Mt Remus to Reynolds Falls

[geoskid]

Does anybody know if there is any sort of a track from Mt Remus to Reynolds Falls, or for that matter from Mt Beecroft to Reynold Falls. - I like circuits.

[tastrekker]

I did this as a through walk from the Mt Cripps area in February a few years ago. The trip went roughly as follows:

Day 1. I had planned to start by climbing Mt Cripps and descending from there. However, instead, we started at 4:00pm on a very hot afternoon from the southern end of Middlesex Road where Forestry Tas were managing a myrtle sawlog harvesting operation!
After staggering through the discarded tops of myrtle trees for a few hundred metres beyond the end of the road, we started the steep descent through Myrtles. The understory switched several times from being open to being clogged with relatively harmless patches of horizintal.
At 7:00pm, we arrived on the banks of the Vale River which was easily rock-hopped just below Mackintosh Creek. We enjoyed a delightful camp in tall E.Delegatinsis forest with an open mossy floor.

Day 2. The map showed a mere 1.5km as the crow flies to reach the falls. Following the southern side of the river, we soon encountered cliffs. The map showed 'light green' shading above the cliffs indicating drier and most likely more impenetrable scrub so we criss-crossed the river for a while to avoid the cliffs. After a few hundred metres, we reached a long, deep pool which curved out of sight with steep cliffs rising out of the water on both sides. We did not facy a swim so we scaled the cliff-edge on the southern side.
As I had feared, this landed us in tea tree scrub thick with bauera un to 2 or 3 metres deep. The bauera was so thick in places that the tea trees were growing horizontally under its weight. I have a great photo of my 2 mates who are both over 1.8m tall. One is standing on the ground. The other is standing on a horizontal tea tree with his feet level with the first bloke's shoulders. The surrounding bauera is at shoulder level of the bloke standing on the tea tree!
I got a bit frustrated by our lack of progress and this was made worse when we descended into the cliff-lined gully of a creek flowing from the south which I had not expected due to a fold in my map. Soon after that gully though, we emerged on a ridge high above the falls. It was then a quick easy descent through more broken cliffs to reach Ossie's Track just above the final descent to Reynolds Falls. After a late lunch at the falls, we followed Ossie's track up the long gradual climb past tumbling creek and onto the plateau near Heap of Rocks. Soon after we reached the 4WD track, we went a short distance along a branch to the south and made camp as the weather closed in. During the night, it rained, hailed and snowed and we eventually woke to find everything blanketed white with settled hail.

Day 3. We had originally thought we may have made the short climb up the ridge at Heap of Rocks and headed out to Recondite Knob but foul weather encouraged us to head back to the main track and head east. The only challenge on the way out was the swollen confluence of Marsden and Fleece Creeks which made for a slightly challenging wade. We were eventually out to Cradle Lodge by midday.

Having seen Reynolds Falls in summer with a fairly low flow, I'm now keen to see it in winter. It would be a truly fearsome sight. The crossing of Marsden/Fleece Creek could be a challenge. However, I am thinking it would be easy enough to skirt above the headwaters of those creeks by using the Recondite Knob track (see The Abels) and then picking up the track below Heap of Rocks. Crossing the Vale River would not be an option though so it would be a case of heading in and out via the same route.

Another thought would be the Penguin-Cradle Track. I wonder if anyone who has written about this recently knows how this track crosses Fleece Creek. Is there a bridge? Is it above flood level?

[Bap]

Where does the track to Mt Remus Start on my maps it says it starts 41°35.433'S, 145°53.761'E along a dirt road, is this correct and if so is the road gated?

[tastrekker]

Where does the track to Mt Remus Start on my maps it says it starts 41°35.433'S, 145°53.761'E along a dirt road, is this correct and if so is the road gated?

Before getting too excited about the gravel road, check out the discussion Reynolds Falls - A big sidetrip... is it worth it. Go to the bottom of the first page and the top of the second page for that topic and the gravel road gets a lot of discussion with some differing opinions about access.

My advice is foget about the 4WD track. It's not a long walk from Cradle Mountain Lodge to access the 4WD track. In any case, from that point on, the old 4WD track could not be traversed by anything but a bombadier as the button grass has completely taken over.

[stepbystep]

I'm interested in times for a return walk to Mt Remus from the lodge area - from memory The Speeler track leaves the lodge where the King Billy walk is???
I understand it is 8.5km(17km return) to the summit, would like to sneak in an early morning walk while entertaining an interstate visitor

[wello]

I did part of this walk about 10 years ago, so the memory is fading a bit and I don't have any recorded times. I drove to Cradle from Launceston and back again in the afternoon, so I expect I was on track for around five to six hours. Much of the walking is on an old 4WD track through button grass, which is reasonably easy going. Looking at the map, the 4WD track is marked as a walking track.

I took a short cut from the loop track that extends out behind the lodge, leaving it and heading toward Heap of Rocks and picking up the 4WD track after about 500m off track. The 4WD track was a bit overgrown here compared with elsewhere, and may have deteriorated further over the years.

The track ends around 2km short of Mt Remus according to the Cradle map I have, and this was accurate. That 2km was scrubby, and I judged I didn't have enough time to make it. Not sure if its actually bad or not. I did manage to get Back Peak on the way back.

I rough count on my map has the distance to Remus as 11km one way.

I'd suggest Mt Kate as an alternative short walk in the area. About 3 hours (less if you avoid the scrub on the side of the hill), and some quite interesting views of Cradle.

Wello

[stepbystep]

Thanks for that Wello, Mt Kate is my backup walk and the most likely.
I'm suspecting I could do Remus in around 6hrs, which would mean a 4am start so I don't impinge on my friends holiday so I may leave it until late April when I will be heading up with my wife for a few days.
If anyone else has done it in around 5hrs I would be VERY interested to here their story
Cheers, sbs.