Field East Circuit

Thursday 23 January 2014

With such a promising day a walk to Mount Field East beckoned. We opted for the circuit, but without the actual ascent of the Field East summit.

At the Lake Fenton car park there was a group of 6 from the Hobart Walking Club doing the same walk; except they were going up Seagers and the summit. The group was led by  a friend Chris and included Wendy, another friend. They did invite us to join them, but we wanted to have the flexibility to spend time at particular locations and go at a pace that suited us. The decision was vindicated when the group steamed past us soon after the start.

On the ridge high above Lake Fenton there is a saddle with the most delightful garden of nature and that has been our regular morning tea stop on many occasions, and was again today. The Richea scoparia there was fantastic and quite a while was spent wandering about and taking photos.

Richea scoparia

Richea with Mount Field East behind.

At the end of Windy Moor the HWC party caught us up and headed for the Field East summit whilst we continued on to a lunch break at Lake Rayner. On getting there we heard voices from above and assumed it was the HWC party approaching, but it wasn’t until after we were back to the main track after lunch that they came into view. The HWC party had met some other walkers who had become lost and it was most likely their voices that we heard. Incidentally back in 1869 there is a record of local trappers, the Rayner brothers, guiding botanist Baron von Mueller to Mt Field East on a week long collecting trip. It is assumed that is who the lake is named after.

Lake Rayner

On calling into the Lake Nicholls hut, Sue noticed some soiled toilet paper in the corner of the hut and bagged it up to take back. I emptied the remains of a whisky bottle and packed that out. There are some pretty poor type of visitors get there at times. The toilet paper was most offensive but at least the bulk of the excrement was not in the hut.

We made a diversion to Beatties Tarn but after circling the wet areas we made three attempts to get close only to be confronted by large boulders. From memory the old route went all the way over low lying ground. The final attempt looked like it would get there but appeared a bit of distance off, so we turned back. A more concerted effort will be made later on as part of a check to find a better approach.

There was a tree down near the end of the Old Pack Track and in general there was very little maintenance needed on the whole circuit track. A bit of trimming here and there plus a small section above Lake Rayner and close to the rim that could be cut back.

Click image below to view photo album

Field East Jan 2014