Saturday, April 26, 2014

April 26th Cradle Mountain


It was a wild weather night with wind gusting to 50 km/hr, hail, rain.  The wind blew so hard it forced all the smoke back down the chimneys and filled the place with smoke.  Wow!

Never-the-less, when we pulled the curtains back on the morning, blue sky was breaking.  Unfortunately, that didn't last!

We scarfed down our brekkie and headed to the visitor center to get our park passes and ask for advice on hiking given the weather.  We definitely ascribe to the notion that there is no bad weather, only bad clothes!  We had most of what we needed with us.  After a quick trip to the shop to acquire rain pants for John, wool socks for both and extra gloves for Cheri, we were ready. 

The shuttle bus dropped us off at Dove Lake and the driver advised us to wait in the shack until the snow stopped; it was snowing so hard you could barely see the shack!  So in we went.

About 10 minutes later it cleared a bit and we headed out.  You still couldn't see the end of the lake, but we were ready.  We got about 20 min in and another snow squall hit.  We hunkered down under some trees and waited for about 15 min until it eased.  Quite quickly we were on a path through deep forest at the edge of the lake.  It was magical!   The trees were old and varied.  Lots of mushrooms from red to light brown to orange brown.  Moss, lichens, and little things growing everywhere.  It was still snowing like crazy, but the trees were sheltering us and melting the snow into rain.

For a long while we walked and kept remarking on the beauty, but not shooting it because it was so wet.  Finally, we couldn't take it and out came the cameras!  John more than Cheri. 

As we made out way around the 6 km loop, the weather continued to change continuously.  We shot where we could.  Finally, John got the shot he came for.  The peaks above Dove Lake look alot like Cathedral Peak in Yosemite.  He wanted to shot them here.

Because so much rain-snow fell while we hiked out the way back was like hiking through a river.  The water was running straight down the path.  We finally arrived back where we started and caught the bus back to the visitor center.

Great hike! 

Thankfully they were still serving lunch!  Like two ravenous animals we scarfed our lunch.  Cheri wanted to take a few more shots on the are Enchanted Walk and of course she had all forms of weather!  She did get a shot of the pademelon!

Then it was in the car for a four hour ride to Swansea.  Dinner on the way and the Milky Way again!

Enjoy!
John & Cheri 





Enchanted Walk

Enchanted Walk




Dove Lake

Dove Lake







No comments:

Post a Comment