Overland track Windy Ridge Hut - upgrade scheduled...

[thelummox]

Corvus,
wise advice grasshopper re the coal stoves. With the rebuild of Windy Ridge that only leaves Kia Ora, Narcissus, Echo Pt and Pine Valley as coal fired. And if you know what you're doing, and have some bloodlines of locomotive enginemen, you can heat those places in no time. And so much more satisfaction than press and click!

We found on our last winter crossing the coal stove routine was a good diversion as it can take a good hour by the time you clean out the ash pan, build a small fire then slowly add coal. But be guided by what Corvus has said. Always clean the ash pan first, build a small fire and build up to a good wood fire burning thick twigs and sticks. When you have a hearty fire burning sticks thicker than your thumb, then and only then add small pieces of coal and don't choke it by adding four or five chunks in one go. As you add chunks, slowly build up as each piece catches. You will know when to do this as the coal starts to really hoof along, and like a loco boiler you can hear the fire drawing air in. If you have trouble getting kindling going, a wettex wipe or similar soaked in metho is a good base under your pile if you struggle.

The key, as Corvus has alluded to, is patience. Building a good coal fire can easily take an hour to get going, but if you do it properly, and slowly, you will have a fire that will heat the hut easily, dry all your things and ensure the hut is warm well into the night. Rush it, and you will expend several hours on a dead fire that will not burn. Coal needs constant high heat to ignite. Once you get it going it becomes a fairly simple task of feeding the fire regularly. And be aware, the coal stoves can glow and pump out large amounts of heat, so be careful around them and don't put clothing too close or above them!

And remember the golden rule; "The bigger the fire the bigger the fool, but the bigger the fire the warmer the fool"

[cherryw]

Can anyone see my photos now?

[walkinTas]

Hi Wayne,

I just spent 15 minutes in your gallery on PBase (nice pictures - well nice thumbnails). There seems to be a problem with permissions with some of your images in the gallery. Not only don't they display in this forum, they don't display in the gallery either.

One solution - you could just edit your original forum post and upload the images to the BWT Server (upload attachment tab).

wT.

[Son of a Beach]

What's with that new Windy Ridge Hut? It's just plain weird. It really needs a butler at the front door to hand you a map to help you find your way around. When I first walked in, I saw the sign pointing to the wet area (large very well ventilated area to hang wet stuff to dry), and wondered which of the other two directions I should take within the hut. Once inside, if you were to cook your dinner on the southern most table, and sleep in the southern most of the three bunk rooms, you'd have to take a day pack full of supplies just to get from one to the other. Through the long dining hall, the ventilated summer dining room, past the locked (warden's?) room, up the stairs, into the long corridor/wardrobe thingy, then finally to your bunk room to get the spoon you'd forgotten, then all the way back again.

Why is there not a door and staircase directly from the middle of the corridor/wardrobe to the middle of the dining room? There's certainly enough space between the tables for it. Actually... why is there so much space between the tables? Seriously, if they moved each of the (only four) tables apart just a tad more, they could easily fit in another two tables, and it would not look crowded.

And why is there a coal heater in there? (presumably the one from the old hut?) I'm guessing this is only temporary. I imagine they'll put gas on eventually. Or will they? Why is there several tons of cut firewood under and around the hut with signs saying not to use the firewood until it is dry in 2009/2010?

Seriously though, they've done a good job with the hut, even with it's eccentricities (which don't bother me much as I don't often stay in or near the huts on the OT). My only real complaint would be that it needs a big deck out the front. It's so obvious, it's just odd that it's not there. Maybe this is planned, but not yet started? There is still a lot of work going on there.

Edit: BTW, I don't mean to be down on this hut as such. It's mostly just different. I think the ventilated (through floor walls and glassless flyscreened windows) dining room (not the main dining room) will be brilliant in Summer if it keeps out more flies than it keeps in.

[Trapper]

I agree wholeheartedly about the "hut" Son of a Beach . We stayed there several weeks ago and our comments were identical to yours. A lot of space wasted and that night there was a full moon shining on the snow covered Acropolis, which was very difficult to fully apreciate through the fogged up windows. Where is the deck? A million dollar view and nowhere to see it from. I have spent many hours sitting on the verandah of the new Pelion hut taking in the view, it would be fantastic if we could do the same at Windy Ridge. Later that evening it poured with rain and those poor souls who had hung their socks etc around the heater to dry, had a rude shock the next morning. Whoever did the flashing around the flue failed dramatically. I must have rained inside around the heater as much as it did outside.

NS

[Son of a Beach]

...and should we be calling them 'lodges' or 'chalets' these days instead of huts? To me a hut has always implied something both small and very basic. In fact, I've just checked my dictionary, and its definition of 'hut' is:

a small single-story building of simple or crude construction, serving as a poor, rough, or temporary house or shelter.

So the more recent 'huts' on the overland track are not really huts at all, it would seem.

[Nuts]

I tried the log, the #$&%^ hut kept getting in the way
Anyhow, here is a photo (Judgements reserved)

[Son of a Beach]

I'm actually considering climbing up the Gatepost (hill behind Windy Ridge) next time in order to get a similar view but from higher up and without anything else interfering with that view. Then I looked at the map, and figured that would also be an interesting way of getting into the lakes area!

[Nuts]

Hi Nik, Yes it would make a classic photo from higher up, wouldn't be far over to Orion and those lakes.

And another 'spooky' incedent (footnote)-
I dropped the camera whilst downloading and broke the link access gate thingy in half
(and I only Stood on the log!)

[Son of a Beach]

Yikes! I wonder if it's too late to graft that huge tree back onto it's stump?

[Son of a Beach]

Oh yeah... I noticed that the new Windy Ridge hut has a light switch in the main dining room. I'm guessing that this is somebody's idea of a joke, and it has just been glued to the door frame, with nothing actually connected to it.

[Nuts]

We should sneak out and wire it to the solar lights setup in the rangers quarters

Yes, personally I also believe that the new hat is in fact haunted, wouldn't stay there myself....the log will have its revenge!

[tasadam]

Indeed - the secret is truly out - the Ghost of trees past...
To break the spirit, one must stand on the stump, face the wind (ie. Windy ridge), and shout at the top of the voice three times...

Bert Nichols (Link)

OK I confess, I had to look his name up too... And interesting to see the URL - overlandtrack.com.au/huts/windyridge.html

[Nuts]

I think, as others probably have, that sooner or later it will be know as either Bert's or Nicholses, in true Ozzy style.
Bert's has the fewest syllables...but then -which Bert?

[Son of a Beach]

Oh yes, anothing thing about the new Windy Ridge hut: The ceilings are rather high. In the bunk rooms, at the end where the ceiling was lowest, I could stand on the top bunk without hitting the ceiling. It's rather high in most of the dining room also.

[TruBlu]

Oh yeah... I noticed that the new Windy Ridge hut has a light switch in the main dining room. I'm guessing that this is somebody's idea of a joke, and it has just been glued to the door frame, with nothing actually connected to it.

I noticed 3 in Waterfall Valley Hut when I was there last month.

[tas-man]

Possibly the offspring of the same person who installed a fully concreted-in cold water tap on the top of Mount Beewah in the Glasshouse Mountains, SE Qld, many many years ago

[tasadam]

Possibly the offspring of the same person who installed a fully concreted-in cold water tap on the top of Mount Beewah in the Glasshouse Mountains, SE Qld, many many years ago

I must admit when I was at Kia Ora, I was thinking a clothes dryer would be a funny addition. Strip the guts out and pack it in by night so as not to be found... A solar panel and battery, a speaker and circuit inside it to make it sound like it was going...
But it was just one of many silly thoughts I shared with a couple of Sydney chaps. The light switch doesn't surprise me - power points were another idea but we figured we wouldn't be the first to think of that.

[cherryw]

Hi All

Fixed my photos from earlier post. Check them out.

Wayne

[Peaksnik]

Having visited the Bert Nichols Hut in early December I can say that it is extremely disappointing involving great expense but low in practical benefits. The volume of the building is huge compared to floor space increasing the building cost and making heating more difficult. The layout of the dining room is poor with too few tables but great for barn dancing. The hallway down from entry level to the dining room is so wide that it could take six persons abreast - great for marching practices. There are no verandahs, the designer has instead included two drying rooms. The first of these rooms has hooks that are well-placed for those above 6' in height but offering a significant challenge to most people. However, the inconvenience is balanced by an emphasis on aesthetics, with the use of attractive and expensive brass hooks. Unfortunately, probably due to their cost, not enough hooks have been installed and so cord has beens strung in a haphazard fashion by punters hoping to use the room for its designated purpose.

Finally, I offer the following two features of the building that taken individually are indicative of the designer's lack of forethought but taken together are just stupendously dumb:

1. Drying rooms that have insect-proof mesh on windows in a location infamous for bold and persistent possums - the ranger has to request walkers not to leave food anywhere but the dining room and spends most days replacing shredded screens.

2. The ventilation in the drying room also includes a band of galvanised steel mesh with 2 cm holes running around the walls at floor level - the architect apparently thinks that insects are so dumb that they only attempt ingress at window level. This is convenient for small rodents as they need not wait for the larger possums to break through the insect screens.

Compared with Pelion Hut (designed by a ranger) the Bert Nichols Hut is a disaster - use the tent platforms instead (but be quick as there are not enough of them).

[hoverbeam]

My wife and I couldn't disagree more with the feelings about the drying room. The mesh offers much better drying opportunity than crowding around a heater (with much less smell also). We had no trouble with insects, rodents or possums but we did ensure our food and packs were properly stored. I can understand many of the comments about space utilisation, however, the drying rooms are a brilliant feature and work magnificently.

[Nuts]

$%^$^%$* Drying Rooms.... Why bother trying to dry stuff, it's such a curious thing, the mad scramble to the next hut to get the gear squeezed in somewhere where it may half dry overnight.... You wouldn't dry them much less in your tent (perhaps the way the hut subject should be thought about- a bonus, not somewhere that should offer the comforts of home )

Rinse your walking socks in hot water before putting them on in the morning...?

The hut has it's good points, a drying room isn't one of them. Removing the heater would solve some prob's with the group mentality. Rushing between huts is such a different experience to that had by the chilled out ( ) tent crowd...(It's more like bringing the city with you isn't it?)

[Darren]

G'Day
Its funny you mentioned the big log along the bck of the hut. My wife and i were there when they felled it. Later in the evening we wandered down to the hut from our tentsite an had a couple of hours yarning with the arborist and the ranger. For myself, a crowded hut would be about the worst place i could imagine spending a night. They do however open up this area to non hikers witch in the overland tracks case i think is good
Darren

[norts]

I think the drying room is more like an airing room, I would imagine you would have to leave gear in their quite awhile before it would dry. The verandah at Pelion can dry alot of gear very quickly if you get some sun in the afternoon.
The verandah at Pelion is such a good place to socialise on a nice evening.
I dislike the dining room at Bert Nichols, I felt like I was in the local school basket ball court.
The platforms are mostly very good at Windy Ridge but they did get rid of a couple to build that huge rangers hut. A couple of more tent platforms at Pelion would be handy.
Had a wonderful view from the platform a fortnight ago, 3 French ladies decided to bathe in a small stream 30 m away. They had no inhibitions so two dirty(in more than one sense) old men had a good perve

Roger

[corvus]

Norts if you were a gentleman you would have averted your eyes ,me I would have regretted leaving out my binocs to keep my weight down but as a true sophisticate would have wandered over and offered them a nice glass of vino
c

[norts]

One word that has never been used to describe me - sophisticated. Probably more an ocker Denny Crane.

Roger

[cherryw]

I think the drying room is more like an airing room, I would imagine you would have to leave gear in their quite awhile before it would dry. The verandah at Pelion can dry alot of gear very quickly if you get some sun in the afternoon.
The verandah at Pelion is such a good place to socialise on a nice evening.
I dislike the dining room at Bert Nichols, I felt like I was in the local school basket ball court.
The platforms are mostly very good at Windy Ridge but they did get rid of a couple to build that huge rangers hut. A couple of more tent platforms at Pelion would be handy.
Had a wonderful view from the platform a fortnight ago, 3 French ladies decided to bathe in a small stream 30 m away. They had no inhibitions so two dirty(in more than one sense) had a good perve

Roger

I knew there was a reason we get out and about.............to see nature in its unspoilt surrounds.

[tasadam]

If you happened to get photos of this event, but felt you weren't sure whether they met forum rules, just shoot them across to me and I will adjudicate.

[norts]

LOL. I think that would have been a bit too obvious. No photos

Roger

[Liamy77]

G'Day
Its funny you mentioned the big log along the bck of the hut. My wife and i were there when they felled it. Later in the evening we wandered down to the hut from our tentsite an had a couple of hours yarning with the arborist and the ranger. For myself, a crowded hut would be about the worst place i could imagine spending a night. They do however open up this area to non hikers witch in the overland tracks case i think is good
Darren

Hmmm... "non hikers" ??? in the middle of the overland track huh.... maybe they get helicoptered in with the million dollar architects (who stay at the chalet in a spa suite for their wilderness experiences) !!!