Lake Cygnus WA's

[Lizzy]

Hi all,
I have just gotten back from a lovley trip to your beautiful island . My original plan was to hike up and into the Western Arthurs as far as Lake Oberon..... but my plans rapidly changed with the weather and I tucked my tail between my legs and got off the range a bit quicker than expected
Started out at Scotts Peak Dam and camped the first night at Junction Creek in drizzly weather. The track was pretty boggy with lots of mud to slosh through. Next day the weather was fairly similar and the track was like walking down a little creek- constant flowing water and very boggy in many areas. The walk up Moraine A tested out the legs and I was glad I had put in a bit of effort doing some training at home. Once I reached the top- I was blasted with hail and galing winds . It was very misty, but the weather was supposed to be clearing.... As I wandered along the top the hail kept coming, it was freezing cold & you couldn't see much of anything- a good intro to the WA's.

So I made it to Lake Cygnus, put the tent up & jumped into my bag to try and warm up as the hail continued to belt down around me. This continued through the night..... that night was pretty chilly & I definitely could have done with a warmer sleeping bag -had on a couple of sets of thermals, down jacket & even rain jacket....brrrrrr. Next moring was very misty & still rainy & with the prospect of potentially deteriorating weather I decided it would be safer to get off the range rather than venture further in- especially solo. Next time I think I will try & drag someone along for the adventure! I didn't see anyone else until I was nearly back at Scotts Peak dam.

The bonus of finishing early was I got to do a beautiful hike up at Mt Field- Lake Dobson- Tarn Shelf- K-Col- Rodway Range- lake Dobson..... although it nearly killed my poor old Dad who had come along to be my taxi service & get me to my walk. Ended up taking alot longer than anticipated with all the boulder fields to negotiate (sorry Dad!).
Was a great trip anyway & I look forward to visiting again
Cheers
Lizzy

[Lizzy]

The mud....

IMG_WA0001.JPG (73.03 KiB) Viewed 3207 times

[Out_Walking]

Thanks for sharing the trip. That's some nice looking boardwalk in the picture!
No matter what the weather it still looks spectacular. In fact I'd like to be hiking in abysmal weather in Tasmania right now instead of sitting in this office at work! Hopefully I will be heading WA's way next year.

[Fin]

I was in at Oberon in the hail (and about 30 mins of snow) around 23/24th. It gradually lifted and had fine weather the rest of trip to the end of the WA. Met a walker coming west who did the full E-W traverse solo in the 'not-so-fine' weather. It's a great walk, one of the best in the country. Hopefully you'll get some sunshine next time.

[juju]

Nice pics. Well done solo. I have unfinished business in the WAs. We got to Square Lake before storms made us retreat. One day...