Pine Valley Track Day 4 - Echo Point to Shadow Lake

Date: 30th December, 2014

Distance:  13.7 km

Time: 6 hours

Wading through a sea of ferns on a muddy track in a hailstorm... Tasmanian elements at their finest

Miserable as the weather was yesterday, it would only be fair to describe what we experienced today as miserabler. The rain had apparently charged on unabated through the night. One of our tarp corners came unstuck from a makeshift log-peg in the wind, but we managed to get it sorted without incurring too much water.

We took a long, long time to get going today. Most of the hutters had filed out early to catch their morning bus, so we had ourselves a bit of space to cook and try and dry stuff. We considered not going anywhere and spending another night at Echo Point (except in the hut this time), but another sodden camper indicated there was good sheltered camping sites up near Shadow Lake, where we had planned to go. If last night taught us nothing else it was that we were going to need a sheltered campsite in which to try and affix our tiny tarp.

Shivering in Echo Point Hut

It was miserably cold, even in the hut. By the time we had packed away our tent it was lunch time so we ate at the hut, wondering if people from the next group of walkers would catch up to us before we left. At long last, we smothered ourselves in whatever water-resistant material we had and set out in the rain.

Now that our boots were apparently permanently waterlogged, every step was like sloshing through ankle deep water. Which is what we were doing anyway.

Numerous creek crossings were flooded, so it was pretty slow going. Even when there wasn't raging rapids bisecting our path, the track was generally submerged. This was nothing like my last time here, when the weather was dry and hot. I recall it being the least interesting section of the Overland Track, but after the relentless rain this time it was a bit of an adventure.

Dad was enjoying himself until the track started leading us through groves of thigh-high ferns. Suddenly, that decision not to bring water-resistant pants to Tassie seemed like a really bad idea. At one point he was threatening to tear off every frond with the tiny paring knife we brought - that would have been an amusing sight.

There were brief periods where the sun would suddenly appear, followed by more intense sessions of heavy wind and rain. For about 20 minutes we even found ourselves in the midst of a hailstorm, being bombarded by the tiniest hail we'd ever seen. We received a good dose of some of Tasmania's famous weather.

Across the lake to Mt Ida during a dry spell

Blue sky?! The weather must be improving

Wondering how to cross another flooded creek

Four hours of walking through mushy water-dirt and slipping over tree roots brought us to Watersmeet, a short distance from Cynthia Bay where we kicked off the hike 3 days ago. Everything was wet and cold. We dropped our packs to enjoy a snack and the sun magically appeared. Sun and blue sky! Looking upwards we saw clouds racing away into the distance. Finally, this was the fine weather we had been promised by walkers heading the other direction this morning.

Convinced the weather gods were done with punishing us, we decided to push on to Shadow Lake for tonight with a vague plan of summiting Mount Rufus early the next day.

We felt re-energised after our break and, with the prospect of weather fining up for a nice sunset this evening, I barely even noticed how waterlogged my body was.

At first the track was relatively waterless, just a gentle uphill climb through some open eucalyptus forest.

As the track began to flatten out, we found ourselves side-stepping pools of water. Gradually, the path all but disappeared from sight underneath the growing watery menace. I thought my feet had capped out at their waterlogging capacity this morning, but the last few km this evening proved otherwise.

By some miracle we eventually made it to Shadow Lake. Now, to find those sheltered campsites that other hiker had told us about... should be pretty easy. It's not like we can't trust strangers in the mountains, right?

After sloshing around the eastern shore of Shadow Lake for about 10 minutes, a thought crossed my mind... that we would never find this campsite. Memories of our nearly failed Lamington adventure to Rat-a-tat Hut in April flashed through my head... would we have to settle for an open campsite and risk being soaked all night or blown away? Or would we have to retrace our steps through the river-track back to Cynthia Bay in the dark? It was miserably cold (later we learnt the temperature had not even reached double figures today) and we were very, very wet.

From across the lake we could see what I assumed to be Little Hugel, although it was difficult to tell as it was just about all we could see.

Little Hugel (?) from Shadow Lake

Finally we found the sheltered campsites, just as promised, with enough plantlife nearby to enable us to erect the faithful tarp. "Sheltered" is used rather loosely in this case, as the fierce winds racing across the lake were only slightly diminished by the surrounding forest.

Tying down the tarp

Our tent was rapidly assembled, but it was a long time before we found any semblance of warmth inside. Again dad's practical prowess came to the rescue - if it had been me alone I would probably still be up there trying to tie everything down.

We even managed to squeeze all our gear under the tiny tarp and make space for the burner. Possibly the sweetest moment of the day was surrounding the cooked mashed potato with my frozen feet to try and warm them up, which worked surprisingly well (to be clear, the mashed potato was inside a ziploc bag).

Home sweet home, and another chilly night ahead

Day 3 - Pine Valley to Echo Point
Day 5 - Shadow Lake to Cynthia Bay