8 mountains, 4 days: Exploring the NE.

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8 mountains, 4 days: Exploring the NE.

Postby biggbird » Fri 15 Jun, 2012 2:05 pm

Hey all, me again...

Had a little time off uni, and my partner had some time off work, so why not go walking? We had yet to climb any of the Abels in the NE of the state, so that seemed a good place to start.

The original plan was to climb 10 Abels in 5 days, but a combination of factors (mostly being tired :P) led to us coming home a day early. The original list was:

Arthur
Barrow
Maurice
Ben Nevis
Saddleback
Albert
Victoria
East Tower
West Tower
Legges Tor

And the list at the end of the trip was thus:

Arthur
Barrow
Ben Nevis
Saddleback
Albert
Victoria
East Tower
West Tower

As usual, plenty of photos, so I'll just do a couple each post I guess!

Arthur was first up, and was relatively easy to find, even if the parking wasn't necessarily. No lovely grassy clearing existed, as the Abels Vol 1 suggested, but rather there was a space on the side of the road opposite the "no parking past this point" sign where one was able to stop. After we eventually worked this out (it really shouldn't have been that hard... I blame the early start!), it was a couple of hundred metres down the road to the start of the track.

It was a fairly steady climb up through some beautiful rainforest from there, following a well taped/cairned track:

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172 by bigggbird, on Flickr

After 45 mins to an hour, we reached the summit plateau, which was strewn with equipment, including various towers and fire lookout spots:

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093 by bigggbird, on Flickr

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144 by bigggbird, on Flickr

Beautiful views up there, from Launceston behind you all the way across to the east coast! As much as it would be nice to not have all of the equipment up there, it really doesn't detract much from the surroundings.

What made this walk even nicer was the fact that we had some unexpected company!:

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061 by bigggbird, on Flickr

This very happy, friendly little pup followed us all the way from about 10 minutes in to the summit, and back! We ran into another couple of walkers at the summit who had been up before, and they thought he belonged to one of the houses by the bottom of the track. Wouldn't surprise me, he certainly seemed to know his way around! And he was loyal too, they tried to take him from us on their way up to the summit, but he wasn't having a bar of it ;) I like to think it was just because he liked us, but reality is it probably had something to do with the food ;)

A few more shots:

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054 by bigggbird, on Flickr

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088 by bigggbird, on Flickr

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143 by bigggbird, on Flickr

We were sad to have to say goodbye at the end of the walk! Just means we'll have to go back and visit again though :)

Next up on the list was Mt Barrow, which was supposed to be easy to find... As long as you didn't expect it to be at the end of the Mt Barrow Discovery Trail! Which we obviously followed, and which got us absolutely nowhere, except stuck in a car on top of a big rock after trying to turn around to find the place. Thank goodness for the kindness of strangers!

After exiting the MBDT, we discovered a very well signposted road about 1k further down the road... If only we hadn't seen the other, we might have had time to go up it that day too! As it was though, we ended up camping a few kms up Mt Barrow Rd, and headed up early the next morning instead. I might as well spread it out into days, so I'll leave those for the next post!
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Re: 8 mountains, 4 days: Exploring the NE.

Postby creeping_moses » Mon 18 Jun, 2012 9:04 pm

This is some serious Abeling going on right here. You guys are committed!
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Re: 8 mountains, 4 days: Exploring the NE.

Postby biggbird » Tue 19 Jun, 2012 6:00 pm

Just keep seeing all these young'uns climbing everything in sight, figure we've gotta stick up for the oldies ;)

So the next morning saw us leave the tent by the roadside and make the trip up Mt Barrow. We had a beautiful sunrise and clear skies, meaning we got great views!

Image
210 by bigggbird, on Flickr

Image
279 by bigggbird, on Flickr

We headed up the stairs and rails as suggested, but unfortunately found a locked gate halfway up the summit. Given how cold it was, how slippery the rocks were, and that we wanted to keep going and attempt a few more that day, we decided to call that bagged. Peakbaggers around the world will deplore us for it, I'm sure, but they can get stuffed :P We weren't about to break bones on slippery rocks just to get to the very highest point!

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230 by bigggbird, on Flickr

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225 by bigggbird, on Flickr

And besides, even if we didn't get right to the top, the view was still pretty speccy

Image
233 by bigggbird, on Flickr

We explored the plateau for a little while before heading back down the (very awesome!) road to the tent. After that, it was off to Mt Maurice... Or at least it was supposed to be! Probably the biggest lesson we learnt this weekend (apart from don't go to West Tower if you can possibly avoid it) was not to trust the Abels books for everything! We spent a good 2 hours searching for the start of the Mt Maurice track, but had no luck. Unfortunately, we didn't have reception out there, so couldn't check and find the updated info from the forum... would have been nice!

So after getting fed up with looking, we headed on to the next on our list; Ben Nevis.

Fortunately, we found this one easily enough, which was a relief! the unmarked road was where it was supposed to be, and we only had to travel the prescribed distance up it to find the well marked start of the track!

The going was fairly easy, with a reasonable ascent at first followed by a wander across the relatively open summit plateau to the distant summit. The route was fairly well cairned for the most part, though of course, we found the proper/best track across the plateau on the way back... Always seems to happen that way! Weather was still holding at this point, so more views were to be had! This was a pretty strange experience for us, it always seems to be cloudy and drizzling when we go Abelling!

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354 by bigggbird, on Flickr

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352 by bigggbird, on Flickr

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342 by bigggbird, on Flickr

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P11 by bigggbird, on Flickr

We then made a quick scramble up Mt Saddleback, but didn't get to see much as it turned dark before we reached the summit... Oh well! Just an excuse to go back I guess.
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Re: 8 mountains, 4 days: Exploring the NE.

Postby Nick S » Sun 08 Jul, 2012 10:14 pm

Yes I remember this weekend, I was over on the NE coast, wondered how you went! Very nice light on Mt Barrow. Was up there just a few days ago to check out the snow.. we might've climbed around that fence..
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Re: 8 mountains, 4 days: Exploring the NE.

Postby Russ17 » Wed 22 Jun, 2016 2:40 pm

Just a quick update on Ben Nevis...

Went up there on Sunday, was a beautiful day weather wise and some really great views

Schulhofs Rd was accessible easily with a 4wd though there was a lot of water coming down it for one section. A 4wd isn't required but a little bit of clearance is.
The track take off is as stated in the "50 Family Walks around Launceston" book. There is no sign but some pieces of tape on a tree adjacent to the remains of the road. There is space to park a vehicle off to the side of Schulhofs next to the track start.

The initial stages of the track through the forest showed some signs of the recent heavy rain but were easily negotiable. Up higher the track is becoming overgrown slightly with mountain berry but is easy to follow until the alpine plateau is reached. Once onto the plateau it doesn't take long to spot the trig to the south and also the start of the cairned route across. It was wet in places up here. Getting closer to the trig the track wasn't as obvious but was picked up easily on the way back across the plateau.

A great walk, with a nice trig point with dry stone walls and some great views of the North-east. Just shy of 5kms all up, taking 4hrs with plenty of stops and time on the summit
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Re: 8 mountains, 4 days: Exploring the NE.

Postby north-north-west » Wed 22 Jun, 2016 7:14 pm

Finding Maurice can be tricky. Took me two goes and the second only worked due to inside advice from a previous bagger. Of course, it was 'typical' Abelling weather, so the views are still a mystery . . .

But still, you can't claim a summit if you don't reach the highest point. Near enough really isn't good enough. Barrow can easily be done as a scramble directly up the rocks to the trig. Or you climb around the gate, which I did on the return. Official Peak Bagging rule is 'you have to touch the very tippy-top'.
"Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens."
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Re: 8 mountains, 4 days: Exploring the NE.

Postby Russ17 » Thu 23 Jun, 2016 8:50 am

I went up Maurice the weekend before Ben Nevis using the eastern track. I have included some road access and track details under the Mt Maurice topic started by Tastrekker to get some up to date info out there

And the views were open and good :)
Last edited by Russ17 on Thu 23 Jun, 2016 8:58 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 8 mountains, 4 days: Exploring the NE.

Postby pazzar » Thu 23 Jun, 2016 8:50 am

Bigbbird can now claim he has summited Barrow, I did it with him on his second attempt at finding Mt Maurice. We still didn't find it, despite some creative road work to get us there! I believe Biggbird has been back and finally got it though.
"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see."
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