Advice for the east/west to the back of Mt Wellington

[Stoneycreek]

good morning

We are planning a walk from the beginning of Jefferies track Crabtree side then via the east west track then come up the back of Mt Wellington. Can anyone offer suggestions, warnings, directions and the like?

Looking to do this Thurday/Friday

Thanks

[kramster]

Hi Stoneycreek

I've done both ends of the walk you mention (4WD along Jefferies Track, and also walking from Mt Wellington along East-West Trail as far as Mt Patrick).
Given you've probably completed your jaunt by now, this might be old news... but here's a few thoughts from a walk I did about 10 yrs ago.

Going from the Mt Wellington / Big Bend Fire Trail end, there is a route over Mt Connection which joins back up with the East-West Trail and cuts off a large detour on fire-trails (this is marked on the 1:25000 Collinsvale map).
A number of peaks are easily accessible from the East West Trail, including Collins Bonnet, Trestle Mountain, Mt Marian, Mt Charles and Mt Patrick. Most of them are either following a cairned route or choose-your-own-adventure through the scrub (the hardest bit we found was getting to Mt Patrick).

Water may / may-not be an issue - there are several small dams along the fire-trail, we camped under Trestle Mountain near a running creek from where we got all our water.

Other than that, its a relatively rarely visited part of Mt Wellington, and still quite spectacular views.

Cheers
Kramster

[stepbystep]

As Kramster suggests, from Big Bend the route over Mt Connection if much nicer than following the fire trail the whole way.
I have completed the full traverse now in a series of walks and all the peaks are cairned clearly, with Patrick being a tagged route that is a little trickier to follow(I was up there a few days ago).

There are a couple of nice side trips also including Fools Tarn and the Pineapple grass paddock viewtopic.php?f=42&t=4022&p=45797&hilit=Pineapple#p45797 PM required for co-ords.

Cheers

[frenchy_84]

Hi all, just after info on Jeffery's track, I only have a 2 wheel drive car so can't drive the whole way, so I was just wondering how far from the east west track can you get with 2wd and can you get closer from the Lachlan side of the Crabtree side?

[Strider]

You won't get up the Crabtree side at all in a 2WD. From the Lachlan side you might get a bit further, but only if its bone dry. Not sure if you'd make it to the E-W Track turnoff though...

[frenchy_84]

I know I won't make it to the track just want an estimate of how far from the east west track the road turns to crap.

[Strider]

The road turns to crap at the beginning of Jefferies Track. On the Lachlan side the track is undulating and often very muddy. On the crabtree side is loose and rocky with ruts 400mm deep.

[frenchy_84]

Incase anyone else wants to go that way, I went the Lachlan side, the first 4k is a proper gravel road. I stopped at 5.6km mark which left a 40 min walk to the junction of the east west track. If I pushed a little harder or had a 'soft roader' I would have easily made it another k or so and cut 15mins of the walk time.