Lake St Clair: Help Needed

[phATty]

Hi all,

If anyone is going up to Lake St Clair/West Coast region on Good Friday, it'd be amazing if you could drop me off to the visitor center from Rufus Canal Rd. I'm doing a 4 day circuit in the area and its probably not hard to figure out what it is.
I'd be forever grateful, hitching can be dodgy but I'm prepared to try that or take a bike back along the highway otherwise.

Can work around your timeframes.

Cheers.

[bernieq]

Assume you're walking the Cheyne Range. Why not walk back to Cynthia Bay (visitor centre)? Up the Gingerbread track, over Mt Rufus & down the track to Cynthia Bay - about 13km.

I'll own up to recently trying to get up the Franklin Valley from Lake Dixon & on to the Cheyne. It was very hard going. By the time we reached the up-point to Hippogriff it was too late so we camped and, in the morning, decided we'd run out of contingency time so headed back. The route back was marginally better but still stupidly tough (imo).

[phATty]

Assume you're walking the Cheyne Range. Why not walk back to Cynthia Bay (visitor centre)? Up the Gingerbread track, over Mt Rufus & down the track to Cynthia Bay - about 13km.

That's certainly a good thought. Would be a bit of a slog after all the tomfoolery though...
Yeah I have heard it gets worse and worse as you get to Lake Dixon, it'll be good to have gravity to help out.

[lefroy]

We camped at Dixon, then up over Rufus in the morning. Nice way to see Rufus, but camping at Dixon was the pits.

[Last]

Lake Dixon is a very unattractive camping spot. The leeches were active even though it was 35 degrees and the mosquitos were in plague proportion. Nowhere looked flat or even flatish. I did think there was some possible camping spots just before the car park at the end of the Rufus Canal road. Water might be an issue but at least it was flat.

How'd you go phATty?

[phATty]

How'd you go phATty?

Luckily had a mate go up the West Coast over the weekend so he was able to drop us off at Lake St Clair.
The walk went well, less open ground than I was expecting but the views were superb, we had some great weather.

We wasted about an hour at Lake Dixon looking for the track and after giving up and bashing for 15 minutes luckily stumbled upon a clearing with a rock cairn. I think we weren't looking close enough to the lake edge, we were in the button grass thrashing around. Plenty of campsites here in a grassy area with a log but I concur with the leeches.

[north-north-west]

I'll own up to recently trying to get up the Franklin Valley from Lake Dixon & on to the Cheyne. It was very hard going. By the time we reached the up-point to Hippogriff it was too late so we camped and, in the morning, decided we'd run out of contingency time so headed back. The route back was marginally better but still stupidly tough (imo).

Best route up is to go directly to the Chimaera, through the rainforest below the summit area, then north to the saddle (scruffy, slightly scrubby forest) and up to the Hippogriff from there. The valley is fine to a point as long as you keep away from the lake edges, but gets progressivly harder upstream past the best crossing point (about 1km from the lake).
Or drop down to Hermione from the Hugel plateau if you're just doing the Cheyne; that's beautiful country and mostly easy walking. Geat this time of year when the fagus is going off.

[bernieq]

drop down to Hermione from the Hugel plateau if you're just doing the Cheyne

Yeah, in reverse, that's what we had planned. Next time (if) it will most likely be in via Hermione to Gell & back out. I like the sound of 'mostly easy walking'

[north-north-west]

drop down to Hermione from the Hugel plateau if you're just doing the Cheyne

Yeah, in reverse, that's what we had planned. Next time (if) it will most likely be in via Hermione to Gell & back out. I like the sound of 'mostly easy walking'

You have to pay attention so you don't get boxed in by fagus groves and there's a bit of bauera etc on the more northerly ridges (especially below the little waterfall) but it's otherwise really good. Don't insist on pushing up on a straiight line though.

[Lostsoul]

drop down to Hermione from the Hugel plateau if you're just doing the Cheyne

Yeah, in reverse, that's what we had planned. Next time (if) it will most likely be in via Hermione to Gell & back out. I like the sound of 'mostly easy walking'

You have to pay attention so you don't get boxed in by fagus groves and there's a bit of bauera etc on the more northerly ridges (especially below the little waterfall) but it's otherwise really good. Don't insist on pushing up on a straiight line though.

Recently done Cheyne as a day walk from a camp at the tarn behind Little Hugel.Used the landslip up and down ,cuts a bit of the rubbish off that way.Easier with day packs of course.

[north-north-west]

Recently done Cheyne as a day walk from a camp at the tarn behind Little Hugel.Used the landslip up and down ,cuts a bit of the rubbish off that way.Easier with day packs of course.

I was talking about the Cheyne, actually. There's a lot of fagus up there.