Hiking South East Tasmania

Showing posts with label Mount Wellington-Wellington Park. Show all posts

Sunday, 17 May 2015

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

Mount Wellington

Organ Pipes

Friday, 17 January 2014

Mount Wellington Circuit

Wednesday 15th January 2014

Today, I decided that the walk that we would be doing would be a circuit of Mount Wellington to take in the various views of Hobart and surrounds.
We arrived at The Springs at about 0815 and set off. The first section of the walk was up the Milles track and then the steady climb up the Ice House track, past the first ice house and then to the upper one where we had a look around and ventured into Devils Gulch to get a view of South Wellington summit. We then walked up to the rocks on South Wellington summit where we enjoyed a break and spent time taking photos, or the others did, because I didn't take any today.
After the rest we walked back to the South Wellington track and followed this up to the summit of Mount Wellington where we did the touristy thing and checked out the observation deck. The place was crawling with people and after a while we continued walking down Pinnacle Road to the Panorama track, down this to meet the road once again and then down to The Chalet, where we had lunch. It was quite hot walking along the road, but nothing like yesterday.
Once we were suitably fed we headed down the Organ Pipes track and Zig Zag track back to the car at The Springs.
This was a good walk that provides great views all around.
Distance: 13.3 kms.
Time: 6'10"
Ascent: 658 metres
Click here to download GPX track.

Friday, 9 August 2013

Mount Wellington Circuit

Thursday 8th August 2013

Today I wasn't sure which walk I would be doing as I drove into Hobart because it was going to depend on the weather. I had a choice between Mt. Wellington or Platform Peak, but when I saw that Mt. Wellington was cloudless and had no visible snow on the summit, the option was easy. The road up to the parking spot at The Springs was a little icy so I used 4WD just to be on the safe side as I had seen the evidence of someone sliding and wiping out a couple of road signs. I had previously done a few different circuit walks on Mt. Wellington and I had walked all the tracks I was going to use before, but I had not combined them all into a circuit.
I started walking at about 8.20am up to the Milles track and then onto the Icehouse track. The first icehouse is now very overgrown and not readily distinguishable in the bush and the top one is also being overtaken by the bush although the remnants can be easily seen. I made it up to South Wellington summit just in time for morning tea, but there was nowhere dry to sit as the rocks were all covered in a fine blanket of snow. The weather was still clear here but the clouds were starting to roll in on the main summit. This is a very pleasant spot to sit on a good day as the views are magnificent. There was a good covering of snow on the southern and western peaks. The track into here off the Icehouse track had frozen patches of water and care had to be taken as it was quite slippery.
After a short break it was back to the South Wellington track and on to the main summit. Of course, as it has a habit of doing, the cloud really started to roll in and visibility was reduced to about 50 metres. Surprisingly there was absolutely no wind here at all. I could not see the transmission tower until I was almost on top of it. I could not get over the amount of people wandering around here as there were absolutely no views at all. Anyway it was then down the Pinnacle Road for about 800 metres to pick up the Panorama track which was followed down to meet the Pinnacle Road once again. I then walked down the road for about 1 km. to The Chalet which was completely devoid of people so it seemed like an ideal place for lunch. There was no cloud here and there were lots of people a little further down the road checking out the scenery.
I finished lunch then went down the road a short distance and on to Hunters track which was followed for about 1.5 kms. before I deviated off to Lakins Lair. This is a line of cliffs where there are some "caves"; not really caves, but more like indentations in the rock. Anyway it is an interesting place with some history. I then walked down to the Lenah Valley Fire Trail passed Junction Cabin, down the Lenah Valley track, via Lone cabin, passed Rock Cabin and back to the car which I reached at about 2pm.
Overall a very enjoyable walk except for the lack of views at the summit, but I had seen them before, so that was not a total disappointment
Distance: 14.8 kms.
Time: 5'40"
Ascent: 770 metres
Click here to download GPX track.