Mt Pearse

[Taurë-rana]

Tortoise and I had a stroll along this range yesterday in perfect conditions - sunny but with occasional cloud to cool it off a bit at times, which we needed...
Our plan was to climb Mt Pearse, then go round/over the lump in the middle and up Rocky SL, then come back down to meet the logging tracks, like Stu and co did. Looks easy on the map!
Pearse had a tagged and fairly clear pad most of the way, although the bauera is starting to invade the track and in places appears to completely block the track until you push through. We took 2 and a half hours to reach the ex trig point with 4 dangerous spikes still sticking out of the ground and the trig itself just lying on the ground. I did nearly come to grief on one of the spikes. After leaving the trees there are good views, and you get quite a while to enjoy them because the summit is of course about the third or fourth peak along so you are up high for some time. As has been commented before here, this is another West Coast mountain which surprises in its attractiveness.

After the summit we continued along the range, ducking up to the end peak lump just in case it was higher than the trig point, then started making our way down to the saddle between the unnamed lump and Mt Pearse. I'm not sure whether we just had bad luck or whether it's all like that, but we ended up in deeper and deeper scrub, thigh height is not too bad, but head height is hard going and we were cursing the fact that we are somewhat slightly built, vertically challenged women who had to get our feet nearly above our ears at times to get out of the holes. After working our way round to the end of Pearse and dropping down some way, we reluctantly decided that Rocky SL would have to be attempted another day as we just had no idea what the scrub was like to get up there, and we still had to get back to the logging tracks across unknown country. So we planned our route out - down the mountain to the creek and across the creek to that large open area that we could see...

As we went down towards the creek the scrub just got higher and higher, with some horrible tangled patches of bauera and tea tree. Eventually we got into tangled sassafras forest which at least we could see a few metres through, and actually move through albeit slowly. We had hoped that it would be clearer after we crossed the creek, but although there were some slightly more open areas it continued to be very hard going, and due to some slight confusion with map datum and GPS's, we weren't exactly sure where we were. As the weather was good, and the peaks very obvious around us, this wouldn't have been a problem if the going had been easier, but when it takes so long just to get a few hundred metres we were worried about missing the logging road. If we'd missed it, some of the two kilometres back to the car would have been done the next morning after a night out.

We never did find the big open area we thought we could see from the side of the mountain, not sure whether it was there or not, or whether it was actually much taller scrub than it looked. Finally after battling through a yet another patch of thick teatree, chasing an approximate waypoint for the logging road as well as following the map and compass we reached the tall forest which looked at that point impenetrable. A short break and minor meltdown from me over, we kept following GPS and compass and found some wonderful, far more open forest to walk through. We still didn't really know if we were where we hoped, but when you can walk easily it's just a matter of time before you get somewhere useful! Then we found a fallen tree that had been cut down, and an old stump, so knew there must be an old road around somewhere. We found the traces of one and followed it to finally find a usable logging road where the feelings of relief were huge! It was so nice to follow the logging roads back to the car - to be able to walk properly and cover ground, think we would have been happy to walk 10 or 20km along it!

Back to the car at 7pm, 9 hours after we left. This was probably the hardest day walk we have done, not necessarily physically although it was a pretty major workout pushing through the scrub for several hours, but the mental side of it was big too. It's these sorts of walks that teach you a lot about yourself and make you think about your preparation. This is one walk that I would not have wanted to do solo, but Kathy and I have complementary skills that ensured that we were fine, and would have been fine even if we had got caught out for the night.

[vagrom]

Thanks for your inspiring account.
It's always good to be reminded of the realities of Tassie walking. The photos in this forum are beaut but the accounts of the grunt involved, the impassable bush and sense of "omg" as the hours towards later afternoon tick by, fill the other half of the story. Then there's the happily rare occassions of sunset panic and the accompanying mouth dryness. ( Rule no.1: "Don't panic." ;
Rule no.2: "THERE IS NO RULE 2!" )
Ralph Ashton's Tarkine book has one or two excellent photos of Mt Pearse's out of the way summit.
I first heard of Pearse in the old Envirobooks guide Day Walks in Tasmania from 1993, by Dickinson,Howard and Rubock. Some really out of the way walks, so helpful with the dearth of walks info available back then. No idea if their advice for Pearse is still useful. Their guide for approaching Livingstone is now apparently well out of date.
Tyrone Thomas' first Tassie guide was a cracker too, including places like Sprent.
After that they became responsible, which is fair.

[Taurë-rana]

( Rule no.1: "Don't panic." ;
Rule no.2: "THERE IS NO RULE 2!" )
.

Can be easier said than done - there were times when we were in thick, way taller than me, seemingly impenetrable bauera that I had to consciously remind myself to breathe, and slow down and not go at it as hard as I could. I'm not all that scared of very much, but I think the thought of getting trapped is what triggers my anxiety.

Pearse range.jpg (134.35 KiB) Viewed 6308 times

Pearse trig.jpg (131.63 KiB) Viewed 6308 times

Pearse.jpg (179.63 KiB) Viewed 6308 times

[Tortoise]

we are somewhat slightly built, vertically challenged women who had to get our feet nearly above our ears at times to get out of the holes.

What's that 'nearly' business! I was grateful for my gymnastics background, and for the fact that unlike some middle-aged people, I can still get my foot above my ear if necessary - as was the case several times on this memorable walk.

It did remind me of a couple of hobbits on an adventure, but who didn't have the strength to barge through walls of vegetation that (I think i remember) hobbits would typically have.

One thing that messed with our heads was the apparent 'clearing' with low vegetation and 'pond' in the trig image above. Neither of us have brillliant eyesight, but what we expected to be low vegetation may have in fact been the ti tree canopy. The 'pond' really still doesn't look like a rock, though. Seeking and not finding the (possibly imaginery) clearing that would take us relatively easily to the road, wasn't good for morale or clear thinking.

'So near and yet so far' was all too true. Despite technical confusion, we had to be within well under 1/4 square km - but "how on earth do we get through this stuff??!!" and "we must be very close to the clearing!"

In hindsight, we had an interesting difference in approaches - from 'if we head NE we'll have to hit the road' to 'if we think about this long enough we'll work out exactly where we are, which will help us figure out the best way'.

Pearse itself was lovely - love that peaky ridgetop viewy walking. I'd just like to know if there was an easier way beyond it! I'll be looking for an alternative route up Rocky Sugarloaf, though

[Taurë-rana]

You know, looking at that photo I can pretty much work out where we went, and I'm pretty sure we did go through the supposed clear area. But it even looks reasonably clear on that closest foothill and we know it wasn't.

[stu]

A fine effort ladies, despite any misadventure along the way
The going along the rest of the range tops to Rocky SL was ok, but yes, there were pockets of scunge.
Our descent route was a little further along by the sounds of it which maybe got us closer to the open forest...the 'open' area was almost certainly tea tree with buttongrass underneath.

Our groups worst instance of this false impression of terrain occurred descending Mt Alma, near the Frenchmans Cap carpark. From up high we spied what looked like an area of low heath, so naturally we aimed for this...it turned out to be dense 12' high tea tree forest with obviously near uniform height. Never make assumptions walking off track in Tassie...something learnt from many aforementioned assumptions
Glad you both got out ok and not too psychologically scarred...it always seems less horrendous with the healing sands of time

[Tortoise]

Thanks, Stu. That's very gracious.

Never make assumptions walking off track in Tassie...quote]

Yep, got that one now

Glad you both got out ok and not too psychologically scarred...

Actually, I have a good list of 'Life lessons from Mt Pearse'. The list began on the walk, which was good for my morale.

it always seems less horrendous with the healing sands of time

Isn't that why we all keep bushwalking?!