WOJ - Route from Herods Gate to King David's?

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

WOJ - Route from Herods Gate to King David's?

Postby zacharycbruce » Mon 24 Jan, 2022 10:53 am

Hi all,

Heading up to the walls on Wednesday, wondering if anyone here has walked a direct route from Herods Gate up the North western-ish slope of King David's rather than going via the usual route of Solomons Throne and walking the ridge back through to King David's? The Abels book suggests the direct route but I don't think it's mentioned in Chapmans book.

My plan is to hike through to Dixons Kingdom to camp there, if I could go via King David's, continue through to Solomons throne and then on to Dixons I think it would save me time overall rather than backtracking on a subsequent day. Thursdays forecast is looking dicey and so if I can make the best of better weather on Wednesday that would be good.

Then if Thursday is a wash I'll hopefully get better weather Friday or Saturday to do Mt Jerusalem and the Temple.

Cheers!
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Re: WOJ - Route from Herods Gate to King David's?

Postby Son of a Beach » Mon 24 Jan, 2022 11:17 am

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Last edited by Son of a Beach on Mon 24 Jan, 2022 2:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: WOJ - Route from Herods Gate to King David's?

Postby Last » Mon 24 Jan, 2022 12:46 pm

I did that about 6 months ago. Wasn't hard. The route is cairned further up. That said, there is a PWS sign a little further along from where I turned off the track requesting that you don't go that way due to erosion issues.
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Re: WOJ - Route from Herods Gate to King David's?

Postby zacharycbruce » Mon 07 Feb, 2022 3:36 pm

Just as a quick update;

I walked from Solomon's to King David's after dropping my gear/setting up camp at Dixons. And then took the "direct" route down.

Some side notes first, conditions at Wild Dog are not great and I'd recommend most people to go to Dixons. At Wild Dog there were a lot of flies (presumably because of the number of people, the toilets, food etc.), and posters warning about brushtail possums being a big issue (the posters are quite amusing- "do not feed!"). The outlook is also not very nice, you have to camp on platforms and it's really not that much further to get to Dixons.

That being said Dixons is being over-camped IMO, people aren't following the directions for the temporary toilets that have been set up (over filling them). And I think with the way people are prepping food etc there it's not long before they'll have the same problems with brushtails and flies etc. There's also no taps like at Wild Dog and people are trampling all over the place to collect water. There's also some concern about the impact people are having on the pines there.

I spoke to a ranger who said the supplies are there to build platforms and install more permanent toilets, but it's going to be away from the current site. It may be that they restrict camping in that direct area around the hut, but what that would be like who knows.

I would suggest anyone heading up there to camp further up towards Mt Jerusalem, or further down Jaffa Vale. More privacy and it spreads the impact.

Back to the topic at hand, the walk from Solomon's to King David's is easy enough to follow. The footpad is clear and it doesn't take long, there's quite a few cairns made by previous walkers. The footpad does divert in several different directions which I guess is just people with different opinions about the best way to go and they all end up back together.

The direct route is also easy to follow, but steep and scrambly in sections and would be slippery in the wet. Again there are cairns, and there's only really one way to go that "works", at least on the steepest section.

I spoke to a Ranger at the bottom who says PWS prefers people not to walk the direct route. She asked about erosion as that's the stated reason, but I didn't feel it was an issue. Certainly no more than any of the marked official trails. I asked about why the route from Solomon's to King David's isn't on the TasMap or signed. She explained that they've had quite a few people get themselves in trouble up there. All the official walks are easy, and if you had no sense of direction, a change in weather or came unprepared (water being the main issue apparently) I can see how that would happen. It does look like it's "just over there" (about 1.5km) but it's a harder 1.5km than the other walks and there is no reliable water. Looking around at the general cohort of walkers up there I can understand PWS's thinking.

We had a bit of a discussion about the best way to manage it. She was suggesting knocking over the cairns, especially on the direct route. I said it's probably only more experienced walkers who would either know about or attempt that way (although the Abel's book doesn't help) and the cairns actually help make it safer for those that are going to walk it regardless. Plus subsequent walkers will rebuild them. Warning signs could be better, as are used in plenty of other areas, for the walk from Solomon's to KD's and/or on the direct route. Although if they do have concerns about erosion the black X signs might actually dissuade more people. I guess the issue with warning signs about it being a walk for "prepared and experienced walkers" (or whatever wording it is they usually use) is that people walk themselves in to the area and suddenly think they're experienced enough to tackle whatever is up there?

Anyway, it's definitely a beautiful spot and I can see why it's so popular (easy access to what feels like wilderness). If I was to go again I reckon I'd avoid the summer, and probably come in /out via one of the other routes (even via Lake Adelaide/Ball) that are less trafficked. Its not that I saw a heap of people when I was walking, I just think it would be nicer experience.
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Re: WOJ - Route from Herods Gate to King David's?

Postby weetbix456 » Mon 07 Feb, 2022 11:36 pm

Ummm..just a few things there. If the ranger has stated that it’s preferred walkers don’t go the direct route and there are signs up stating the same - is it really that much of an ask to go round the other way? Also, there are flies all across western Tassie at the moment (the worst I’ve seen since the last big fire years) so I don’t believe toilets are the issue. Camping at WD should be encouraged really as they have put in additional new platforms and all camping is on hardened durable surfaces minimising environmental damage. I also don’t know if this is the place to be publicly encouraging off track camping just outside the designated areas as an alternative.
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Re: WOJ - Route from Herods Gate to King David's?

Postby zacharycbruce » Tue 08 Feb, 2022 12:22 pm

I never saw the signs at the bottom as reported by another user, although I wasn't 100% sure where I should be looking. And didn't speak to the Ranger until I was already down the bottom. Wasn't a big deal to her and as I say, I told her what I'd done and we had a discussion about the best way to discourage others from taking the same route. It was all done in good faith. But yes I agree, people should just got in/out via Solomon's Throne. It was good to get a clear answer from at least one Ranger.

I'm only surmising about the flies as they weren't anywhere near as bad up at Dixon's.

r.e. the camping spots, PWS only says camping within the walls is discouraged, not permitted at the Pool of Bethesda but allowed elsewhere within the park. Once the platforms are made at Dixon's (shouldn't be too far away, the materials are already there) I'd definitely encourage people to camp on those.

As it is WD can't support the number of people coming through so they have to go somewhere. Dixon's has become the default spot but I don't see anything wrong with suggesting moving a few hundred meters either way of that site as it currently stands. It's not off track as such it's the same area just off the sides of the Mt Jerusalem Track or Jaffa Vale. Or avoid it all together and camp down at the lakes if you don't mind the longer walk back in if you want to walk the main peaks.
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Re: WOJ - Route from Herods Gate to King David's?

Postby north-north-west » Tue 08 Feb, 2022 12:56 pm

Camping has been prohibited within something like 200m of the Pool of Siloam for decades. The ban on Bethesda is much more recent. Camping within the central Walls is discouraged but not, as far as I know, officially forbidden.
I do, however, tend to agree with weetbix re not making suggestions for camping away from the platforms at Wild Dog and Dixons. The Walls gets so much traffic that degradation is inevitable, and it's best to concentrate that as much as possible.

As I recall, the signs re the direct route to King Davids are not actually at the point where you would leave the track but further along, which does make them a teensy bit pointless.
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Re: WOJ - Route from Herods Gate to King David's?

Postby grunter » Tue 08 Feb, 2022 2:57 pm

Also no camping within 15m of Dixons Hut. I've seen so many photos of this happening.
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Re: WOJ - Route from Herods Gate to King David's?

Postby headwerkn » Wed 09 Feb, 2022 2:29 pm

I'm usually a firm stickler for PWS's rules, but the whole Herod's Gate to King David's Peak thing really irks me. It makes no logical sense, ecologically speaking nor from a walker-safety perspective.

The discouraged cairned route is long established with a pretty neat and obvious pad, and quite easy to follow once on it. Most of the issue seems to stem from attempting to find it at Herod's Gate, resulting in the area of erosion around PWS's sign. I can't help but wonder if the affected area would actually regenerate merrily on its own if 15-20m of hardened path was provided between the main track and the ascent route.

Wanting walkers to go all the way south to the ascent to Salomon's Throne, then traverse (in both directions) over a 1km of off track terrain atop of the Western Wall seems, well, really optimistic and naïve. The time I did it last the weather was far from ideal to be exposed at 1400m+ elevation for that long. And I can't see why PWS would want to encourage off track walking in an area that receives as much visitation as the WoJ does.
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