Reynolds Falls - A big sidetrip... is it worth it?

[Joel]

That would have been the owner and he probably looked p***ed off cuz you were trespassing on land that he leases. They also use that track for quite fast quad bike tours and I think it's a bit dangerous having 4 WD bikes flying around corners that are also used for large vehicles. Recipe for disaster!!

[Crum]

If it was such a big issue there should be signs up. We drove in, didn't do any damage to the track, didn't speed, stuck to the track and parked well off the track so I can't see that being a problem at all. If you can't see a pretty well lifted 4WD in my opinion people shouldn't be on a quad bike. I do understand that theres always the few idiots who ruin it for everyone by driving into places like that and running a muck but thats only going to be the minority

[corvus]

I may well be wrong but I think the Quad Bikes are there on a PAID organised trip ,thus the reason to lease the area for a commercial enterprise so they have right of way.
I suggest you seek permission b4 you enter areas like this in future as we dont need any more critics of 4wd activities anywhere.
c

[Speculator]

I may well be wrong but I think the Quad Bikes are there on a PAID organised trip ,thus the reason to lease the area for a commercial enterprise so they have right of way.
I suggest you seek permission b4 you enter areas like this in future as we dont need any more critics of 4wd activities anywhere.
c

I might think about checking out said track via MTB sometime. If anyone has a contact for the leaseholder so I can ask them for permission, would you be able to PM me?

Thanks.

[Joel]

PM sent.

[tastrekker]

Much of this discussion has centred on shortcuts. I too have succumbed to ‘short-cut fever’ in relation to this walk.
I noticed on maps that Reynolds Falls are quite close to Mt Cripps which in turn has a road running along it’s western flank with a walking track to its summit. “Why don’t people approach Reynolds Falls from this direction?” I wondered.
Check out the topic “Mt Remus to Reynolds Falls” to see what I said about the ‘shortcut’ from Mt Cripps! We certainly cut a lot of distance off the trip but I’ll leave you to judge whether it was worth it.

P.S. On the post I'm referring to above, I finished a question about how the Penguin-Cradle Track crosses Fleece Creek. I'd love to know if anyone has an answer.

[crazyone]

It sounded like an awesome effort TT, i think i'll just stick to ossies track on my trips to reynolds. Great work tho!

[farefam]

Have been to the falls 4 times over the last 18 years. Most recent trip was March this year.
The falls are beautiful (good flow) at any time of the year in my experience. Winter can be quite awesome (especially in snow) but the falls can be very difficult to photograph then due to the sheer volume of spray.
Currently the track in one part of the long, long decent is getting overgrown and easy to lose in two spots. The rest of the way is reasonable enough to follow but I wouldn't describe it as an especially well-marked track.
This is not a daywalk. It is a minimum 1 night camping trip and the nearest camping is about 15-30 minutes above the falls (that or do as I did last time and camp in the pandanni forest near the start of the long, long decent).
Don't bother with trying to 4WD part way in. The track is very eroded and you should do the environment a favour and walk in instead (and you won't save much time anyway).

[wildlight]

Hey guys, just got back (yesterday) from a trip to Reynolds Falls, let me know if anyone is interested in a very detailed and up to date report, including all the info about the vehicle track, alternate campsites, and map errata. Will publish here if there is interest, and as soon as I can find the time to write. We were out for 5 days in total.

Cheers, and Happy New Year.

WildLight

[alexwise]

Would be very interested!

[Joel]

Did you see any trout?

[Speculator]

Would love to hear anything you can tell us about this!

[Phil]

Hey guys, just got back (yesterday) from a trip to Reynolds Falls, let me know if anyone is interested in a very detailed and up to date report, including all the info about the vehicle track, alternate campsites, and map errata. Will publish here if there is interest, and as soon as I can find the time to write. We were out for 5 days in total.

Cheers, and Happy New Year.

WildLight

Pleae provide report and photos!!!!!!!

[flyfisher]

Yeah, c'mon please wassa holdup

ff

[geoskid]

Ohh yeah - and you can have as many Hapy New Years as you want
Thanks.

[Crum]

Just wondering what sort of time frame I'd be looking at from the end of the 4wd track section to the falls and back? We are considering mountain biking as far as possible down the 4wd track and walking in from there and hopefully doing it as a day trip. Hopeing to attempt it around November when the days are a little longer

[Bap]

Easy day trip from the end of the 4WD track. The track is easily ridable too.

[Crum]

Would we be looking at around 8 or so hours return? I've been in as far as the first creek in a 4wd but it would have been 10 times quicker on foot due to being so rough

[mjdalessa]

Can someone post more detailed directions on Ossies track, times and campsites please? A map would be nice too if anyone has one that shows such things.

[crazyone]

Sorry guys, I just had to correct my overnighter opinions of Reynolds after having done it as the day trip today. It was as you'd expect, awesome. So it is possible, this was from cradle valley and the weather was pretty ordinary to start with. It's certainly a long hard day and you need to make sure you are sure of your track information

[Casey Smith Photo]

I did this walk on the weekend and to say that its an easy walk is an understatement, it was one of the hardest walks I have ever done. Going in is reasonably hard, in that unless you have a gps or a map then there will be a chance you will get lost.
But one thing we did do for the benefit of others was to lay a lot of pink tape on trees so that we 1, could get out, and 2 have it there for others to use.

There is a very small campsite about 45mins from the falls and when I mean small, anymore than 3 tents and you will run out of room totally.

The walk to the falls is straight down and at the end its not easy to get to them, I slid down a wll of mud and grass onto rocks, lucky I didn't break anything at all.
But one you are there is a huge waterfall and well worth the effort of getting there.

You can get there in winter as there is too much water and way to dangerous. Jan Feb is the best times.

Coming out was extremely hard and 3 days later my legs have only just recovered, and I had hiking poles with me as well. The walk about took about 9.5 hours of which included breaks along the way. (lots of breaks as you need them)
There is one part that has a 78 degree angle climb straight up, and that took us a solid 90 mins of climbing to get past that part, and there are other small climbs like it along the way. Like I said this is one on the hardest walks you will ever do, and I stress it
should not be done alone at all.

Anyway despite all the hard stuff, there is also easy parts of the track that you will enjoy, but they are short lived, its either down or up, very little flats once you hot the mountain ranges.

I hope this has helped.

[Ent]

Interesting reading the above post. As way of a background I am rather against taping walks as a bread crumb trail, as if you get it wrong then side pads expand. So ignoring one of my pet gripes I note the comments on difficulty.

As a day walk it would be long and tiring but then again some sprint up and down Mount Anne as a day walk so all depends on the person involved. As an over night walk it in Sumer is a good way to go. With the shorter winter days it would make a good three day walk.

If you are moderately fit and can do say Cradle Mountain as a side trip to Water Fall Valley then the walk as an overnighter is straightforward. It is marked in on OSM so those with Garmin GPS should have no great trouble finding your way. For good track followers it is straight forward but my red/green deficiency meant finding track markers in dimpled sun light a challenge but it was no problem to others in the group.

The only warning is Tasmaps of the area are a disaster. I think it is only marked on the 1:100,000 map and not on the 1:25,000 and Parks Mao. My experience was standing on a formed road that did not appear on the map. So things like this can play merry hell with your navigation.

I would imagine in heavy rain at least two creek crossing could be challenging. Also it can be exposed across the moor but no worse than the Cirque.

Worth the effort but differently more challenging than say walking to Waterfall Valley.

Cheers

Ps we got it in take two. Err? Take one? Let's say it was not our best weekend of navigation. But we saw a lot