Monday, October 21, 2019
Tasmanian Trail Hike - Day 004 - New Norfolk
Sunday, October 20, 2019
Tasmanian Trail Hike - Day 003 - Stony Ridge to New Norfolk
Day: 03
Date: Sunday, 20 October 2019
Start: Stony Ridge Conservation Area
Finish: New Norfolk
Daily Kilometres: 30.6
Total TT Kilometres: 101.0
Weather: Overcast and windy with persistent drizzle in the morning, partly sunny with a cold wind in the afternoon.
Accommodation: Motel
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Trail mix
Lunch: Trail mix
Dinner: Spring rolls, honey chicken and rice.
Aches: Very tired again and feet still problematic. Hopefully, a day off tomorrow and then an easier day to follow will allow the body to adjust.
Highlight: Although overcast and drizzling, I enjoyed the long climb onto the Wellington Range in the morning with the wind roaring in the tree tops and no-one else about.
Lowlight: The first 10km of descent from the Wellington Range which followed an over-used, heavily-rutted, muddy and massively-puddled 4WD track. I did my best to keep my feet dry, but slipped once and got both feet wet.
Journal:
I slept quite well and was tempted to stay in bed longer, but got myself up at 6am, and was packed (with a very wet flysheet from overnight rain) by 7am. Happily, my feet were tolerable, and I continued on up the mountain under cloudy skies with light drizzle. The wind was roaring in the treetops, but it was relatively calm at ground level. It was one of those climbs that seemed to go on forever, with each bend rounded revealing another ascent. Eventually I reached a ridge which the very stony/rocky trail then followed for some time.
When it did start to descend, the geology seemed to change and I encountered very rough trail, mud and huge puddles (see above). A few kilometres down the mountain I joined another 4WD track which seemed to be the venue of choice for every Sunday 4WDer in the region. There were many vehicles negotiating the muddy rutted track with varying degrees of skill and confidence (not always matched to each other) and it became a bit tedious dodging them and the massive puddles.
After some time, the trail reached civilisation (occasional houses) and the surface and scenery improved. It was still a long way down the mountain and my feet and legs were complaining, even before I reached the sealed road in the Lachlan valley which became a plod. I had hoped to get some food and drink at a shop in the hamlet of Lachlan shown in the TT guide, but it was long derelict. I still had a little trail mix and water left, so had some and set off for the last 7km to New Norfolk. The road was busy and narrow, not making it very pleasant to walk along, but I survived.
I reached the motel, which I was later told was formerly some kind of institution (and looked it) at 4pm, very glad to have finished. After a shower, old running friend, Ian, who had driven up from Hobart, picked me up for dinner, which proved easier said than done. New Norfolk on a Sunday night could not be described as vibrant! We finally found a Chinese and ate well.
On return fo the motel, I began to try and load my blog from yesterday and found that the app had deleted it (for the second time, counting last night)! Curses! I have changed the system and hope to do better in future. Looking forward to a day off tomorrow.
Saturday, October 19, 2019
Tasmanian Trail Hike - Day 002 - Geeveston to Stony Ridge
Day: 02
Date: Saturday, 19 October 2019
Start: Geeveston
Finish: Stony Ridge Conservation Area
Daily Kilometres: 38.0
Total TT Kilometres: 70.4
Weather: Cold and squally in the morning, partly sunny in the afternoon.
Accommodation: Tent
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Cooked breakfast
Lunch: Snickers and Mars bars
Dinner: Soup and rehydrated meal
Aches: Exhausted overall and feet particularly sore. Running nose and constant coughing ….. maybe man-flu, but more likely spring allergies
Highlight: The beautiful and peaceful walk down a rural road following Dickensons Creek to the Huon valley.
Lowlight: Very tired/sore feet took the gloss off some of the beautiful scenery. I'm wearing trail shoes instead of my normal boots, and maybe that has something to do with it. This is a trial for next year's big hike where trail shoes make more sense with a lot of river fords. Goretex boots, once wet, take a long time to dry.
Journal:
There were three mountain-bikers also having breakfast at the B&B. They were on the last day of a ride down the Tasmanian Trail from Devonport. They warned me that finding somewhere off the trail to camp north of Judbury later today might be a challenge (and it did). The trail is primarily designed for equestrians and mountain-bikers, and during the day I encountered, separately, two very fit-looking female bikers riding strongly up the mountains. I also later met a couple of young guys labouring up the mountain who looked like their trip may have been planned last night in the pub. There was all manner of baggage hanging off their bikes, including a large duffel bag strapped to one's handlebars.
My day started with a very pleasant climb past farms and orchards on a road that was very quiet apart from the dogs I stirred up while passing. Fortunately, none of them came out to greet me on the road in person.
Eventually, the gravel road entered a mix of forests, much of it burn-damaged, with a couple of clear-felled sections that allowed views to distant snow-capped mountains after a steep climb. It was very cold on the ridge and some wind-blasted hail made it feel very wintry. However, once the trail began to descend, it was sheltered from the wind and the sun made an occasional appearance.
It was a beautiful long rural walk down into the Huon valley (see above), marred only by some sore feet. Once in the valley, I crossed the Huon River at 3:30pm and reached a sports field at Judbury that was the nominated Tasmanian Trail campsite for this 28km section. Given that it was a long haul (40km) from here to tomorrow night's stop at New Norfolk, including the climb over the Wellington Range, I decided to continue on. However, I first took a 30 minute break and watched the end of a local cricket match before getting water from the toilet block and setting off.
I followed another pleasant rural back road north out of Judbury, following Judds Creek up into the Wellington Range. I was tired, and it was a plod, but I was determined to walk until at least 5:30pm, and ultimately did not find somewhere (a tiny patch of mossy ground beside the very stony forest road) to erect my tent until soon after 6pm. Of course, it immediately began to rain, so I waited another 20 minutes before putting up the tent. Almost immediately it was erected it began raining again and I quickly chucked everything in the tent, including myself. I was exhausted and it would have been very easy to just lie down and go to sleep, but I knew I should eat, and cooked just outside of the tent from within. While eating dinner, I managed to find a radio station broadcasting the last half of the World Cup Rugby quarter-final between England and Australia. I might as well not have bothered.
Later, whilst writing my blog, I lost half of it and had to start again. Fortunately, there is no-one camped within earshot. I'm a little concerned about how my feet will be tomorrow. Hopefully a night's sleep will make a difference.
Tasmanian Trail Hike - Day 001 - Dover to Geeveston
Day: 01
Date: Friday, 18 October 2019
Start: Dover
Finish: Geeveston
Daily Kilometres: 32.4 (+2.0 unintended detour)
Total TT Kilometres: 32.4
Accommodation: B&B
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Cooked breakfast
Lunch: Mars and Snickers bars
Dinner: Meat pies and cheesecake
Aches:
For the past two months I have had (self-diagnosed) plantar fasciitis in
my right foot and some right hip issues for even longer. I'm hoping the hike will either resolve these
issues or give me confidence that I can hike with them (with a much longer hike
next year in mind). For today, the hip wasn't too bad, but the foot
became more painful as the day wore on. It will be interesting to see how
it is tomorrow.
Highlight: It was really nice to be on the trail again. With some notable exceptions, it has not been a great year. Being on the trail and back in the bush lifted my spirits, though I'm still mindful of the travails of others.
Lowlight: It was disappointing to see the amount of rubbish, particularly on the trails closer to civilisation, that had been dumped in the forest - tyres, cars, household appliances and furniture. There were also many discarded bottles and cans along the way as well.