Bushwalk Australia

As part of the BWT 3rd Anniversary a group of us decided to tackle Mt Rufus.
Brett, sthughes, pomysi, Julafreak his guest Gee and myself made a somewhat later than anticipated start from Fergy's - weather was magnificent and the views were as expected - stunning.
It took the best part of 3 hrs to get to the summit and was well worth the effort.

From this point Julafreak and myself headed on towards Hugel while the others decided(wisely) to go back via Shadow Lake.
The walk to Hugel was interesting with a thick scrub band in the deepest part of the saddle where we stumbled across an unnamed tarn with a pleasant campsite.
After the scrub the rock scree was a pleaasure and we both enjoyed the challenge as the rocks got larger the higher we went, with the going becoming quite tricky at the top.

Getting off the summit proved tricky but we finally got down and spent far longer than expected making our way through a mixture of low and very thick scrub on our way to Little Hugel.

By the time we hooked up with the track up Little Hugel we were about an hour behind schedule and decided to leave that for another day.
The trip back past Forgotten and Shadow Lakes was made at pace and we arrived back at camp around 6.
Hugel was an awesome peak and great fun to climb on a great day.
Was not looking forward to the drive to Hobart in the dark, but arrived around 8.15 without any roadkill - except about 4 million insects on my windscreen.
Cheers,sbs

Well done Dan!! I really must get up there in non blizzard conditions to check out the views....

Nice pictures SBS, glad to see you guys made it out, also glad we didn't continue on with you! We arrived back at camp at 3.00pm and after a quick swim and pack up got home just after 7pm. Thanks to everyone for a pleasant walk

Cheers guys, views were awesome, my first unimpeded look into the Southern reserve and can't wait to explore further in.
I think Julian may have regretted the decision to tag along particularly after the blood began to flow But he did really well and finished running - literally, hope he is sore today 'coz I am.
Will post a few more pics when I get some time.

ILUVSWTAS wrote:Well done Dan!! I really must get up there in non blizzard conditions to check out the views....

Ditto.
I was starting to think that Rufus and blizzards were inseparable.

ILUVSWTAS wrote:
Well done Dan!! I really must get up there in non blizzard conditions to check out the views....
Ditto.
I was starting to think that Rufus and blizzards were inseparable

Not this year cobber.

Cant complain. This year my multiday walks have been... Frankland range 8/8 as far as rain to days goes.
Western Arthurs 6/8 dry to wet days (2 seperate trips)
Eastern Arthurs 4/5 dry to wet days
King Willian Range 3/4 dry to wet days

stepbystep wrote:Cheers guys, views were awesome, my first unimpeded look into the Southern reserve and can't wait to explore further in.
I think Julian may have regretted the decision to tag along particularly after the blood began to flow But he did really well and finished running - literally, hope he is sore today 'coz I am.
Will post a few more pics when I get some time.

Not sore in the muscles but my knees were infected! (No thanks to scaparias) They're a nightmare! These scars will stay for months now. Regretted for awhile back when it was so hard to get to little hugel from Hugel. After a hot shower and a good meal back home, I'm proud to show off my battle scars now!

ps: I ran because I wanted to end the ordeal so badly.. haha
pss: More pics from me soon

Nice photos, the little tarn looks like a nice place with a good view.

Mickeymoo wrote:Nice photos, the little tarn looks like a nice place with a good view.

Quite a few tarns on this walk between Hugel and Little Hugel - all with great views.
My next trip here I will explore them more coming up from Little Hugel, which will allow a lot more time on the plateau area.
There are a number of small ridges and given more judicious navigation I think quite a bit of scrub could be avoided.

My side of the story http://picasaweb.google.com/julianchang ... yBushBash#

Julafreak wrote:My side of the story http://picasaweb.google.com/julianchang ... yBushBash#

Great stuff -J-Freak - love #59 - v. sly. The shots going up Hugel are great - you seem to have lost inspiration after that
BUT now I absolutely have a complex about
a) how many photo's I take, and
b) how many kg's I need to loose

Nice pics Julian

Lol, apart from the Uni students you were the least overweight of us all SBS!

Hello All

Great pictures, Dan and Julian. Also great to have the opportunity to put some faces to names - what we write on foums does not always show us in the same light as speaking face to face.

Let me add a couple of Lake St Clair and the view from Little Hugel. On Sunday I went up Mt Hugel and back via Shadow Lake Circuit - I arrived back at my tent at 6.15 and spent a very peaceful night - in contrast to the night before...

There is an obvious pad from Little Hugel along the main ridge to Hugel, (I took some video of this but no still picts), and I assume there would be the same from Hugel to Rufus? I didn't have the time - or fitness - to do any of that but on a day like Sunday, and with an early start, it would be quite doable, I would have thought. Great to hear you guys got as much done as you did!

TR

There are a few more posted here: http://picasaweb.google.com/AnthonyJohn ... keStClair#

Robbo wrote:On Sunday I went up Mt Hugel and back via Shadow Lake Circuit - I arrived back at my tent at 6.15 and spent a very peaceful night - in contrast to the night before...

There is an obvious pad from Little Hugel along the main ridge to Hugel

Hi Tony,
missed you by that much as agent 86 would say, we saw your tent at 6 and were surprised you hadn't left - even more surprised we didn't cross paths as we flew back from Little Hugel track(we hit it just below the treeline from the West) to Fergy's.
I suspected we missed "the obvious pad" from Hugel to Little Hugel - we found a few cairns and many false pads which led us into some nasty country. I suspect the 'pad' runs to the north around the largest of the tarns on the plateau??? I think quite a few did as we did and got sidetracked by tarns and the views(even found someone's map in some pretty inhospitable country).
I think the boulders between Hugel and Rufus disallow an obvious pad and certainly no cairns as there are no small rocks lying around, but that was the easy bit on our side trip.
Nice to see the view from LH over Lake Solitude, thanks for the pic.
Also nice to place a face to your name also, enjoyed our chats.
Cheers, Dan

Some great photos on your picasa page Tony! Love the misty one.
Blue bird day, looks awesome up there.

great shots. Seriously makes me want to go and do the same walk

Robbo wrote:Nice to see the view from LH over Lake Solitude, thanks for the pic.
Also nice to place a face to your name also, enjoyed our chats.

Great day for walking up there, eh?! And yes I did enjoy the opportunity to chat over the course of the weekend, I had a great time.

Nick S wrote:Some great photos on your picasa page

Thanks Nick, but it really does take a great place to take such pictures and Tassie offers that - in the right light?!

CoffeeLover wrote:great shots. Seriously makes me want to go and do the same walk

Thanks, CoffeeLover. The pictures in no way capture the experience of being there and being there is what its all about.

TR

Few more pics here http://picasaweb.google.com/11705262402 ... sAndHugel#

wow.. Tony you flew down from Melbourne just for the bush bash??? Very dedicated!! =)

stepbystep wrote:Few more pics here http://picasaweb.google.com/11705262402 ... sAndHugel#

Nice pics! I have a shot of that saddle tarn taken from the other end of it.

Hi all

Great photographs and good to see the ones from Julafreak. Sounds like we made the wiser decision to head back the way we came. Could not ask for a better day to do Rufus and it was great to see up to Mount Ironstone and across to Frenchmans Cap so gradually getting an idea of the lay of the land when seen from up high.

Julafreak how are you feet after wearing the new boots?

Cheers Brett

Thanks Brett. The feet is just fine.. I did get a few blisters but most importantly, the shoes gave me VERY good support at the ankle (Thank goodness or I'd have sprained it a couple of times) as I keep stepping into holes and very uneven surfaces (the scaparias and other vegetation made it worse by concealing them). Good boots. Now the mission is to ban myself from the viccinity of any gear shops.. =D

Hi Julafreak

Why ban yourself from gear shops We were very impressed at the level of gear that you had acquired. Maybe a warmer top next time though I bet you appreciated the rain coat to block the wind on Mount Rufus though the more insulated of us managed just fine in T-shirts and lightweight shirts

Glad the boots worked out reasonably well. Blisters are always a risk on the first decent walk as wandering around town is a long way from bush bashing cross country or in my case grinding up a hill is the real test of comfort along with the going back down. Sthughes did the path trek up and back in runners and it will be interesting to hear his views on this experience. His rave reviews of Seal Skin socks cost me $99 dollars yesterday, um? may banning one self from gear shops is not a bad idea

Cheers Brett

Brett wrote:... His rave reviews of Seal Skin socks cost me $99 dollars yesterday...

I just did the same trip today. And I also left little hugel for another day There's not really any pad going over Hugel, you think you have found it for a couple of hundred metres then gone. Plenty of cairns though just to confuse I think. Great walk, the Rufus leg lets you think Hugel will be easy too! Couldn't take my eye off Mount Gell........

doogs wrote:I just did the same trip today. And I also left little hugel for another day There's not really any pad going over Hugel, you think you have found it for a couple of hundred metres then gone. Plenty of cairns though just to confuse I think. Great walk, the Rufus leg lets you think Hugel will be easy too! Couldn't take my eye off Mount Gell........

Nice work, I'm sure you had similar conditions to us, I think the key is to stay north as long as you can after leaving Hugel heading east rather than getting sucked into the series of false leads heading directly towards Little Hugel, the Southern Reserve looks rather nice from up there too!

doogs wrote:Couldn't take my eye off Mount Gell........

doogs - Mt Gell / Cheyne Range is a fantastic walk - highly recommended (in the right conditions of course):

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3836&p=43432&hilit=GELL#p43432

stu wrote:doogs - Mt Gell / Cheyne Range is a fantastic walk

I would place the decent from Mt Gell to Australia tarn then on to Lake Dixon as one of my most unenjoyable walks.

What happened with the descent frenchy?
We had a fairly good run from our first camp site under the Hippogrif, wading along the shores of Australia Tarn & up obvious the spur to Gell;
tho we did encounter a few rocky obstacles on the ascent. Perhaps it's better done in the direction we went? (ie. south to north).
Our worst part of this trip was ascending the southern side of the Hippogrif on day 1, ie. too early an ascent which was pretty scrubby forest.