Western Creek Cliffs – Sat. 23^rd May 2015

This time, we follow a little known marked track from Western Creek track, across to the cliffs, and down Higgs Track. Weather permitting, expect magnificent views! From Westrope Road near Western Creek, the walk follows old logging roads from Dale Brook Road up the side of the Western Tiers, sidling through forest to join the better known Western Creek track. Higher up, the route leaves the track westward to the top of the escarpment, the promised clifflines and the views. Continuing a couple of kilometres north-west then west across relatively flat alpine plateau, Higgs Track is joined about 900 metres south of Lady Lake Hut. Higgs Track is then followed past the hut and back down to the car park. If using the track or waypoints for this walk (see below) the walk will not go as far south as Whiteley’s Hut. Instead, the likely route, after following the clifflines, will be in the area of the waypoints marked Plateau 1, 2 3 and Plateau/Higgs.

This walk is rated "medium" and is suitable for walkers, including older children, who have had some experience with steep and rocky tracks as well as off-track alpine walking, and able to keep going for sustained distances. Because of the exposed alpine conditions, walkers must be fully prepared for poor weather. Please see the warnings below.

Meeting Times and Places:
If you are interested in going on this walk, please phone your walk leaders, John & Pamela Tabor, ph. 6428 6512 to book in. The departure time is 7:00am from the Door of Hope Church car park, Launceston. Suggested meeting places if coming from elsewhere are at the Deloraine train park at 7:30 am or Dale Brook Rd. turnoff at 7:50 am.

If you would like to arrange to meet the group at these places or elsewhere, please arrange with the leader, and please be at any meeting place 5 minutes ahead of the listed time.
The leader should always be notified of any other people you intend to bring along, and you should always contact the walk leader if intending to participate in a particular Boots N' All walk.

To access this area from northern Tasmania: From Launceston, proceed along the Bass Highway to Deloraine (about 51 km). Follow the off-ramp into Deloraine and when crossing the bridge, turn right at roundabout to enter the “train park” car park. (If you were not meeting the group there, you would not turn off at the eastern exit into Deloraine. Instead, continue across Meander R. and uphill to the western exit, and to the roundabout at start of Mole Creek Rd.) After leaving the train park, follow the main street uphill through Deloraine to reach the large roundabout. Turn left into Mole Creek Rd. and go about 8 km before turning left into Dairy Plains Rd. Go all the way through Dairy Plains Rd. (several right hand turns and 2 junctions where you need to follow the signs). When you arrive at the T junction with Western Creek Rd, turn right and 800m further on, turn left up Westrope Rd. Go more or less straight for 4 km south, to reach the junction of Dale Brook Rd. which turns off to the right. The car park for the walk is about 500 metres from Westrope Rd. Westrope Rd. is all gravel, and somewhat degraded in parts, but should be accessible for 2WD vehicles with reasonable clearance.

Warnings:
The following codes [from our 2015 walks calendar] apply:
    D    Drive distance requires early departure
   M   Marshy or muddy sections – be prepared to walk with wet feet.
    S    Steep incline for at least part of the way
    E     Exposed alpine conditions ; can be dangerous in poor weather if not adequately equipped; see www.sutas.org.au/bush-walking/bush-walking for some guidelines.

If you are unsure of equipment requirements, Visit the Boots N' All section of the sutas.org.au website per link below and read "Clothing suggestions for exposed conditions"

Map details:
Western Creek/Higgs Track area: 1:100000 map is Mersey (Tasmap 8114) and 1:25000 map for upper area is Lake Mackenzie (TasMap 3338).
Map reference:
Short ref. n/a
Zone Easting Northing Latitude Longitude
n/a

There are no peakbagger points for the area covered by this walk. For listing of peakbagger points, see the Hobart Walking Club Peakbagger's Guide (2000 revision) which can be found and downloaded (as an Excel spreadsheet) from http://tastracks.webs.com/peakbaggers.htm The same web page contains several other listings of Tasmanian peaks.
GPX version of the track: Click here to download. Google Earth version of the track: Click here to download.
Right-click on the file and “save target as” to a location of your choice. (Suggest you click the “Last modified” at top to sort by date to get the most recent at top to find the file for the next walk).

When you have downloaded the track file, double-clicking on the Google Earth (kml) track should open Google Earth and zoom in to the location if you have Google Earth installed on your computer. The .gpx version of the track should import into mapping software or devices that support gpx tracks and waypoints.

GPS Discussions See http://bootsnall.sutas.org.au/GPS_discussions.htm for discussion about the respective merits of hand-held GPS devices and smartphones with GPS built in, as well as information about how to use a Garmin Etrex10 GPS.
File Repository Boots N' All now has its own file repository on the sutas website. See http://bootsnall.sutas.org.au At the moment, this is only a file repository, and not a proper website, but any of the .gpx and .kml files from recent walks can be downloaded from there. These can be found in folders called GPXfiles and GoogleEarth. Eventually, more tracks will be uploaded there, and hopefully some more detailed walks descriptions for possible future walks.

blessings,
Basil Tkaczuk