A stroll to Frenchmans Cap pictures included.

[Ent]

Hi

To get the thread going a group of friends did an "amble" to Frenchmans Cap over the Australia long day weekend. There were five starters but sadly one could not make the full trip due to work commitments so went into Vera and out the next day. The remainder "ambled" on to Tahune with three climbing the peak to be rewarded with magnificent 360 views. The third day was heading back to Vera and the final day was the trek out. It was a great walk for company and weather. So four days and three nights to cover fifty-four kilometres to gain and lose over two kilometres in elevation.

Here is a picture of the group at Vera Hut and a view from the top looking back at the Needles from whence we came from to kick off the pictures and trip report.

Cheers Brett

[geoskid]

Well done fellas, nice shots Brett.
I thought I passed Si about Midday(ish) on Sunday, a few K's from the Cap carpark. Ah, work hey, ruins a perfectly good lifestyle. Had my calling card washed off Simon?
Looking forward to hearing all about the adventure - How did you fare Gerry? OK I hope?

[sthughes]

Was a great walk, shame about the carpark vandals

[Julafreak]

Nice one guys! Its a shame I missed out on all the fun!

[sthughes]

A few more pictures here: http://s441.photobucket.com/albums/qq136/simonthughes/Frenchmans%20Cap%20January%202010/?albumview=slideshow

[Phil]

A few more pictures here: http://s441.photobucket.com/albums/qq136/simonthughes/Frenchmans%20Cap%20January%202010/?albumview=slideshow

Love the pics guys, looks like you had a great adventure! Wow, I really need to get there some day!

[Ent]

Hi sthughes

Brilliant photographs, especially liked the one with flowers on the top of the Cap. You have certainty got the camera firing well with a National Geographical documentary type feel that appeals to me. You should put the one you like the best into the photo competition and also submit a couple to the Examiner. They give a great way to relive the event without sweat pouring over the eyes.

Cheers Brett

[sthughes]

Lol - I don't think any are that good. I was pretty disappointed none of the Lake Tahune/Frenchmans Cap mirror shots on Monday morning stitched real well. Did you get any good ones of it?

[Ent]

On a walk like this and with the great weather conditions I kick myself that I did not take the SLR until I remembered how heavy it was No I muck up most of my shots at Tahune due to slackness and not having a tripod. I am working my way through them using Photoshop in an attempt to correct the exposure range that was too much for the old S70 small sensor. Times like that a neutral density filter would have been the go. Ek, more weight

Do not sell yourself short you are developing an eye for composure plus the camera for a compact takes great shots with a good JPG conversion. The old S70 I use is not as good in JPG but can take raw which is a bonus but the lens is a bit soft around the edges and focus has sort of suffered from adverse weather conditions.

Anyhow a few more to add to the collection as I convert the RAW images into JPG.

Cheers Brett

[tasadam]

Gerry I like your style... What's in the glass?

It's interesting to see similarities from photos I took in 2005.

[Ent]

Interesting to see that the Trig point has disappeared The route via the Franklin River, how challenging and longer is this compared to the usual in an out and is a car shuffle required? Basically if the Loddens were really sodden is it an viable alternative?

Cheers Brett

[tasadam]

This about sums it up...

Chapman SW book has more info. Generally speaking, it is definitely not a viable alternative just to miss a bit of mud.
If the Loddens is that bad that you need to swim through the mud you won't get across the Franklin anyhow.
And yes a car shuffle or transport arrangements would be required, we started at the Frenchmans track and finished at Victoria Pass / Nelson Falls.

[Ent]

Thanks for that Adam. Was curious when I saw the sign on the ascent to Frenchmans Cap pointing to that route and thought there might be a very good reason why most people do not take that way so nice to know the reason. Definitely not an amble by the sounds of it.

Cheers Brett

[Son of a Beach]

Great pics guys... of a fabulous location.

The other Irenabyss/Raglan Range route is seriously difficult and not recommended, unless you're really sure you're up to it. There is some very serious scrub bashing involved, and a day or so with no creeks or lakes or other water sources apart from yabbie holes (depending on exactly which route you take, as there are a couple of variations).

[Jellybean]

Awesome pics, thanks for sharing guys. Another Tassie walk to add to the list, I think I need to move there .... so many great walks, so little time

[Ent]

Bit of a trap with water I found with the standard route in as while the dry weather made the Lodden easy the slight downside was not much water was around so a litre container I normally carry was on the bare minimum side for the heat and sweat loss for me. No great problem but unless familiar with the route fill up at every opportunity. According to Penguin it was the driest he had seen it with water never been a problem before. Found no water from the Needles until coming quite close to Tahune at least near the track. In fact most of the track notes on the walk obsess about the Loddens and gloss over the elevation gain and loss along with a few scary bits for people not so incline to enjoy scrambling. Sure there is a hand hold or foot hold where needed but a slip could result in a serve injury or worst in a few places. The walk is frequently done by your average tourist so I would have expected Chapman and Thomas to be a little more circumspect with the notes. Also the Lonely Planet suggest two nights at Vera with an assault on the Cap in between. Yes very doable but we struck a few people halfway down the Mountain at 3.00pm needing to get back to Vera. For the young and/or fit no problem in good weather but not so sure in poor weather and fitness.

I sort of worry over the preparedness of some walkers but with the weather we enjoyed they were in no danger but chuck in a quick moving front and a few might have had rather less a magical experience. One of the sites was two very fit young overseas lads expressing down the Cap with Kathmandu packs in hand, yes the Kathmandu pack was the Kathmandu shopping bag, which judging by its repeat appearance with other walkers is a very popular item. The bag was looking worse for wear but still holding together.

Cheers Brett

[Jellybean]

The walk is frequently done by your average tourist so I would have expected Chapman and Thomas to be a little more circumspect with the notes.

I sort of worry over the preparedness of some walkers but with the weather we enjoyed they were in no danger but chuck in a quick moving front and a few might have had rather less a magical experience.

I'm guessing that some "average tourists" think it seems like a good idea and don't even look at any track notes or, if they do, don't take any notice.

When we were in Tassie in November (rain for 8.5 of the 10 days with a light dump of snow in the Walls), we did a short walk at Cradle Mountain before heading into the Walls - up Hanson's Peak, across the Face Track and back down the track next to Marion's Lookout. (Nice walk, would've been even better if the views weren't obscured by cloud all day. We didn't even try to reach the Cradle Summit for that reason). It was fairly cold and rained pretty constantly all day. We were wearing full waterproofs pretty much all day. Just as we were leaving Marion's to head back down we came across a couple of overseas tourists who were dressed in cotton shorts and a t-shirt (no waterproofs in sight) and carrying a K'mart quality day pack with a K'mart quality sleeping bag dangling off the side in a bag that clearly wasn't waterproof. They were heading in the direction of Kitchen Hut. We were hoping they weren't planning on doing the OT with that sort of gear, they were totally ill-equipped. (Then, to add to that, as we walked back along the track to the Dove Lake car park we came across a wedding party who were about to be married on the beach next to the boat shed. While the groom waited nervously on the beach, his bride was making her way along the track from the car park in a full white bridal gown (with train) and in high heels! Dove Lake was obviously very special to them!).

[Ent]

Yes preparedness must be an issue for all involved. I will be curious to read the Lonely Planet Guide to the track as it like Thomas has it down as a two night, three day trip. Frankly with LPG I found it about as useless as a book can be for most places I visited in Europe. I swear blind that the writers had often only seen the travel brochures for most places they claimed to have visited. The exception was an excellent write-up on Lyon and places to go for a feed. That was the only thing that saved it from the waste bin in my humble opinion. I would like to have seen each section identified to an author as I am sure there was one writer that must have stopped in Amsterdam and done the trip chemically

My pet hate is a trail of blue left behind by people carrying sleeping mats outside their packs. Assuming the person was heading in the correct direction you could have followed the trail of blue to Vera. Seen much the same over the more popular routes. Surely if we care about the environment we can get packs big enough to store everything in them that can rub off into the environment or protect the stuff outside the pack

Anyway here are three more of day one, which though having its own charms is more a slog to the more scenic parts of the walk.

[geoskid]

Hiya Brett, hope you realize your "path finding on the loddens" photo wont go down well with the 'friends of fur and feather brigade'. Do you mean you could'nt see the path , or you just chose to make another
I'll just go and make some popcorn and come back - I love seeing a growm man squirm.
Nice photos BTW.
Yours Truly
Geoskid

[Taurë-rana]

Also the Lonely Planet suggest two nights at Vera with an assault on the Cap in between. Yes very doable but we struck a few people halfway down the Mountain at 3.00pm needing to get back to Vera. For the young and/or fit no problem in good weather but not so sure in poor weather and fitness.

That's how I did it and always understood it to be a 3 day trip but the four days would make it a more leisurely trip and two days to have the opportunity to climb Frenchmans in case of bad weather. The advantage of staying at Vera of course is less distance with a full pack. I seem to remember the first day being a nightmare though through thigh deep Loddens in pouring rain. The second day was lovely and the walk in through The Needles magical, the only downer was the band of cloud hovering below Frenchmans - sunny on top but no view! The third day back out was somewhat better than the first as it wasn't raining and we knew what to expect.

Nice photos, sounds like a good trip.

[corvus]

Well done fellas, nice shots Brett.
I thought I passed Si about Midday(ish) on Sunday, a few K's from the Cap carpark. Ah, work hey, ruins a perfectly good lifestyle. Had my calling card washed off Simon?
Looking forward to hearing all about the adventure - How did you fare Gerry? OK I hope?

G'day Mark,
I rolled an ankle / tore something only a few km from Vera on the way back from Tahune (glad I was wearing proper boots or it would have been the "big yellow taxi
" for me ) strapprd it up at Vera some NICADS and medicinal liquid and I walked out in 5.5 hours next day it is still sore today and I hope it will be ok for my next walk this weekend.
corvus

[corvus]

Gerry I like your style... What's in the glass?

It's interesting to see similarities from photos I took in 2005.

Adam,
You may like my style however the wine was a "nice unchilled 2lt boxed colombard chardonney( hey come to think about it in that pic it would have Simons fruity lexia out of a 4 lt box) which I may add was 'quaffable" under the circumstances
Gerry

[Ent]

Hiya Brett, hope you realize your "path finding on the loddens" photo wont go down well with the 'friends of fur and feather brigade'. Do you mean you could'nt see the path , or you just chose to make another
I'll just go and make some popcorn and come back - I love seeing a growm man squirm.
Nice photos BTW.
Yours Truly
Geoskid

Oh, yes could see the path, or more accurately the countless number of them The Lodden plains is rather reminiscent to the OT before board walking some of the Alpine areas. The Loddens is largely flat enough for the mud to stay put but in some sections the dry track was over a metre deep due to erosion from countless feet and rain. Bit of a quandary as some school of thought says members should spread out over boggy areas while others claim stick to the middle. Seriously due to the number of people to protect the environment board walking is the only option in my opinion. Even with a limited number of people such peat areas would quickly be reduced to a scene from Flanders in WW1. For lightly traffic areas the best approach would be to spread the load but with Frenchmans Cap track this means a wide path and besides numbers are just too high to expect walked on areas to recover by themselves. In our conditions the trick was to spot the harder bits to step on. On the way back this was easy as a dry crust had formed but in the way in a few sections were churned up meaning a prod with the walking pole to find if they had a bottom. I am sure as Corvus said a person seeking dramatic pictures could find the occasional bog hole and worm their way up to their hips even in the dry conditions we encountered. Probably when the track across the Loddens was surveyed the peat was held in place by the roots of the plants but no longer nowadays. As for squirming, long legs makes for long strides so not much of that happened

Anyway here are a few more pictures taken from the track.

[lyndoor]

Hi All
I did the Frenchman/Franklin/Raglan Traverse just over a week ago with a group of like minded nutty friends. What a walk!
Sorry, Guys, but the Sodden Loddons didn't live up to their reputation at all - thank, God! We had a late start @ 2pm so camped at the "Mosquito Field Squadron Air Base" at Philip Creek for the first night, Lake Tahune on the second, then on the Franklin down the road from the beautiful Irenabyss & somewhere north of the proper campsite above Mary Creek Plain (overshot that one!). We had to swim the Franklin using ropes & gargbage bags! Always take a rope! My hubby insisited & we are all eternally grateful that he did. It was just 30 metres of cheap, lightweight laundry rope but with a heavy stick attached to the end, it saw many crossings. Definitely not a walk for the faint-hearted as there are many steep sections up & down & SOB is right, lots of scrub bashing. The track is there but not always easily found & frequently lost!
lyndoor

[Ent]

Great to here from you Lyndoor. Sounds like a much more adventurous way in and out. What was the water supply like?

Cheers Brett

[lyndoor]

Hi Brett
Does seem as if I left the planet for a while but I have been following all the happenings! Would love to join everyone on Anniversary walk but I'm away
Water supply okay from rivers & creeks as we went along but we were caught napping after walking up Frenchman's until we got to Franklin. Could have got water from Lake Nancy or Jetty as we walked above them but found enough from a small tarn & rock soaks(?). We really lucked great weather with just light rain on the Franklin.
lyndoor