by Taurë-rana » Fri 02 Apr, 2010 3:22 pm
I’ve been trying to work out what to write about my trip to the Pleiades and Pokana Peak. It's hard to know what to leave out and put in. It was quite an experience for me, I realised that although I have done multi-day walks before, they generally haven’t been at altitude for most of the time, which this one was.
We were boated across the Lake from near the base of Clear Hill and dropped off at the foot of the Pleiades Range on a cool, showery day. That was fairly exciting with the tinny crashing over the Lake, and us huddled down trying to keep out of the wind, rain and spray. By the time everyone reached the shore it was quite late in the day so we walked (hauled ourselves) up the range for a couple of ours then camped on a shelf part way up. It was my first real experience of pitching a tent on low scrub and grassy hummocks. We were lucky that the rain eased while we made camp and cooked tea.
The next day we finished the climb up onto the range and started heading north, generally on the Western side of the range. The wind was very strong and made it hard to make progress at times, as well as making it cold. It was wet too. After a lunch where we got rather chilled, especially after climbing to the top of one of the many rocky outcrops, we set off again, but the weather was worse and navigation was an issue as well as being cold and wet so we ended up heading back to a saddle with a little bit of protection. I was very cold, went into my tent at 4pm and basically didn’t come out 'til the next morning. It took me until 1am to warm up and I was quite scared through the night – I had nearly all my clothes on, was in my tent in my sleeping bag and I was still cold. I couldn’t see how I could keep going if the weather didn’t let up. I don't think I was the only miserable person though.
The next morning we left late after waiting for the weather to improve, and it did sometime in the afternoon so we actually got some nice views. The wind was still ferocious though. Finding camp sites with enough flattish, sheltered spots for 4 tents was a bit of an issue, and this particular evening we ended up fairly spread out perched on the eastern side of the range with an amazing view. One of the group had his tent roped down with climbing rope so he didn’t get blown over the edge! I was really looking forward to waking up and watching the sun come up over the mountains but by the morning it was raining again, and the wind was still howling.
On we went, and the weather improved as we went so that we started getting views down into the valleys back towards Lake Gordon, and over to the ranges to the west – The Spires and the POW range. We left the Pleiades and headed ever closer to Pokana Peak, I don’t think this area really has a name. We camped behind a rock wall and had the luxury of being able to put things out to dry in the sun that evening!
The next day (Thursday)we were up bright and early on a glorious (though still windy) day. Waterproof pants were left off, goretex jackets were only needed when we stopped and we only had day packs so it was all very pleasant. Getting to the top of Pokana Peak was a real buzz after the huge effort to get there, and the views were superb. We then walked out across the plateau until we were among some interesting rocky outcrops with a good view of the Stars, Bond’s Craig and Reeds Peak and Mt Curly. We could also tantalisingly see all the mountains to the west – Diamond Peak and the POW range, Shining Mountain, Conical Mountain, The Spires, Frenchman’s, etc. Just a hop, skip and jump away it seemed!
After 3 hours pottering round on the rock outcrops, soaking up the sun, planning other trips, eating, drinking and chatting, we finally hauled ourselves off our comfortable scrub couches and headed back to camp. When we were nearly back, I went off with one of the group to head west up a ridge for better views of those ranges to the west, climb a spectacular outcrop of rock which needed climbing, and check out a lake which had beckoned from the other side of the valley – we discovered when we got down to it that it had a lovely forest of fagus and King Billy at one end of it.
Back at the campsite the other four had very kindly moved my tent as the wind had changed and they were worried it would blow away. It was still a beautiful evening but the wind was now coming straight down across our campsite, and one of the blokes said it was the windiest night he had ever had and he’s been bushwalking a long time. The wind on the other side of the rock wall was even stronger and sounded like an express train.
The next day dawned wet again, and we packed up and headed off the range down towards Lake Gordon. We started off going through button grass, tea-tree, bauera, cutting grass etc, 5 min each at the front pushing through then dropping to the back. Eventually into rainforest, but still quite hard finding a route and pushing through, and the potential for injury due to rotting logs and slipperiness was quite high. It was beautiful though, especially once we were following a creek. It took us 5 hours of slow progress to get out of the scrub to where we could see more than a few metres ahead, and we were well and truly over it. Unfortunately we still had numerous bands of scrub to push through before reaching the lake shore, so it was a long day. The rain finally stopped by the time we made camp on a flat, grassy area with as much water as we needed a few steps away, and no wind!
The next day saw a clear morning and the boat ride across the lake was a pleasure.
I learnt a lot about off track walking (and tent pitching), and the adequacy or otherwise of my gear – my tent runs with condensation and my sleeping bag is very wet on the surface by morning which could be a huge problem after several days of being unable to dry it out. I can also now sleep through very high winds and know my tent will be OK, and it doesn't actually leak in the rain.
I was pleased with my walking fitness - it was reasonably hard work – the easiest walking involved constant lifting the legs over button grass/low scrub, and it was very up and down. I was probably carrying about 17kg and could have carried more.
We didn’t take our goretex jackets off very often, and I wore long sleeves and long johns the whole time. Overheating wasn’t generally a problem, even on the one sunny day we had! Staying on our feet because of the wind, was. My biggest issue was getting cold, especially wet and cold, and it probably didn’t go much below 5C although the wind chill factor would have been very high. It was nice having a down jacket, but I haven't solved the issue of what to wear at camp if it's raining and you're wet and cold but don't want to put dry clothes on while cooking and eating tea.
One advantage of the rain was that there was a lot more water around than there would have been otherwise – even so we drank from yabby holes and got water from shallow ponds, and often had a bit of a walk from where we camped. We didn’t need to carry a lot though.
Did I enjoy it? When I was warm and we were on top of the world and could see forever, there was no better place to be. When I was cold, it wasn’t so good. I enjoyed the company, and trusted the people leading the walk because they were so experienced and I knew that they would look after anyone who got into trouble. The weather was a bit disappointing but that’s SW Tas, and it was a good learning experience. You can know in your head that the weather can be bad, but actually being out there in it reminds you of just how nasty it can get, and it could have been a lot worse. Somebody suggested it would be a bit like childbirth - that we'll forget the bad bits quite quickly and soon be looking to go back out.
I'll post photos when I've sorted out my 150 odd!
Peak bagging points: 170ish
Recent walks - Picton, Wylds Crag, Rogoona