I couldn't even finish the pint I had gotten. We were heading to Mobius but branchy and I didn't really want to go there. While we were waiting on line, I got into a debate over what's a better profession, medicine or investment banking. It was really a waste of air, and I think the other guy was lying his ass off about how much money he made. Branchy and I left mid debate (though the other "investment banker" told me as I was leaving that he didn't believe in only caring about money either). after that we finally headed back to fisher, right around the same time that a lot of other people got back. I had grabbed my waterbottle and sprayed Dylan with it. He took revenge with interest and told me to never do that again...so of course I had to do it immediately. It's not my fault. Then some people hung out in branchy's room for a bit, then called it a night. No hangover!