Brown Mountain

Tuesday 26th May 2015

Brown Mountain

This is the Brown Mountain near Runnymede in the South East of Tasmania. To reach the walk start, drive out to Runnymede and turn into Woodsdale Road, and drive about 4.2 kms. to park beside the road.
I set off and jumped the gate across the access road where there was a sign stating that Quarry Operations were in progress and to Keep Out, basically. No quarry operations were happening, and had not for quite some time, I would say. The track was in excellent condition and gradually headed uphill. It was easy walking. Brown Mountain is in Levendale State Forest and once the forest was reached the track started to become a little steeper, but nothing hard. It appeared as there had been some controlled burn offs as much of the forest had been burnt.

Track through State Forest

After 4.3 kms. from the start I reached a cairn beside the track indicating where the summit track started. This was basically where the road reached its high point. A short scramble of about 300 metres over rocks took me to the summit.

Summit Track Marker

Summit Track

Looking up to the Summit

There were pretty good views from the summit, but I didn't stay too long as a cold breeze was blowing. As the walk to Brown Mountain is quite short, time wise, I had decided to walk to a hill with no name that was north west of Brown Mountain. I could see it from the summit and it looked promising.

From Brown Mountain Summit

Brown Mountain Summit Trig

From Brown Mountain Summit

From Brown Mountain Summit

No Name Hill

From Brown Mountain Summit

I walked back to the road and followed it around towards No Name Hill, and as I approached its base, I left the track and walked steeply uphill over rocks to reach the summit. There were several flat areas of rock up here and it was quite pleasant. There were some views but others were restricted by trees.

No Name Hill Summit

From No Name Hill

Brown Mountain from No Name Hill

Rocky Cliffs over towards Brown Mountain

From No Name Hill

From No Name Hill

 After scrambling down from the summit I followed the track back to the base of Brown Mountain and branched off on a track on the northern side of the mount. This went downhill, steeply in places, to eventually meet the outward leg. This turned out to be a good move in the end, as it was shorter and provided some variation. I would much rather do a circuit walk than an out and back the same way walk.
In the end this turned out to be quite a good walk, and fairly easy as well, as most of it was on good track with just a couple of short scrambles to the summits.
Distance: 14.1 kms.
Time: 4'37"
Ascent: 760 metres
Click here to download GPX file.

Mount Wellington Circuit

Saturday 16th May 2015

From South Wellington Summit

For the past seven weeks I have been battling a knee injury which I sustained on the Glen Dhu Rivulet walk, so my walking has been a little limited. The weather over the last two weeks has not been ideal for walking either, with wind and rain, so, when the forecast for today was good, I decided to bight the bullet and go for a walk. I chose this walk because it was not too far from home, and, even though I had done it a few times before, my friends had not.
For route details etc. see here.
We set off from The Springs and then up the Ice House Track to South Wellington summit. It was cold but soon most were stripping off coats and jackets as we climbed upwards. There were ice puddles and a few small drifts of snow. The day was perfectly clear and it was a delight to be out walking again. The views from South Wellington were great as usual. From there we walked over to Mount Wellington summit where there were heaps of people and lots of kids playing in the snow. We then walked down the road to the Panorama Track, down to the Chalet and Organ Pipes track and back to the car. There were a couple of rock climbers on the Organ Pipes.
Overall a great day, and best of all, is that my knee is fine.

South Wellington Summit

South Wellington

South Wellington

South Wellington

Mount Wellington

Organ Pipes