Best overnight walks?

[alliecat]

Hi all,

Time constraints mean that my other half and I are most likely to be doing single night walks for some time. So, I thought I'd try and pick your collective brains on the subject of overnight (ie. single night out) walks. We're based in Hobart, so what are some good overnighters within reasonable driving distance?

We're happy to turn some of the longer day walks into overnighters as long as there are reasonable places to camp. Oh, I guess circuits would be more fun than retracing our steps too.

Some we've already thought of:

• Cape Pillar (maybe via. Mt Fortescue)
• Shadow Lake/Forgotten Lake (climb Little Hugel either that day or the next morning).
• Mt Rufus
• Mt. Anne - either camp at the hut or up on the plateau.
• Waterfall Bay to Bivouac Bay and back
• Combine Mt Field West with the tarn shelf circuit
• South Coast track

I'm sure there are lots more good single night walks around that we don't know about, so enlighten us - what are your favourite overnighters?

Cheers,
Alliecat

[NickD]

Those are all good.

You could also look at

Lake Sydney + Mt Bobs
Mt Florentine & Tyenna Peak (off track boulder hopping)
Pine Valley & Acropolis
Lake Ironstone track to Lake Nameless to Lady Lake Hut (long drive from Hobart)
Schnells Ridge High Camp (off track)
Freycinet Circuit
Lake Will Camp (long drive from Hobart)
Scott Kilvert Hut circuit around back of Cradle Mountain (long drive from hobart)
Adamsons Peak (shorter days - or you could explore about a bit)

Have fun

[MJD]

Not sure how easy or hard you want but...

Nevada Peak, Wetpants Peak and Snowy South would be a nice overnighter. You could camp at the Snowdrift Tarns and climb Wetpants Peak and Nevada Peak on one day followed by Snowy South the next. I have the GPS coordinates of the start if required.

You can also camp under the "summit block" of Mt Picton - very pituresque campsite - near Steanes Tarn I think.

How about exploring the South Pictons camping at Square Tarn.

A spectacular but long walk is Rufus down to the saddle with Hugel and straight up and along the ridgeline to Hugel followed by camping on the plateau before Little Hugel. Needs good weather but the ridgeline is amazing. Very little exposure but it always has you wondering "Is this going to go the whole way?". Certainly worth the effort of carrying an overnight pack.

Catch the ferry up Lake St Clair and you can get to Lake Marion, Mt Gould, Mt Olympus, or Mt Byron.

Again in summer you could do the Byron-Cuvier-Manfred circuit. Just book a spot on the first ferry up the lake and the last one back.

[the_camera_poser]

Wow- this is excellent- I've been wanting something like this list. Any chance of making notes of which ones are kid-friendly? (4-6 yo?)

Thanks so much guys- another example of how invaluable this website is!!!

[alliecat]

Thanks guys - they are fantastic suggestions. Especially since there's a couple of places there I haven't even heard of! I love finding new places to go, so that is incredibly helpful. Cheers!

[Robbo]

Wow- this is excellent- I've been wanting something like this list. Any chance of making notes of which ones are kid-friendly? (4-6 yo?)

Thanks so much guys- another example of how invaluable this website is!!!

This gets me thinking. Nik, would it be helpful to have a page, in table format, to list such things as day walks, overnighters, and so forth? Its probably been suggested B4, but seems like a good idea. I guess it requires someone to set it up and maintain it, but is there a method whereby anyone memebre could add info and others update and edit? I guess this is the Wiki model?

Just a thought,

Tony Robinson

[Son of a Beach]

yes Tony, this will certainly be easy for anyone to add whatever information they want to the Wiki in a more organised fashion that it is in the forums. The Wiki should be going live soon. I just need to get around to making a couple more changes.

[johnw]

climb Wetpants Peak

Maybe I'll be sorry for asking but I'm just curious how this got it's name?

[red97]

What would be a good overnight walk to take my 10 year old boy on. It's his birthday coming up and I said we'd go on an overnight bushwalk together. I recognise some of the ones listed already and they would be too difficult for him I think...any suggestions gratefully accepted.

[Son of a Beach]

What would be a good overnight walk to take my 10 year old boy on. It's his birthday coming up and I said we'd go on an overnight bushwalk together. I recognise some of the ones listed already and they would be too difficult for him I think...any suggestions gratefully accepted.

Lees Paddocks should be a good one. It's flat almost all of the way (short steep downhill section at the beginning, and then of course short steep uphill section at the end). It only takes two or three hours to reach the paddocks (allow somewhat longer with a 10 year old).

Great bush, nice river. Waterfalls, if you're up to a detour on the way in/out. Good camping spot near the river.

[red97]

Just to show my ignorance, how do I get to it? I know it's up near 'the Walls' somewhere...

[whiskeylover]

Long way from Hobart, but take the road to Mole Creek from Deloraine and then the Mersey Forest Road as if you were going to the Walls, but don't turn left up to the walls carpark. You go quite a bit further until there is some parking on your left and a steep old 4wd track down to the river on your right. In summer you used to also be able to start from the end of the road where the Moses Creek track starts, but I'm not sure how well marked that one is now and you have to do two river crossings which are only possible when the water is fairly low. I have taken a 10 year old boy in there before - he really enjoyed the first day and only whinged when we took him up the venetian blind track to Pelion - and then I think he whinged more because his mother was there and panders to his every care, being an only child.

[Son of a Beach]

Just to show my ignorance, how do I get to it? I know it's up near 'the Walls' somewhere...

or visually... That's the Wall track starting near the top right, and that's Lees Paddocks near the bottom left. You can see the Mersey Forest Road joining the two (and following down the east side of Lake Rowallan) - near the 600m contour most of way.

[MJD]

JohnW

re Wetpants Peak. I don't know how it got its name. (The Nomenclature Board should have something.) It's not particularly steep or difficult so we can rule out a worried climber. However, it is in the South West so perhaps it was raining a bit, or perhaps raining a lot, when someone climbed it.

[johnw]

JohnW
re Wetpants Peak. I don't know how it got its name. (The Nomenclature Board should have something.) It's not particularly steep or difficult so we can rule out a worried climber. However, it is in the South West so perhaps it was raining a bit, or perhaps raining a lot, when someone climbed it.

Thanks MJD. I shot off an email to the Nomenclature Board. Will report back what/if I get an answer. I was actually a little surprised that they don't have a publicly searchable database of Tasmanian place names.

[sharon]

RE; THE WALLS
does anyone know if there is a bus that would drop off at start of track?
i would like to do this in feb on my way out of tas for 3 days !

i have been told this walk is better that the overland! if that could be possible..
i loved echo point and pine valley and ducane the best parts for me.doing the overland.
would appreciate any info.

thankyou

[johnw]

JohnW
re Wetpants Peak. I don't know how it got its name. (The Nomenclature Board should have something.) It's not particularly steep or difficult so we can rule out a worried climber. However, it is in the South West so perhaps it was raining a bit, or perhaps raining a lot, when someone climbed it.

Thanks MJD. I shot off an email to the Nomenclature Board. Will report back what/if I get an answer. I was actually a little surprised that they don't have a publicly searchable database of Tasmanian place names.

As it's getting a bit off-topic for this thread, I've posted the outcome of the reply I received from the Nomenclature Board separately at:
http://bushwalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1065