Bushwalk Australia

Hi all. Years ago we traversed the Spires and Lake Curly areas from the top of Pokana Bay on Lake Gordon and out following the vague remnants of the old exploration track from the disused airstrip near the Gell River up to Lake King William. Though scrubby and hard to find the track was a good alternative to coming from Denison Range.

A friend is keen for us to do something similar again. I am willing but have two questions if anyone can help:
1. Does anyone have recent experience of using the old exploration route in recent years, or know of people who have. I know of Andrew Hughes trip and Belgium guy (http://www.louis-philippe-loncke.com/2006/12/). It was hard to find years ago...is it followable now?
2. It seems the Spires would be better accessed from the top of Holley Basin rather than Pokana Bay. Any info on this would also be appreciated.
Thanks in advance for any help.
PJK

Can't help but sounds like a brilliant trip

1/ I've only heard that it is overgrown to unfollowable. Sadly pioneer species that swallow disturbed ground tends to be horrible ie Cutting Grass, Baura...
2/ It's an idea I've had for a while...ascending Southern Cone and traversing north...looks 'interesting'...some mates just went in from Pokana and didn't speak highly of that option....seems all the approaches to The Spires make you earn your rewards...

2) Everywhere you look on the maps with that route, the word 'scrub' appears. Probably no easier than the Pokana Bay/Pleiades route.

We did the Spires trip in January 2015, in via Pokana Bay, out via the Denisons. See trip report here http://andrewgaskell.weebly.com/bushwalking/january-2015-the-spires, photos here https://www.flickr.com/photos/118621459@N03/sets/72157650235262755.

Found the going slower than expected along the Pleiades, but I am thinking in hindsight we probably made a strategic error passing most of the rocky outcrops on the rocky western side, rather than going along the eastern side through scrub (interested in knowing how others approached this) - this made for slow going. There was also a cliff line to navigate near the ridge going to Mt Curly - passable but took some time to find a route.

Going up onto Conical Mountain and across to Shining Mt and The Spires no problems.

I have to say we camped at three of the best campsites in Tasmania - Lake Curly, Shining Mt, and Lake Wugata - all stunning (of course there are lots of other 'best' campsites but there you go).

Coming off Conical Mountain back towards Curly requires a bit of care as well.

We didn't have any trouble going out over the Denisons, apart from the small matter of a car parked in the wrong place which extended the last days walking by a large amount of k's!!

In fact prior to the trip we were most concerned about the Lake Curly to Lake Wugata leg but this turned out to be no trouble at all, and probably one of the only days we made the amount of ground we had hoped for.

Of course having the Gordon crossing as the last part of the walk involves some risks re river level - we tried to allow for this by budgeting extra days, etc but in the end we used these up earlier in the trip. We were extremely blessed with our trip timing - out of nine days on the trail we had seven fine. Just after we got back rain bucketed down - the resulting rise in the Gordon's level meant two parties stuck on the Denison side (from memory) had to be airlifted out. We have previously stached food on the Denison side but for a through trip as we did it would mean quite a diversion and extra time to do this.

Hi, This is just a follow up report on a trip to explore what remains of the old early 1970’s mineral exploration track from Lake King William down to the Gell River.

We had a look in February at what remains and right from the outset found it hard to find. I followed the track from the Gell R north in the 1990s and the section from the King William dam that was extremely obvious then has greatly deteriorated to the point of disappearing. This part of the track has been taped from around the dam to where one would leave it to climb Mt Hobhouse and, apart from one unclear section after a creek, can be followed reasonably easily. However beyond that point the track has essentially disappeared.

Others may have better luck, but my take on that is that the wilderness has regained what was scarred 50 years ago. Hope that’s helpful to anybody contemplating that route.

PJK