Meehan Range 2014

Yeah, yeah, good weather again for our walk on the Eastern Shore.

I'm only human...

I have a confession to make. I've been playing with my camera settings and somehow I've put it on low resolution so the photos aren't up to standard.

I've had a very strong word with myself and feel severely chastised and promise not to fiddle again. I told myself if happens again, I'll have to hire a child to take care of all the technical work. Sorry.

This is a walk through open bush in the Meehan Range with the start at the end of Belbins Road. Except for a couple of tracks, this is all on old or existing firetrails or old roads left over from various commercial operations.

Team discussion

Slightly damp under foot, but not bad

The Meehan Range is named after James Meehan who, in 1803, was the first registered surveyor to operate in the Hobart area. Actually, in the Risdon area as it was Lieutenant Bowen's original site.

James Bowen was sent by the colonial government of the time to help settle the Hobart area. This was to stop the French, who Britain was at war with at the time. Nothing changes.

Up the first little hill

We then turn off to traverse the hill

Attractive gums

 This area is home to eucalyptus risdonii, (Risdon Peppermint) a very rare gum that only lives on dry, north-east to westerly facing slopes on the eastern shore of the Derwent near Hobart. If I had known what they look like, I would have taken their picture. Next time.

Slight holdup

Open bush

It's a pleasant walk and we turned off the old road to follow a track along the side of a hill before turning up to cross the track again.

Along the way, we didn't go unnoticed.

Interested local

We now follow an old, well constructed road down and come to an area of quarry activity. Seems the old siltstone deposits were good for road surfaces as it needed no crushing to use.

Up the hill to the road

We came to a gate (locked) and made our way through the fence and went into stealth mode for a short while, before entering back into the reserve.

We were never here!

Through another gate and back to a road

Not exactly a major obstacle

Morning Tea

Back to the reserve... for a while.

We followed and crossed several small creeks before coming to a little hill as promised by Bob.

Creek hopping

Possibly Anthracobia muelleri object at top is tip of a walking stick.

Very busy wildlife path

Heading down to a creek

Fire went through here in the not too distant past

There's a creek down there

Very rare Lightus rotatii fungus

Now, I've been on this road before and I remembered the way up the hill as a very steep, loose surface. But not too bad before we turned off to the left on a smaller track along the side of a hill.

I'm not sure what's happened, surely my memory's not faulty. I think there's been a seismic event that raised hill to about 3 times the height it was when I first walked there.

We begin joyously to climb

Not so joyous now, are we?

Looking down.

Now we're on the traverse track

Rare distant view

Anyway, we did turnoff and follow a small track through the open bush and reached the top of the hill. After a short walk we turned left onto a steep, but not unpleasant track down again.

I should mention this is also a popular place for mountain bikers. Indeed, we met one coming up and nearly got taken out by another coming down. The bush is much wetter on this side of the hill, and we follow another old road out and along Stringy Bark Gulley. This takes us through an area of old workings with some concrete slabs, strange cuttings and other signs of civilization, before we reach the end and find our cars again. We decided to have lunch at the end of the walk.

Hard to miss the track

Top of the hill

Starting down

Healthy looking gum

Popular with mountain bikers, as we found.

Near the bottom

Some young cyclists and their mother

As it's school holidays, we met 2 separate mothers and their children. The first had, I think, 4 young boys and the second had only one to look out for. Better to be biking out in the bush then sitting inside.

Through old quarry area

Lunch

It's a good walk and there are tracks all over the hills so you could spend some time exploring each.

We had 14 walkers and covered 10.79km in 3:32 hours.

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