Cradle Mountain Run - February 2018

Cradle Mountain sunrise

Sunday morning, Derwent Bridge Hotel.  Breakfast.  I joined a stiff, sore but very satisfied group of ultra-trail runners to celebrate 82 kilometres of remote, undulating, unforgiving and wild trail running.  Only open to 60 runners it was a rare privilege to compete in and complete the official race along a walking track that has been part of my life for as long as I can remember.

Predawn reflections on Crater Lake

For me, the race was a series of highs and lows but I'm pleased to report the highs well-and-truly outnumbered the lows.

High - Community

The pre-race briefing at Cradle Mountain Lodge, the pre-dawn start at Waldheim Chalet, the Cynthia Bay finishing line and the post-race breakky were all wonderful opportunities to mingle with like-minded individuals.  This included a good mix of runners from Tassie and further afield along with organisers, officials and sweeps.  The word 'technical' was bandied around a lot by the visitors.  It's a bushwalking track.  What did they expect?  To me the Overland Track is a superhighway but it's all relative.  In Tassie we keep hearing "Three Capes standard" as a new way to describe trails which offer a dry boot experience and a smooth and predictable surface.  The Overland Track is not that and I hope it never will be.

Friday evening pre race briefing

High - Sunrise on Cradle Plateau and the Cirques

A 6am start put us on the Plateau for sunrise.  This coincided with Cradle Mountain peeping out from the mist and Barn Bluff peering around the corner in the 'distance.'  (In less than two hours Barny would be a similar 'distance' behind me!)  On the other side of Cradle it felt heavenly as we commenced the descent into Waterfall Valley with fluffy clouds filling the cirques below and early morning sun drenching the peaks above.

Barn Bluff and Mt Inglis

High - Windermere Plains

I clearly peaked a bit early.  After blazing down into waterfall valley at a rate of knots and celebrating my first ten kilometres in under 90 minutes the steady grind of the open Windermere Plains made me realise there was a lot of work to do.  The sun was starting to have a little kick in it although, thankfully, the air temperature was still nice and cool.  A brief descent into a cool mist accompanied my arrival at Lake Windermere along with the realisation that I was still smack on the suggested time needed for a 13-hour finish.  Early days though! 

Mount Emmett

Waterfall Valley

Lake Windermere

High - Frog Flats and Pelion Plains

After collecting water at Pelion Creek a smooth, solitary descent to Frog Flats ensued.  At the Forth River a couple of blokes caught me who were up for a chat.  We chatted all the way up to Pelion Plains, which provided a welcome distraction from the climb, and I arrived at Pelion Hut still on track for my 13-hour target time.

Pine Forest Moor and Mount Pelion West

Frog Flats

Low - Pelion Gap

It's 4km from Pelion Hut up to the Gap with a modest 200m rise in elevation.  The ascent through frequently changing vegetation communities felt ok.  There was a bit of walking but I felt they were still strong, purposeful strides.  Much to my surprise it took a full hour for this 4km section.  Back in my early bushwalking days that's how long it would take with a full pack!  That little stat started to do my head in.

Castle Crag, Mt Massif and Mt Hyperion

Mounts Ossa and Doris from Pinestone Valley

Low - Kia Ora

From the Gap I figured the downhill run to Kia Ora Hut would give me a much-needed kick along but it didn't feel like it.  For the first time in the run I felt like I had to work even on the downhill.  I arrived at Kia Ora Hut only 7 minutes off my target pace but, after 8 minutes glued to a rock in the middle of Kia Ora Creek, that blew out to 15!  The mental araldite holding me to the rock was the sudden realisation I was only halfway.

Myrtle rainforest after Du Cane Hut

High - Du Cane Gap

The shady, mossy myrtle forest after Du Cane Hut seemed to reinvigorate me.  The gradual climb up Du Cane Gap was over way quicker than I expected which meant no more significant uphills for the entire race.  A quirky bonus on the climb was being cheered on by some distinctly American accents.  It turned out to be the Zpacks crew making a video to promote their gear.  When I passed Windy Ridge Hut I had dropped another 15 minutes from my target time which still left plenty of time to avoid the ignominy of the Narcissus cut-off.

Wombat tree near Du Cane Gap

High - Kylie

I've already posted about Kylie inspiring me on my trail running adventures.  The bestest bit of the whole run was seeing Kylie between Windy Ridge Hut and the Pine Valley turn off.  After watching the start, Kylie had driven from Cradle to Lake St Clair via Queenstown, caught the ferry up the lake and walked/jogged several laps of the track north of Narcissus to encourage me and accompany my last 25 kilometres.  Thanks Kylie!

High - Narcissus Relief

Another 15 minutes slipped from my target time between Windy and Narcissus but I was still a comfortable 30 minutes inside the cut-off.  To add to the joy the organisers had home cooked goodies on offer which I gratefully accepted.  These wonderful people wait for an hour after the cut-off and then escort stragglers onto the ferry for a ride down the lake rather than being allowed to complete the race too long after dark.  On this occasion four runners would have this dubious honour.

Runners, organisers and sweeps

Low then High - The Lake

It's a long 20kms down the lake!  I was down to a shuffle and the countless undulations as the track rises and falls seemed to get harder and harder.  I had already been walking up the hills for some time.  I eventually got to the point where just seeing an uphill ahead of me would make my shuffle reduce to a walk.  Despite all this I didn't lose any more time on the dreaded lake section.  I had been aiming for 13 hours as per the target times on the event website.  My dawdle down the lake was smack on the time they predicted!

Winners, Scott and Emma

High - Mum, Dad and Henry

At Watersmeet I unwisely decided to commence my sprint finish.  My addled mind thought it was only a few hundred metres from the end.  It turned out to be seventeen hundred metres but I stubbornly maintained the jog right the way through until the friendly and supportive faces of my son, Henry, and my parents greeted me at the line.  The finish line official was an old hockey archrival of my dad's from way back so they'd been having a lovely catch-up - it's a small island!

 As I said at the start, the post-race celebrations the following morning were a hoot.  It's a great crew of volunteers and competitors who gather for this event each year.  My dad was quick to point out that both male and female winners were former guides from the Cradle Mountain Huts walk.  It seems local knowledge doesn't go astray.

High - Preparation

I should have done a bit more but, then again, I also don't want to bust my guts.  I'm very happy with the time I achieved and I was very happy to be 44th out of 48 finishers.

During the race I went through about 8 litres of sugar-free electrolyte (roughly one litre per 10km) and six sugary energy bars. Kylie read that separating energy and electrolyte intake is important as our body uses these at different rates.  This helped me during the race as I was able to have a constant flow of electrolytes but saved the energy bars for when I felt my head was getting a bit dark. 

Huge thanks go to Kylie, my family, the organisers, other runners and to Tasmania's Parks and Wildlife Service for this amazing experience.

http://www.cradlemtnrun.asn.au/

Lap of Pelion East – August 2020

Approaching Pelion Gap

In 2011, on an autumn mission to Kia Ora Falls and Castle Crag, I was walking the Overland Track just past Kia Ora hut around 11am.  An unlikely group of runners approached from the south.

The foursome had light packs and were moving freely and quickly compared with me and my full multi-day pack.  One of them kindly stopped and indulged my curiosity.  They had just run from Mersey Forest Road, through Lees Paddocks, up to the Overland Track and were now heading north to Pelion Hut, the Arm River Track and, finally, the Venetian Blind / Lees Paddocks Track back to their car.  They were completing what they dubbed, “The Lap of Pelion East.”

Wurragarra Creek before dawn.  Twin Spires and Cathedral Mountain attempt to shake their shroud.

Nine years later, Kylie and I were looking for a winter adventure following good snow falls a week earlier.  We decided on a combined mission to complete a trail running Lap of Pelion East followed by a three-day snow shoeing assault on Mount Ossa.

We dedicated a day to the drive up from Hobart with a stop in Oatlands to finish off some work before leaving projects, e-mails and phone calls behind.  Our accommodation that night was the Lees Paddocks Track car park ready for an early start.

Kylie powering up a hill before Wadley's Hut

At 5:30am we hit the trail and hit it fast!  Within an hour we had reached the Survey Creek gate marking the start of Lees Paddocks (or simply The Paddocks as the Lees family prefers to call them).  The sunrise was hidden behind the Cathedral Plateau and a light layer of morning cloud as we jogged along the park-like valley floor where the Mersey River meanders silently between grassy paddocks.  Several generations of mountain cattle folk have driven their herds into this valley for summer grazing and autumn low-intensity burning in a pattern gleaned from practices spanning countless generations of First Nations people maintaining these rich hunting grounds.

Reg Wadley Memorial Hut

Beyond Wadley’s Hut and Judy’s Top Paddock the route becomes indistinct.  It’s fine in the open myrtle forest but when tea tree thickets close in south of Pinestone Creek navigation can be tricky.    Recent tapes headed right (west) when Pinestone is reached.  I suspect they may lead to an upstream gorge where previous trips have proved a precarious, high-level tree can be negotiated to get over even in the biggest of winter floods.  On this occasion the flow was low enough to engage the ‘normal’ crossing – a wide slab just above the Pinestone-Mersey confluence.  However, there is no longer any sign of a track on the far side.  To make matters worse we headed towards the Mersey, drawn by the sound of impressive rapids where we were frustratingly denied a clear view by the overcrowded scrub.  The end result was 20 minutes to progress a mere 400 metres with zero altitude gain.  (That’s actually good going by Tassie standards where some scrub makes 100 metres per hour a substantial achievement!)  At a beautiful bend in the river we were on our way again.

Clinton surveying Pinestone Creek

Soon after the bend the route gradually moves away from the Mersey River and starts a steady climb, contouring its way to a crossing of Kia Ora Creek midway between the river and Kia Ora Falls.  Interestingly, soon after leaving the river we came across the recent line of tapes arriving from our right (north).  This appears to indicate a new route has been taped that avoids the tea tree section but, sadly, would also avoid the beautiful bend where the river tumbles spectacularly through a narrow channel.  As I write this I can see the new route is marked on Open Street Map which also shows the correct location of Pinestone Creek’s meeting with the Mersey.  Google Maps and Tasmania’s official government source of maps have Pinestone entering at the bend instead of where it actually enters roughly 400 metres downstream.  I digress!

Unnamed creek between Pinestone and Kia Ora

Our first encounter with Kia Ora Creek was a lively affair with Kylie swinging stylishly from a horizontal tree while icy waters lapped dangerously close to her nether regions.  The track is done with gentle contouring at this point and gains 100 metres in altitude in only 500 metres distance.  While that doesn’t sound much it’s the gradient of a Sky Race or Vertical Kilometre where you have to string ten of those bad boys in a row!  Incidentally, our total climb from the Mersey River to the Overland Track was 200 metres elevation gain over two kilometres which is the same gradient for mountain running championships where five of those are strung together.

Crossing Kia Ora Creek

At the Overland Track superhighway we swung north where snazzy bridges made our second encounters with the creeks Pinestone and Kia Ora smooth and uneventful.  On the approach to Pelion Gap care had to be taken with slippery, snow-covered boardwalks while the cloud lifted conveniently to show off the dazzling white slopes of Mounts Ossa, Doris and Pelion East.  Behind us the Du Cane Range was reluctant to shrug its misty mantle.

Mounts Ossa and Doris

Kylie at Pelion Gap

On the descent to Pelion Hut I remembered my last ‘running’ descent from the Gap (albeit it in the other direction) during the Cradle Mountain Run in 2018.  It’s downhill – it should be fast n easy.  Oddly, with two or three dozen k’s under my belt, even the downhill starts to be hard work.  Kylie was flying, seemingly oblivious to the previous 20 kilometres, while I battled the demons in my head and struggled to keep up.

Descending Pelion Gap

Over the next hour and a half we undulated our way past Lake Ayr and Reedy Lake with Mount Oakleigh slowly slipping behind us.  Next we engaged the steep and gorgeous descent, through tall, dark rainforest forest before emerging into brilliant sunshine at The Paddocks.  Even the Du Cane Range came out to enjoy the blue sky as we celebrated our completion of ‘the lap’.  Reluctantly we turned our backs on the view and retraced our early-morning steps returning to the car via Pine Hut Plain and the brief, final climb to the car.

Bishops Peak, Twin Spires, Cathedral Mountain, Castle Crag and Mount Massif (obscured) overlook a sunny Lees Paddocks and Hut

Pine Hut Plain, Mersey River, Premier Peak and Dean Bluff

A Strava record of our run can be found here: