After last night's amazingly vivid golden-red sunset, we went to bed to mild temperatures and woke to chilly temperatures but still fine weather. Greg balked at getting out of his warm sleeping bag until the sun made it over the range, while I followed my body routines and rose at 7am to pack up my sleeping gear. While I did my morning ablutions, the sun steadily rose until it finally broke over the mountains and hit the tent. The wind blowing off the lake also picked up and, between the wind and the sun, our wet tent and gear quickly dried off while we were having a cuppa and brekkie. Another gorgeous nearly cloudless day - we certainly are having a streak of fantastic weather! We say goodbye to our camp, which retrospectively turns out to be one of the nicest camps of the entire week, and start our climb back over the saddle between Lake Myrtle and Lake Meston. The climb quickly warms us up as we push through the overgrown trail, only briefly stopping to send a few "we're safe" messages to family when we have signal atop the saddle. When we reach Meston Hut, the crowd of people camped there last night are gone. With luck, we won't run into them again! We drop our packs for a quick look around. The hut inside smells of a recent fire, presumably from last night's crowd. We shoulder our bags again and we're off along the upper shores of Lake Meston. For the most part, we are far enough up the slope from the lake the we only get broken views of the water below us. The trail follows the lake outlet with reasonably easy walking through the mostly flat, boggy and moss covered plain. It's easy walking except it is sometimes a challenge to keep our feet dry or stay out of the boggy mud. We pass above Lake Yoad, which is a much smaller lake, perhaps only 500 metres long. We then walk on through reasonably easy trails until we reach the slightly larger Junction Lake. There is a pleasant campsite above the lake with a couple of large boulders where we stop for lunch. Our plan from here is to trade our backpacks for our lightweight summit daypacks and find the trail to the Never-Never and follow this down along the lake outlet to view the nearby Clarke Falls. In practice, finding the trail we wanted was a bit time consuming as the plain by the campsite was covered with footpads making it very unclear which one to follow. We spend 45 minutes mucking around following false trails that ended up leading us into heavy, scrubby growth (ie fight!) where we eventually be forced to retrace our steps. Finally, we find the correct trail which turned out to be quite different from the digital trail shown on our apps. On the far side of Junction Lake, the trail drops away steeply as we paralleled the outfall stream. We could clearly hear the falls in the distance but could not see anything through the heavy growth. We come across a disused metal Never-Never logbook box (with no logbook inside) but at least this confirmed that we were on the right track. The Never-Never is one of the few (two?) tracks that join up the Walls of Jerusalem park wth the adjacent Cradle Mountain- St Clair Park / Overland track. I had considered planning a broader loop for this hike using this track but it reportedly can get quite overgrown and difficult to traverse so I dropped that idea; perhaps for a future trip. The trail quickly becomes very steep, perhaps 45 degrees, so I wait to descend until Greg gets far ahead of me to reduce the risk of dislodging a rock onto him. We can't see the adjacent stream as we climb down but it is very loud indicating the falls are nearby. At the base, we push through the heavy growth to the stream edge and are rewarded with side views of the substantial Clarke falls - definitely worth the effort to view! I fill up my water bottle at the foot of the stream without filtering, reasoning that the heavy oxygenation from the large falls has likely minimised any risk of water-borne pathogens - or at least that is what Greg tells me as he started his engineering career in a water treatment plant! The return climb back up is steep but not that difficult without our heavier backpacks. We pass the logbook box again and this time carefully track the footpad to find the best trail, which turns out to follow the lakeshore perimeter - quite different from the trail on our maps. Once back at our lunch spot, we take up our backpacks again and head towards the nearby Junction Lake Hut where we plan to search out the trail that climbs up to the higher Lake Artemis where we will make camp. It doesn't take us long to find the hut which is another attractive rustic wooden structure. We find a couple camping there already with a fire going inside the hut, preparing to fry some trout that they had recently caught. We discuss where we are headed and they help us find the trail - we have to rock hop across a broad stream below the hut and then bush bash up the overgrown slope before we encounter the trail under some fallen trees. It looks like we are getting further and further off the beaten track as the trail is overgrown and poorly formed. As we climb the hillside, we enter an open Beech forest, covered with green ferns, fern trees and moss. It's one of the most beautiful sections of our walk so far and helps make the steep climb feel worth it. I try to capture the beautiful slope in photographs but I'm not too happy with the results. It's very challenging to do the view justice due to the high dynamic range of the landscape. I guess it will live on in memory instead of a photo. Unfortunately, upon leaving the beech forest, the track conditions deteriorate significantly as the trail becomes extremely overgrown. It becomes quite hard to push through the thick scrub, much less figure out where the trail goes! The trail surface is at times muddy, rocky or covered in roots and the brush above is so thick that I often cannot see down to where I am placing my feet. I'm wearing a short sleeve tee and my bare arms quickly become scratched up and bloody, with blood rivulets running down along my forearm. I considered putting on my mid-layer for protection but the damage to my arms has already been done so I reason that I might as well not destroy my much loved mid-layer top as well. Between the climb and extreme trail growth, Greg pulls farther and farther ahead as the trail conditions slow me considerably. The gap in our fitness and abilities really starts to show here. The trail undergrowth is so thick that I loose sight of him once he gets 5-10 metres ahead of me. This adds to my anxiety as we need to keep together as he is carrying our sole tent where the loss of shelter would be a life threatening issue for me to manage! Greg sometimes waits on me but as soon as I catch up, he shoulders his bag and walks on leaving me to follow with no opportunity to rest. These sort of breaks are colloquially known in the hiker community as slinky or accordion stops but also more aptly called "Fuck You" stops by the weaker hiker (me!) as they come across as a bit passive-aggressive, since the weaker hiker never rests and becomes more and more disheartened. [Continued - see Tip]

Hiking/Backpacking

The next few hours are very frustrating to me, and no doubt to Greg as well. I finally take a 10 minute rest break by myself on top of a rock outcrop. I have just started walking again when I hear Greg calling "Coo-eee" to make sure I am still behind him and not lost. I call back and Greg waits for me to catch up. He asks where I've been and when I tell him that I took a solo break as I've decided I'm going to have to hike my own hike because it's exhausting me trying to keep up with him. Greg replies that the alternative is unfair to him as he then would be forced to hike *my* hike! I don't argue back as Greg makes a fair point but I know in my heart what the solution is to this dilemma: if the stronger hiker does not want to wait on the weaker one, we should each carry fully redundant gear (eg separate tents, cook gear, PLB, etc) so that we can walk apart as required - with the intention of rejoining at camp - but therefore avoiding serious risks if we fail to link up once separated. We walk on together but the trail just gets more overgrown and challenging to push through. It's approaching six pm and we need to make camp soon before we loose our light. When we reach the edge of Lake Artemis, the growth remains thick all the way to the lake edge and it's clear that we won't find a suitable campsite along Lake Artemis. We consult our maps and Greg suggests that we continue on past Lake Artemis for another few kilometres to Lake Eros where we might find an open space large enough for our tent. So the bush bashing continues as we work around the perimeter of Lake Artemis and then traverse the overgrown plain between the lakes. We follow a wide stream flowing between the lakes and don't even come close to seeing a decent campsite. We have to cross and Greg drops his phone into the shallows but quickly recovers it! When we reach the stream outlet at Lake Eros, we find an open spot where we could perhaps camp, although it is not a great site, being uneven, full of tree roots and boggy ground on the periphery. Greg knows I'm at the end of my tether, so he puts down his pack and asks me to wait there while he scouts further around the lake for a better site. He's off scouting and I rest a bit. While I rest, I study the satellite maps I had downloaded and conclude there is a possible campsite across the wide outlet stream. I can see the clearing across the stream but I can't tell from here if it is any good for camping. There are a number of large fallen trees at the stream outlet so I decide to scoot across on top of them and check it out. I'm nearly across, when a smaller tree I am crossing upon, breaks under my weight, plunging me knee-deep into the stream! Damn! Oh well, I'm wet now - nothing I can do about it. I go check the possible campsite and it is no good, with tuffs of high growth making setting up a tent impossible. I'm just crossing back as Greg returns - he sees I'm wet and asks what part of wait did I not understand! 😉 The good news is that Greg has found a campsite that, although not brilliant, will do. He leads me to a mostly-level but lumpy, open area covered in spongy low ferns and similar ankle-high tuffs of growth. Greg brought a plastic underlay for a tent footprint that we use for the first time, draping it over the growth. Once the tent is up and our mats are inflated, we can't really feel the unevenness of the tent base, so it will do. Dark is approaching. We have a quick swim in the lake to wash off the sweat, and in my case, the crusty ruby blood from both forearms. I also wash out my wet smelly socks and slide them over my hiking pole handles to hopefully dry out overnight. We eat dinner and I've put my dry sleep clothes on so I'm snug and under my down quilt as night falls. I'm stuffed again - too tired to write my journal - so once again, I fall into a deep sleep just as night sets in. Carl / Pilgrim

Tasmania, Walls Of Jerusalem

Tasmania, Australia

time : Mar 24, 2025 10:23 AM

duration : 7h 45m 16s

distance : 14.9 km

total_ascent : 490 m

highest_point : 1156 m

avg_speed : 2.4 km/h

user_id : gstreet

user_firstname : Carl

user_lastname : Greenstreet

After last night's amazingly vivid golden-red sunset, we went to bed to mild temperatures and woke to chilly temperatures but still fine weather. Greg balked at getting out of his warm sleeping bag until the sun made it over the range, while I followed my body routines and rose at 7am to pack up my sleeping gear. While I did my morning ablutions, the sun steadily rose until it finally broke over the mountains and hit the tent. The wind blowing off the lake also picked up and, between the wind and the sun, our wet tent and gear quickly dried off while we were having a cuppa and brekkie. Another gorgeous nearly cloudless day - we certainly are having a streak of fantastic weather! We say goodbye to our camp, which retrospectively turns out to be one of the nicest camps of the entire week, and start our climb back over the saddle between Lake Myrtle and Lake Meston. The climb quickly warms us up as we push through the overgrown trail, only briefly stopping to send a few "we're safe" messages to family when we have signal atop the saddle. When we reach Meston Hut, the crowd of people camped there last night are gone. With luck, we won't run into them again! We drop our packs for a quick look around. The hut inside smells of a recent fire, presumably from last night's crowd. We shoulder our bags again and we're off along the upper shores of Lake Meston. For the most part, we are far enough up the slope from the lake the we only get broken views of the water below us. The trail follows the lake outlet with reasonably easy walking through the mostly flat, boggy and moss covered plain. It's easy walking except it is sometimes a challenge to keep our feet dry or stay out of the boggy mud. We pass above Lake Yoad, which is a much smaller lake, perhaps only 500 metres long. We then walk on through reasonably easy trails until we reach the slightly larger Junction Lake. There is a pleasant campsite above the lake with a couple of large boulders where we stop for lunch. Our plan from here is to trade our backpacks for our lightweight summit daypacks and find the trail to the Never-Never and follow this down along the lake outlet to view the nearby Clarke Falls. In practice, finding the trail we wanted was a bit time consuming as the plain by the campsite was covered with footpads making it very unclear which one to follow. We spend 45 minutes mucking around following false trails that ended up leading us into heavy, scrubby growth (ie fight!) where we eventually be forced to retrace our steps. Finally, we find the correct trail which turned out to be quite different from the digital trail shown on our apps. On the far side of Junction Lake, the trail drops away steeply as we paralleled the outfall stream. We could clearly hear the falls in the distance but could not see anything through the heavy growth. We come across a disused metal Never-Never logbook box (with no logbook inside) but at least this confirmed that we were on the right track. The Never-Never is one of the few (two?) tracks that join up the Walls of Jerusalem park wth the adjacent Cradle Mountain- St Clair Park / Overland track. I had considered planning a broader loop for this hike using this track but it reportedly can get quite overgrown and difficult to traverse so I dropped that idea; perhaps for a future trip. The trail quickly becomes very steep, perhaps 45 degrees, so I wait to descend until Greg gets far ahead of me to reduce the risk of dislodging a rock onto him. We can't see the adjacent stream as we climb down but it is very loud indicating the falls are nearby. At the base, we push through the heavy growth to the stream edge and are rewarded with side views of the substantial Clarke falls - definitely worth the effort to view! I fill up my water bottle at the foot of the stream without filtering, reasoning that the heavy oxygenation from the large falls has likely minimised any risk of water-borne pathogens - or at least that is what Greg tells me as he started his engineering career in a water treatment plant! The return climb back up is steep but not that difficult without our heavier backpacks. We pass the logbook box again and this time carefully track the footpad to find the best trail, which turns out to follow the lakeshore perimeter - quite different from the trail on our maps. Once back at our lunch spot, we take up our backpacks again and head towards the nearby Junction Lake Hut where we plan to search out the trail that climbs up to the higher Lake Artemis where we will make camp. It doesn't take us long to find the hut which is another attractive rustic wooden structure. We find a couple camping there already with a fire going inside the hut, preparing to fry some trout that they had recently caught. We discuss where we are headed and they help us find the trail - we have to rock hop across a broad stream below the hut and then bush bash up the overgrown slope before we encounter the trail under some fallen trees. It looks like we are getting further and further off the beaten track as the trail is overgrown and poorly formed. As we climb the hillside, we enter an open Beech forest, covered with green ferns, fern trees and moss. It's one of the most beautiful sections of our walk so far and helps make the steep climb feel worth it. I try to capture the beautiful slope in photographs but I'm not too happy with the results. It's very challenging to do the view justice due to the high dynamic range of the landscape. I guess it will live on in memory instead of a photo. Unfortunately, upon leaving the beech forest, the track conditions deteriorate significantly as the trail becomes extremely overgrown. It becomes quite hard to push through the thick scrub, much less figure out where the trail goes! The trail surface is at times muddy, rocky or covered in roots and the brush above is so thick that I often cannot see down to where I am placing my feet. I'm wearing a short sleeve tee and my bare arms quickly become scratched up and bloody, with blood rivulets running down along my forearm. I considered putting on my mid-layer for protection but the damage to my arms has already been done so I reason that I might as well not destroy my much loved mid-layer top as well. Between the climb and extreme trail growth, Greg pulls farther and farther ahead as the trail conditions slow me considerably. The gap in our fitness and abilities really starts to show here. The trail undergrowth is so thick that I loose sight of him once he gets 5-10 metres ahead of me. This adds to my anxiety as we need to keep together as he is carrying our sole tent where the loss of shelter would be a life threatening issue for me to manage! Greg sometimes waits on me but as soon as I catch up, he shoulders his bag and walks on leaving me to follow with no opportunity to rest. These sort of breaks are colloquially known in the hiker community as slinky or accordion stops but also more aptly called "Fuck You" stops by the weaker hiker (me!) as they come across as a bit passive-aggressive, since the weaker hiker never rests and becomes more and more disheartened. [Continued - see Tip]