Mount Manfred, Waratah flowers
Posted inBushwalking

Horizontal, Manfred, Cuvier & Goulds – Part One

Dolerite cliffs of Mount Manfred with waratahs flowering below Five days off in January - what a treat! While Kylie was focused on her Overland Track with side trips speed mission (There’s a story for another day!), I set my sights on some Abel adventuring. Over the past year I’ve had the opportunity to skipper the little ferry (Ida…
Overland with the Works – Take Two
Posted inTrail Running

Overland with the Works – Take Two

Kylie with Overland Track sign at Ronny Creek I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again…  If at first you don’t succeed… Barely days after our first attempt at Overland Track with all Classic Side Trips, Kylie announced another thumping great high was heading our way following a good dumping of snow.  Reluctant to succumb to the ice…
Sunrise lake reflections
Posted inTrail Running

Overland Track with the Works – Take One

The Overland Track with all the Classic Side Trips mission was born out of Kylie’s 50th birthday project – 50 Mountain Marathons in 50 Consecutive Weeks which ran until August 2024.  With work and life in general preventing marathons in some weeks, it was inevitable that attention turned to missions that could deliver multiple marathons in a week, sometimes…
Cradle Mt sunrise
Posted inTrail Running

Cradle Mountain Run – February 2018

Cradle Mountain sunrise Sunday morning, Derwent Bridge Hotel. Breakfast.  I joined a stiff, sore but very satisfied group of ultra-trail runners to celebrate 82 kilometres of remote, undulating, unforgiving and wild trail running.  Only open to 60 runners it was a rare privilege to compete in and complete the official race along a walking track that has been part…
Lake,Mountain,Lookout
Posted inBushwalking

Cradle and Barn – January 2020

If there was an origin for my bushwalking, it's the Cradle Mountain area.  The first walk I can remember was the old Dove Lake circuit before the lake level track made it the tourist-friendly doddle it is today.  I was four years old.  Amazingly mum and dad were also hauling my two younger siblings on the epic journey through…
Crossing Winterbrook
Posted inBushwalking

PCT and Reynolds Falls

https://www.youtube.com/embed/hAhTzgQIDnM Tasmania's Overland Track (OT) has a little-known, younger sibling, the Penguin to Cradle Trail or PCT for short.  While the OT was conceived in 1931 by rangers at opposite ends of a park, the PCT was imagined and built into existence by members of the North-West Walking Club in 1972, the year I was born!  As a child…
If Aus Mtn Running Champs Were One Week Later…
Posted inTrail Running

If Aus Mtn Running Champs Were One Week Later…

Fresh Autumn snow blanketed kunanyi / Mount Wellington a couple of Sunday's ago.  It was exactly a week after our mountain hosted the Australian Trail Running Championships.  What if the snow and the championships coincided?   Panorama Track Settled snow would have been encountered at the event's halfway mark on the steep Old Hobartians track.  Front runners would have encountered…
2018 Australian Mountain Running Championships
Posted inTrail Running

2018 Australian Mountain Running Championships

Happy finishers Fine and mild conditions (by Tassie standards) accompanied runners as they ascended through the stringy bark (E. obliqua) forests on kunanyi / Mount Wellington's lower slopes in the 2018 Australian Mountain Running Championships.  After leaving Talosa Park fire trails gave plenty of elbow room as social joggers like myself were soon separated from serious contenders on the steep sections before reaching…
Australian Mountain Running Championships – 2018 Course Preview
Posted inTrail Running

Australian Mountain Running Championships – 2018 Course Preview

Last month Kylie and I heard the Australian Mountain Running Championships will be held in our backyard on 8th April this year.  Further investigation revealed the course includes our favourite section of the Back Yard Loop.  As if to entice us even further they have a non-championship section, presumably for social runners like us, which has the added inducement…
Anticipating Cradle
Posted inTrail Running

Anticipating Cradle

The Cradle Mountain Run has loomed large in my imagination for as long as I can remember.  It's a long story but...  This Saturday 3rd February will be my first attempt at running the entire 82 kilometre Overland Track from Ronny Creek to Cynthia Bay. Approaching Pine Forest Moor on a winter Overland Track training run with Kylie. There's…