Leeaberra Track

[Aliheth]

Just back from doing Leeaberra Track so will post some info in response to some of the common questions on this thread.
1. The pole number to look for to access the E road is 173. There is no way to get across the washouts other than a high clearance 4wd. It is about 1.5 hours walking uphill on the road before the start of the trail. The southern access road is open although very pot holed still drivable.
2. The first part of the trail is very overgrown. It means lots of pushing through head height heath and not seeing much beyond the path which is a real shame because when you do get a glimpse of the forest beyond it looks very pretty. The rest of the path from the first campsite is not as bad but there are sections that are overgrown which is frustrating because you can’t see where you are walking.
3. Most of the way is well marked with orange triangles and where it is not someone has put up tape, there weren’t many places where we couldn’t work out the way. Mostly it was where the track was overgrown or there were trees down.
4. There are a lot of trees down on the path but none that weren’t passable.
5. While the gradient of the path wasn’t too demanding because it is overgrown and trees down it takes longer than you would think to walk.
6. The leeches are legion! We had some rain on the last day and were literally crawling with the little blighters.

[TheOmen]

@TheOmen did you end up walking the track and can report on its state? We are planning to do it soon and it would be good to know if an6 issues. Ta

Apologies for the delay @Aliheth, looks like you've done it already.

A few friends and I recently completed this walk over the festive season. Here’s a brief update on the track. I’ll attach a gpx file which has some of my placemarks, I tried to mark along the way.

Overall
Substantially overgrown and not often walked. We found we were the only group on the track when we departed with another group having begun 3 days prior. The track was relatively easy to navigate, a handful of times where we backtracked after quickly realising that we were heading in the wrong direction a minute or two later and we’d reestablish the track. Plenty of tape and markers on trees.

We found it very muggy leading to plenty of mosquitos and a bunch of leeches. Deet is your best friend here and one of our party ended the walk with 24 leech bites over the 3 days on one leg :O

Day 1
High clearance vehicles are a must to get to the start of the track, be mindful that the road to where we started the track also requires higher clearance, with a few in the car we had to straddle the middle strip and brush against bush to avoid scraping the bottom of the car. Given this we parked at the first substantial high clearance crossing, which as others have said adds about 2-2:30 hours to the journey.
Once you begin from the walk from the walkers registration shelter, we found the track to require a bit of bush bashing, or at least pushing through the overgrown section. A good clearing out from a guide would make this first hour a bit more pleasant. Once you get past this, you’ll come across the first green wooden sign and the track start heading uphill with less scrub. Relatively short day here and good to start it early to get to camp early.

Our experience of Heritage and Leeaberra Falls was choose your own adventure along the river edge. It started to spit as we were there which made the rocks deceptively slipper and also the view of the Falls hard to reach. There may have been an alternative track or some way to get down but given the weather and failing light we didn’t pursue it further.

Day 2
General meandering through the scrub this day.

The side trip to Lookout Hill was difficult to find. You’ll need to be conscious of the track and look for the strategically placed branches and canns designating the side trip. We missed this and then backtracked. It was about 15min either way for the side trip and worth the extra time if you can make it out to a rocky outcrop. It tends to get a little bit rocky and thus snakey up the top here and we came across one as the sun was poking out as we summetted.

Lookout Hill, this is what the start of the side trip looks like

The second side track is more easily distinguished with a sign. Again another 15min one way if you’re booking it. This one is well worth it given the view.

Once you get to the end of day river crossing I’d recommend crossing over the river as the campsites on the other side are nicer than what you find on the northern side.


Day 3
The longest day of the bunch. A bit of a slog but by now you’re used to it. The start of the day is the steepest incline of the walk but warms you and gets the day going. There's an emergency exit to Tasman Highway saying 11km once you get to the top of the first climb, a relatively cleared old four wheel drive track which would make for easy walking and an alternative path for the end if you were inclined that way. Continuing on the track it’s relatively straight forward again overgrown given the lack of foot traffic. A few water spots and an old bridge mark minor points along the route. You eventually get to some serious bush bashing sections pushing through cutting grass. Spied a massive snake when you pop out to a rock out cropping so be mindful as you trek along.

Day 3 - head height cutting grass section, photos don't do it justice

[north-north-west]

Ahhhh, that first photo beings back some memories. That's what that section of ridge was like the first time I did the Leeaberra. Does give you a good workout. Kind of surprised thhere are still trees there to fall down, giiven how often they drop.

The track fromm the Heritage campsite to the falls was washed away some years ago and TasPAWS seem to lack either the funding or the will to do anything about it. A pity, because it really is a lovely set of falls.

[jadasa]

Hi, I walked this track very recently and can share that the reports of it being overgrown and underestimated still hold true. Day 1 was pretty cruisy, campsite was small and muddy though. Day 2 however was a different story. The route itself, despite being quite overgrown and tricky in places was really pretty for the most part, but the camp that night though was non-existent on the northern side of the Douglas R. I suggest camping in the clearings on the S side of the River instead. Day 3 despite being 'only' 11km was long and hard, with vague/missing orange markers and very vague geography to navigate with (I tend to continuously feature-nav as much as I can) It did however mostly followed logical topography. The swampy section on in particular was really tough and overgrown. At times I was getting completely swallowed up in cutting grass. Overpants and gaiters were needed purely for the grass!
Really though, a stunning little walk and quite unique for Tassie ecologically. Thoroughly recommended.