A walk in the snow - not quite to Meston
Posted: Tue 01 Sep, 2009 9:13 pmAmid bushwalker weather alerts, news reports of highland road closures and a not particularly good weather forecast myself and 7 other forum members and friends embarked on a walk to Lake Meston Hut via the Jackson's Creek Track, or so we thought. It wasn't far and it wasn't particularly steep overall, but there was the odd bit of snow.
We set off from the end of the Mersey Forest Road at 9.35am and headed up the surprisingly good track towards the top. Apart from a few trees across the track thing went well.
Eventually we reached some proper snow and things got a bit more difficult. By the time we reached the top of the main rise the snow was well over knee deep and after crossing the creek and finding an open plain we decided it was time to "Yowie up".
From here on we made our way to the end of the plain and had no real clue of where the track was. After a bit of discussion and backtracking we headed off towards Lake Myrtle, attempting to sidle around a small hill to it's northwest at a higher, then lower, then middle level above the Lake. At some point we must have been on the track but most of the time it was just pick the least difficult route.
It had become fairly apparent to most of us by now that reaching Lake Meston was just a fantasy. Averaging 500m an hour wasn't going to get us there anytime soon. We instead went for plan B - a small camp site Corvus knew about on the west side of the creek that flows out of Lake Myrtle. We arrived here at 5.06pm, I think it would be fair to say we were all a little weary, or perhaps as Pomysi (the primary snow plough) put it "completely knackered". Meals weren't quite as lavish as our recent 'Christmas in July' at waterfall valley, personally I had shaved 8 to 9kg off my pack weight and ate 2 minute noodles instead of a 4 course baked meal. 6.30pm was bed time for me along with a few others, while some of the party had extra weight they needed to drink before going to bed. It had been a tough day 5.2km, 7hrs 30mins, 600m or so climbed all at 0.7km/h overall. The weather however had been generally good, just a bit of light rain but also plenty of blue sky.
Day 2 began early for me when I woke up at about 5am to my tent touching my face, hmm interesting. Turned out we had about 100mm of snow and my Microlight was sagging a bit, no problem just to bang it off.
When I finally got up at 8am and poked my head out I was a bit shocked that it was still snowing very well. I emerged and hastily dressed in full wet weather gear once again and set about hot porridge for breakfast with my new spork. Everyone was packed up (Flyfisher slowest) and on the track by 9.30am. We had made the decision to get the hell out of the snow ASAP and were hence headed north towards Lake Bill to get down to the road the shortest way we could. 
Once again it was slow going and difficult to stay on the track. The swollen creek (I wonder why) also hampered things a bit, making what parts of the track could be followed into a creek/bog.
Eventually we crossed the swollen creek (wish I had a video), it was a tad precarious for the first 7 of us, Pomysi went last and I thought he was going for a dip (pack, snowshoes and all) but eventually managed to cross with nothing but a wet foot and wobbly knees. I was glad I had my 2 trekking poles at this point, Brett probably wished he hadn't snapped one of his the day before! Eventually we made it to Lake Bill and followed the track (mostly) around the edge, at times it was just easier to wade in the Lake than thrash it out in the soft snow (about 1m deep and squashing about 30 to 50cm underfoot), mud and trees.
Blizzard plain was hard going, I took ploughing duties briefly and was a write off in no time.
After pausing briefly for lunch the rest of the plain passed fairly quickly and things became easier as we descended out of the thick snow.
Eventually the Yowies came off (hoorah) and within an hour or so we emerged at the Mersey Forest Road at 3pm! Up to this point had been 1.1km/h, on the road I managed 6km/h average, still in full wet weather gear but with the constant light snow/rain having largely taken a break. I was very happy to see my car still in one piece and ready to go, I've never appreciated an engine quite as much. 
Overall day 2 was 9.9km, 1.5km/h, mostly downhill and 6hrs 43mins.
It was a fantastic experience, I'm not sure I'd deliberately go out looking for it again, but I'm looking forward to the next one. I can't wait to tackle the same route but include Meston Hut in the summer, and see the track we couldn't see this time. A big thanks to everyone who came, especially to Speculator, Geoskid and particularly Pomysi who shouldered almost all the snow ploughing on day 2 as well as most on day 1. I may well have been up there another night without them.
We set off from the end of the Mersey Forest Road at 9.35am and headed up the surprisingly good track towards the top. Apart from a few trees across the track thing went well.
Eventually we reached some proper snow and things got a bit more difficult. By the time we reached the top of the main rise the snow was well over knee deep and after crossing the creek and finding an open plain we decided it was time to "Yowie up".
From here on we made our way to the end of the plain and had no real clue of where the track was. After a bit of discussion and backtracking we headed off towards Lake Myrtle, attempting to sidle around a small hill to it's northwest at a higher, then lower, then middle level above the Lake. At some point we must have been on the track but most of the time it was just pick the least difficult route.It had become fairly apparent to most of us by now that reaching Lake Meston was just a fantasy. Averaging 500m an hour wasn't going to get us there anytime soon. We instead went for plan B - a small camp site Corvus knew about on the west side of the creek that flows out of Lake Myrtle. We arrived here at 5.06pm, I think it would be fair to say we were all a little weary, or perhaps as Pomysi (the primary snow plough) put it "completely knackered". Meals weren't quite as lavish as our recent 'Christmas in July' at waterfall valley, personally I had shaved 8 to 9kg off my pack weight and ate 2 minute noodles instead of a 4 course baked meal. 6.30pm was bed time for me along with a few others, while some of the party had extra weight they needed to drink before going to bed. It had been a tough day 5.2km, 7hrs 30mins, 600m or so climbed all at 0.7km/h overall. The weather however had been generally good, just a bit of light rain but also plenty of blue sky.
Day 2 began early for me when I woke up at about 5am to my tent touching my face, hmm interesting. Turned out we had about 100mm of snow and my Microlight was sagging a bit, no problem just to bang it off.
When I finally got up at 8am and poked my head out I was a bit shocked that it was still snowing very well. I emerged and hastily dressed in full wet weather gear once again and set about hot porridge for breakfast with my new spork. Everyone was packed up (Flyfisher slowest) and on the track by 9.30am. We had made the decision to get the hell out of the snow ASAP and were hence headed north towards Lake Bill to get down to the road the shortest way we could. Once again it was slow going and difficult to stay on the track. The swollen creek (I wonder why) also hampered things a bit, making what parts of the track could be followed into a creek/bog. Eventually we crossed the swollen creek (wish I had a video), it was a tad precarious for the first 7 of us, Pomysi went last and I thought he was going for a dip (pack, snowshoes and all) but eventually managed to cross with nothing but a wet foot and wobbly knees. I was glad I had my 2 trekking poles at this point, Brett probably wished he hadn't snapped one of his the day before! Eventually we made it to Lake Bill and followed the track (mostly) around the edge, at times it was just easier to wade in the Lake than thrash it out in the soft snow (about 1m deep and squashing about 30 to 50cm underfoot), mud and trees. Blizzard plain was hard going, I took ploughing duties briefly and was a write off in no time. After pausing briefly for lunch the rest of the plain passed fairly quickly and things became easier as we descended out of the thick snow.
Eventually the Yowies came off (hoorah) and within an hour or so we emerged at the Mersey Forest Road at 3pm! Up to this point had been 1.1km/h, on the road I managed 6km/h average, still in full wet weather gear but with the constant light snow/rain having largely taken a break. I was very happy to see my car still in one piece and ready to go, I've never appreciated an engine quite as much. Overall day 2 was 9.9km, 1.5km/h, mostly downhill and 6hrs 43mins. It was a fantastic experience, I'm not sure I'd deliberately go out looking for it again, but I'm looking forward to the next one. I can't wait to tackle the same route but include Meston Hut in the summer, and see the track we couldn't see this time. A big thanks to everyone who came, especially to Speculator, Geoskid and particularly Pomysi who shouldered almost all the snow ploughing on day 2 as well as most on day 1. I may well have been up there another night without them.
They don't seem to be opening up?
