Cradle Fagus Appreciation Walk – Sat. 27th April 2019

A highlight of the bushwalking year in Tasmania is to enjoy the blazing colour of the "fagus" in the high alpine areas.
This is your chance to experience the unique beauty of the “fagus” in the spectacular surrounds of Cradle Mountain. As usual, we can't guarantee that our planned walk coincides with the peak of the fagus colour, but Cradle is always a special place to visit, so why not join us?
The exact route may vary depending on weather conditions, but perhaps from Ronny Creek up to Crater Lake, then up Marions Lookout, across the Face Track and down to Dove Lake via Lake Wilkes, and back to the car park, either walking back to Ronny Creek from there, or catching a shuttle bus.
What is Fagus? See http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/?base=3244 for a great description.
This walk is rated "medium" and is suitable for walkers, including children, who have had some experience with tracks of varying quality - part boardwalk, part steep and rocky path (very uneven and quite demanding in a few places), and able to keep going for sustained distances. Because of the exposed alpine conditions, walkers must be fully prepared for poor weather. Please see the warnings and equipment suggestion link below.


Meeting Times and Places:
If you are interested in going on this walk, please phone your walk leader, Phil Dawson, ph. [AH] 6382 3561 to book in. The departure time is 7:00 am from the Door of Hope Church car park, Launceston. Suggested meeting places if coming from elsewhere could be Sheffield at Claude Rd. turnoff at 7:50 am or Moina at 8:20 am. The group should arrive at Ronny Creek by approx. 8:45 am. If you would like to arrange to meet the group at these places or elsewhere, please arrange with the leader, and please be at any meeting place 5 minutes ahead of the listed time. The leader must be notified of any other people you intend to bring along.

To access this area from northern Tasmania: Roads to Cradle Mt. are well signposted, and the area can be accessed from several directions. From Sheffield, go south along Claude Rd through Gowrie Park and westward down into the Forth Valley (now Cethana Rd.), continuing up the other side to Moina. Turn south into Cradle Mt. Rd. After approx. 20 km, you will reach the Cradle Mt. turnoff. Turn left (still called Cradle Mt. Rd.) and approx. 4 km south, you will arrive at the Pencil Pine area. At that point, it will be necessary to determine if vehicle access to Ronny Creek, Waldheim or Dove Lake is possible. Sometimes the road is closed due to too many vehicles, in which case it will be necessary to catch a shuttle bus. Otherwise, a further 5 km drive will bring us to Ronny Creek carpark.

Warnings:
  The following codes [from our 2018 walks calendar] apply:
    D    Drive distance requires early departure
    M   Marshy or muddy sections – be prepared to walk with wet feet.
    S    Steep incline for at least part of the way
    E     Exposed alpine conditions ; can be dangerous in poor weather if not adequately equipped;
Click this link for a more detailed discussion of Preparation, Food and Safety guidelines for Boots N' All walks, and especially preparation for exposed alpine conditions.

Map details:
Waldheim/Dove Lake/Cradle Mt area: 1:100000 map is Sophia and 1:25000 map is Cradle.
Map reference: n/a
Zone      Easting        Northing    Latitude    Longitude
n/a

It is unlikely that any peakbagger points will be visited, although the route is tantalisingly close to Little Horn (1 point). For listing of peakbagger points, see the Hobart Walking Club Peakbagger's Guide (2000 revision) which can be found and downloaded (as an Excel spreadsheet) from http://tastracks.webs.com/peakbaggers.htm  The same web page contains several other listings of Tasmanian peaks.

GPX version of the track: Click here to download. Google Earth version of the track: Click here to download.
Right-click on the file and save target as to a location of your choice. (Suggest you click the Last modified at top to sort by date to get the most recent at top to find the file for the next walk).
When you have downloaded the track file, double-clicking on the Google Earth (kml) track should open Google Earth and zoom in to the location if you have Google Earth installed on your computer. The .gpx version of the track should import into mapping software or devices that support gpx tracks and waypoints.