Milles Track | Mt Wellington | Spring snow

I have literally only left the house once in the past 8 days, and that was for a two hour uni prac where I got to measure metabolic rates of meal worms… Snotty noses (mine) and pus covered tonsils (Mr 6 year old) have pretty much had me couch bound for too long.

Friday night I decided that no matter what the weather I was going to spend some hours in the bush, maybe walk out to Wellington Falls. Or the Disappearing Tarn. Or even do Springs to the Pinnacle, around and down the Ice-house track. I put the call out on the book face to see if anyone was keen for a few hours walking in potential rain and snow. No one took me up on it. Okay, so it was super short notice and posted late Friday afternoon.

I’m constantly saying to people I will let them know when I am going wandering on the mountain so they can come. I just totally forget who I say it to or who asks me to tell them. So if you are reading this and you are one of those people, apologies. Having said that if you are keen to hit up some bushwalking tracks one day, just drop me a line. Or I’ll just yell out on Facebook next time I am wandering aimlessly somewhere…

The plan of getting to The Springs by 10ish didn’t happen. I didn’t get out of bed until then and it took me a while to properly wake up. Somehow I managed to convince Erika, my daughter, to actually come walking with me too! I think it was because the other option was grocery shopping with Rod. Generally she isn’t a fan, apparently I stop too much to take photos. Some assurance that it was a walking walk, not a photoing walk and she was on board.

Getting there and finding the track…

For those who don’t know, the Milles Track is a track on the south facing side of Kunyani/Mt Wellington. Follow the signs from Hobart, up Huon Road and you really can’t get lost. Starts pretty much from where the old Springs Hotel was, just walk up the stone steppy bits. Stop and look at the Cosmic Ray Observatory and make a mental note to google it when you get home. Promptly forget that mental note and keep going up. When you get to the junction you can either go straight up the Zig Zag track to the Pinnacle or Organ Pipes track, or turn left and head along the Milles Track. Turn left, assuming that you are wanting the Milles Track. Left takes you lots of places, Snake Plains, Ice-House track, Disappearing Tarn, Wellington Falls, and probably some other track I don’t know of.

The Milles track is pretty flat and not many obstacles, well, there really isn’t any obstacles. A fair way along you start to go up a little incline, but it’s not anything that I would class as uphill. Gentle, undulating walking perhaps. But majority of the track is pretty decent. We only ended up getting about one kilometre or a bit more along it. Not for any other reason other than we just stopped and played in the snow. Built snowmen, made snow angels which really didn’t work well in only about an inch of snow and just played.

Hail Snow!

On our way up in the car there was hail snow, it was pelting at the car and was pretty rad. Thankfully the hail snow stopped though and most of the walk just had fluffy fairy snow. You know, the stuff that is so light than when you breathe in too fast you suck it all down the back of your throat and choke for a bit. I wasn’t expecting the snow to be that low down. I thought we would have walked up further to get to it, so it was a nice surprise.

Freaking love this track. I think because it has loads of my favourite plants on it, and it heads off to come cool places. Walking on it in the snow was just magical though. It is amazing how a dusting of snow can make everything look so much different. And having Erika with me was nice too. She had a blast, just shaking trees and throwing snow at me… a lot… everytime I turned around…Wish she would come and walk with me more.

The fun of facebook live has also been discovered! I suspect I will get a bit obsessed with that for a while. It will probably be like snapchat though, and the novelty will wear off soon enough.

Thank Lost Freight for coffee

All up, freaking awesome day. Just what I needed, some time in the bush with the air and the snow and the trees. There is just something about it, I’m not sure what it is. But there really is no better feeling than just being outside in the natureness. The best thing about the mountain these days is Lost Freight. A shipping container cafe at the Springs. It was a caravan coffee shop for a while until they got a permanent spot. I must admit at first I was like “Really?, the mountain doesn’t need a coffee shop!” But that lasted all of one sip of a coffee…

Since it opened up there, which would be over a year now I reckon, I’ve noticed a lot more people stop at the Springs. Rarely do I go up there and I am the only one there. It’s wonderful! People just siting around having a coffee, appreciating the world. Anything that gets more people on the mountain is a good thing in my books. Mind you I do collect a lot more rubbish than I used to, especially around those walks close to the Springs… So next time you are in Hobart, or have interstate visitors, don’t go and sit inside in town and have a coffee. Drive up to the Springs, if its cold you can sit in the hut with the fire going, and if its nice you can sit on the little marsupial lawn and listen to the birdies!

Now go forth and walk on mountains…

http://www.facebook.com/lostfreight/