The Tortoise or the Hare.

[Mechanic-AL]

I hope to get back down the Overland Track sometime this coming spring/summer. It's been a while since I last did it and will probably be a long time before I do it again so I'm hoping to take plenty of time to enjoy the experience. I figure 2 weeks would give me heaps of time to hit a lot of side trips and also plenty of time to just enjoy being in that vicinity again. I'm working on the theory that the longer you are out there the more value you are getting for your money

Coming up with this plan got me wondering what are some of the longest duration trips (in the era of paying customers) from Cradle Mountain to Lake St Clair that some people may have done ??

[headwerkn]

It's not been contiguous (gotta rock up to work occasionally, my boss says) but over the past 4-5 years I would have accumulated several weeks of time out on track climbing every peak (sometimes twice) and visiting every waterfall and other POI within cooee of the Overland Track and Pine Valley. Lost count how many trips we've done going in Arm River in darkness, hehe.

Two weeks would be great. With enough food (maybe a couple of food drops?) three wouldn't actually be so excessive either. Being able to get out to the far flung peaks (Emmett, Inglis, Proteus etc), do the Pelion West/Leonards Tarn/Thetis loop, Du Cane Circuit and Labyrinth, out to Walled/Macs/Nereus if you're keen, Gould/Guardians/Horizontal loop, over Olympus... so many options.

[north-north-west]

First trip with a digital camera, I started from Cynthia Bay and went into Pine Valley for two nights, climbing the Acropolis and having a quick exploration of the Labyrinth. Then up the track doing every tracked sidetrip I could find, finishing with an extra night at Waterfall, climbing Barn Bluff and looping around past Scott Kilvert and the Face Track to climb Cradle. Then out via the Horse Track in a snowstorm. Ten days, I think; late autumn so the days were short.

But it's been a while since I used the Overland as anything more than a way to access the off-track areas. Pelion and DuCane circuits, Proteus, Emmett, Inglis, Never Never, Olympus and Byron And Cuvier and Goulds and Manfred and all the rest of it. Too many *&%$#! people on the main track for my liking.

Two weeks in summer, you could hit pretty well everything if you're fit and fast enough.

[Warin]

One idea for a resupply ...

Don't do Pine Valley etc on your way down.... Resupply at Lake St Clair and walk back in for Pine Valley etc... That cuts a bit off the initial food carry. If your dong a commercial transporter for start and end of the Overland then they well do the resupply for you including gas.

There is the option of doing a resupply using the Arm Rv Track to New Pelion Hut. But if you do that yourself you may as well do some of the side trips while your there. Having done the side trips your resupply could well be used up, so that saves the resupply and the side trips you would have done...

[Son of a Beach]

One idea for a resupply ...

FIrstly, that's two ideas (yes, I'm a pedant).

Don't do Pine Valley etc on your way down.... Resupply at Lake St Clair and walk back in for Pine Valley etc... That cuts a bit off the initial food carry. If your dong a commercial transporter for start and end of the Overland then they well do the resupply for you including gas.

There is the option of doing a resupply using the Arm Rv Track to New Pelion Hut. But if you do that yourself you may as well do some of the side trips while your there. Having done the side trips your resupply could well be used up, so that saves the resupply and the side trips you would have done...

And secondly, this Arm River option is a great idea, because it means that you have to go in/out via the Arm River Track twice. Firstly, to supply all the walking you're going to do while there, and secondly, to re-supply your subsequent Overland Track trip a couple of weeks later. The more excuses to go for a walk, the better.

[Mechanic-AL]

By the time you reach Pine Valley the Labyrinth is close enough that it almost seems a bit of a wasted opportunity not to continue on up the hill and have a poke around up there for a few days. Ive always thought of Pine Valley/Labyrinth as more of a stand alone trip than an OLT side trip and hadnt considered it as a part of this trip.[/quote]

And secondly, this Arm River option is a great idea, because it means that you have to go in/out via the Arm River Track twice.[/quote]

An Arm River re-supply definitely ticks all the boxes