Cradle Mt. Scout Hut Camping Trip – 23-25th February 2018

While this camping trip is listed as a Boots N' All event, the camp at the Scout Hut is reserved for a two-night adventure camp involving SU and Boots N' All leaders, and a group of older children and young teenagers, who will be undertaking a structured program. Depending on weather and the fitness of the party, we aspire to climb Cradle Mountain on Sat. 24th February, but will choose a different walk if weather or fitness are problematic. Boots N' All walkers are welcome to join us at the hut as we set out for our Saturday walk, or to meet us at a pre-arranged place on Marion's Lookout. You would need to make your own travel arrangements, but we are happy to pass on your contact details to others who might wish to come up for the day, to allow for car pooling. There are, of course, camping and accommodation options in the Cradle area, if you are keen to join us for the day. The scout hut can be reached in about 45 minutes brisk walk from the Ronny Creek car park. Allow a 2 hour drive from Launceston, along with the time it takes to get organised to walk. A 6 am start might be necessary if you are intending to join us for the day.

Further Details:
If you are interested in joining us for the day on Sat. 24th February, please  please phone Basil Tkaczuk on 0438 664 402  to arrange this.

Please be at any meeting place 5 minutes ahead of the listed time. The leader must be notified of any other people you intend to bring along. You should always contact the walk leader if intending to participate in a particular Boots N' All walk.

Walk route:
The walk to the scout hut begins at Ronny Creek car park (altitude 880m), and follows the first part of the Overland Track for about 1 km before diverting along the Horse Track for a further 1 km to reach the Scout Hut (altitude 1060m). This part of the walk would rate as easy-medium, on formed tracks, with some steep sections. Walks around the scout hut and Crater Peak plateau are rated "medium" and are suitable for walkers, including children, who have had some experience with tracks of varying quality - part boardwalk, part steep and rocky path, 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.
Cradle Mountain itself would rate as medium-hard, because of the steep, rocky terrain and the need to scramble over large boulders at the summit ridge. From the scout hut, A further 1.2 km up the Horse Track brings you to Crater Peak. Kitchen Hut is 2km further on, reached 300m after rejoining the Overland Track.  Shortly past Kitchen Hut (altitude 1250m) , the branch track for Cradle Mt starts a very steep climb over 1.2 km to the summit (altitude 1545m), a little under 500 metres higher than the scout hut.

Local Crater Peak walk (if weather is poor): A further 1.3 km up the Horse Track from the scout hut brings you to Crater Peak (altitude 1270m). Kitchen Hut is 2km of fairly level walking further on, reached 300m after rejoining the Overland Track. It is possible, however, and depending on the party and weather, that the group will head east off-track a little south of Crater Peak, to walk direct to Kathleen's Pool, before returning to the hut via Crater Lake.

To access this area from northern Tasmania: Roads to Cradle Mt. are well signposted, and the area can be accessed from several directions. From Sheffield, go south along Claude Rd through Gowrie Park and westward down into the Forth Valley (now Cethana Rd.), continuing up the other side to Moina. Turn south into Cradle Mt. Rd. After approx. 20 km, you will reach the Cradle Mt. turnoff. Turn left (still called Cradle Mt. Rd.) and approx. 4 km south, you will arrive at the Pencil Pine area. At that point, it will be necessary to determine if vehicle access to Ronny Creek, Waldheim or Dove Lake is possible. Sometimes the road is closed due to too many vehicles, in which case it will be necessary to catch a shuttle bus. Otherwise, a further 5 km drive will bring you to Ronny Creek carpark.

Warnings:
  The following codes [from our 2018 walks calendar] apply:
   D    Drive distance requires early departure
    S    Steep incline for at least part of the way
    E    (Very) Exposed alpine conditions ; can be dangerous in poor weather if not fully equipped;
Click this link for a more detailed discussion of Preparation, Food and Safety guidelines for Boots N' All walks, and especially preparation for exposed alpine conditions.
Map details:
Cradle Mountain: 1:100000 map is Sophia and 1:25000 map is Cradle.
Map reference:
Short ref. 103801
Zone      Easting        Northing    Latitude    Longitude
55G    4 12 730    53 84 690    -41.68478    145.95140

Cradle Mountain is worth 4 peakbagger points. . 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.