by Trapper » Thu 09 Oct, 2008 8:22 am
Thanks Fizzygood for a great video. I am sitting here chuckling to myself about how you can start off with a great video and end up in a philosophical discussion about "who can see and do what". But that is what forums (fora?) are for.
Another thanks Fizzygood for helping me settle an argument with my wife. I have said she is not allowed to count the 7 peak bagging points for Frenchmans as she has not crossed the Lodden, but took the easy way and rafted the Franklin to get there. She has refuted this strongly; until she saw the video of the mud, and now can see my point. So we have decided to go together the "real" way so she can legally count the points.
To develop or not develop? I remember walking in the Cradle Lake St Clair park in the sixties as a young teenager, and the mud was the same as the Lodden. I can remember mud up to my ar ... mpits. The walk from Waterfall Valley to Windamere wasn't the pleasant hour or so stroll it is now. The board walk over the button grass plains approaching Windamere is preventing present and future damage, but the degradation from thirty or forty years ago is still blantantly obvious. If people are going to go there, we need to look after it. If that means boardwalking the worst areas (or most fragile) - do it. Frenchmans reputation is such that it will always be a desirable destination with locals and visitors alike. We should all be aware of the nature of the trail and be prepared to "barge through", but many will always try to be cute and keep their tootsie dry, and try to go around the mud patches. This leads to the damage still evident after many years on the Overland track as mentioned above. We must keep these places for future generations. If that means minimal infastructure to prevent massive degradation, so be it.
NS
