Mensa Moor via Ragged Jack Fire Trail

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Tasmania specific bushwalking discussion. Please avoid publishing details of access to sensitive areas with no tracks.

Mensa Moor via Ragged Jack Fire Trail

Postby Crawfinator » Thu 17 Jan, 2019 11:27 am

Just wondering if anyone has climbed Mensa Moor by taking the 4wd track that leads to ragged jack track, but continuing on until a suitable ascent point can be found to the saddle between mensa moor and magnet crag? it looks to be about 2km from the 4wd track to the saddle, but possibly some intense scrub. After that it would be the normal route to the summit.

I know of people that have walked a fair way along the 4wd track so that part is easily doable, but not of a mensa moor ascent this way?
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Re: Mensa Moor via Ragged Jack Fire Trail

Postby north-north-west » Thu 17 Jan, 2019 12:00 pm

It looks very scrubby.
Looking at ListMap however, an easier route appears to be possible, by continuing along the 4WD track and accessing the plateau much closer to the summit via a steep scree. Much less scrub, and zooming in on the ESRI image shows a couple of lines through the thicker stuff that look like pads or even old tracks. I've been through a bit of the ground beside those tracks and there are plenty of open leads giving fairly easy walking.
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RaggedMensa.jpeg
Blue line is track, red is the scree, markers on thhe right are summit area
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Re: Mensa Moor via Ragged Jack Fire Trail

Postby clarence » Fri 18 Jan, 2019 7:54 am

I have walked from near Magnet Crag/Menamatta Tarns down to the 4WD track near Ragged Jack, and it was pretty good going for most of it.

Hard to say what it is like further south.

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Re: Mensa Moor via Ragged Jack Fire Trail

Postby headwerkn » Mon 10 Jun, 2019 10:09 pm

Funnily enough we did this yesterday, starting from the top of the logging coup (Fishers Tier No. 5) where the fire trail meets at the border of the National Park and working our way almost directly east up onto the Plateau then across to the summit. Take a bearing at the notch that was circled above and basically head straight up from the creek. The bush is fairly open and easy enough to walk through, there's a couple of scree fields which though steep didn't present an issue. No pushing through scorparia either!

Actually kinda surprised no one has mentioned this method of access, especially given you can drive any car with sensible ground clearance all the way there.

Cheers, Ben.
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Re: Mensa Moor via Ragged Jack Fire Trail

Postby slparker » Tue 11 Jun, 2019 11:18 am

The old ski track was somewhere around that route, Headwerkn.
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Re: Mensa Moor via Ragged Jack Fire Trail

Postby headwerkn » Tue 11 Jun, 2019 12:45 pm

Interesting... other than blue ribbons around the creek marking out the setback when the area was logged, the only signs of human activity along the entire trek was a single rusted tin can and a lone fence post with wire, about a third of the way up, just before the first scree field. I wonder if that was part of it?
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Re: Mensa Moor via Ragged Jack Fire Trail

Postby slparker » Tue 11 Jun, 2019 2:48 pm

If you look at the wikipedia page for Ben Lomond Tasmania there is a map that I uploaded - I extracted it from an old examiner article. It shows a hand drawn map of the old ski track from English Town to the north of Ragged Jack.

OI reckon they would have put cairns up but not sure how long they would last. I have walked to the edge of the plateau in that region but never noticed any old tracks but it would have been used decades ago.
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Re: Mensa Moor via Ragged Jack Fire Trail

Postby slparker » Tue 11 Jun, 2019 2:51 pm

north-north-west wrote:It looks very scrubby.
Looking at ListMap however, an easier route appears to be possible, by continuing along the 4WD track and accessing the plateau much closer to the summit via a steep scree. Much less scrub, and zooming in on the ESRI image shows a couple of lines through the thicker stuff that look like pads or even old tracks. I've been through a bit of the ground beside those tracks and there are plenty of open leads giving fairly easy walking.


looks like they might creek lines continuing off the summit, perhaps?

next time I'm in Tassy I might have a squizz.
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Re: Mensa Moor via Ragged Jack Fire Trail

Postby north-north-west » Tue 11 Jun, 2019 3:47 pm

slparker wrote:
north-north-west wrote:It looks very scrubby.
Looking at ListMap however, an easier route appears to be possible, by continuing along the 4WD track and accessing the plateau much closer to the summit via a steep scree. Much less scrub, and zooming in on the ESRI image shows a couple of lines through the thicker stuff that look like pads or even old tracks. I've been through a bit of the ground beside those tracks and there are plenty of open leads giving fairly easy walking.


looks like they might creek lines continuing off the summit, perhaps?


There are creek lines in there, but I eliminated the obvious ones from my suppositions. Easy enough if you look at the other layers in ListMap.
I might have a look at this route myself sometime. Been wanting to revisit Mensa for a while.
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