Excursion Information
Instructions for excursion on Sunday 5th September 2021
Ponybottom Creek and Chestermans Sugarloaf, Wielangta
10:00 AM Sunday 5th September
We will meet at Ponybottom Creek on the Wielangta Road at 10:00 AM and hope to finish about 2:00 PM. The driving time from Hobart via Copping is about 80 minutes.
Bring your lunch, snack and drink. Dress for the weather, including being off tracks. We expect to be able to boil a lunchtime billy, but you will need your own mug and tea bag, and a thermos if the weather prevents getting a fire going.
The area is mostly dry sclerophyll on sandstone or dolerite, and there is an interesting flooded swale with frogs.
Access Instructions:
Turn first left immediately after the Copping sign at the entry to the town. The turnoff sign says "Kellevie, (Orford) and (Nugent)". There is also a brown wooden sign saying 'Wielangta Forest Road". Keep a lookout for identical wooden signs at each significant fork. As you pass through Kellevie stay on the bitumen as it turns right. It changes to gravel soon after that. You climb, heading for the northern end of Bream Creek. Just as you are nearing the crest, Wielangta forest road turns left. The old sign warns some sections are only passable in a 4WD. The sign is outdated as the road has since been upgraded and is now accessible by two wheel drive vehicles. However, if the road is wet some sections are slippery, so take if slowly, particularly on the descents and bends. Some 4WDs going the other way travel pretty fast, so you will want to keep left despite some potholes and surface mud.
Travelling on Wielangta Road you will pass the Sandspit River Reserve Picnic Area (last toilet) and the top end of the Sandspit River Track which you might wish to visit later to walk the interpreted track through wet sclerophyll forest.
Further along the road you will cross the Sandspit River at the signposted bottom end of the walking track. You are now about 2 km from our meeting point. Continuing onward you will climb over a low rise and then descend towards an unnamed bridge over Ponybottom Creek. Next to the sign with the bridge symbol is a yellow guide post with '21' on it. Cross the bridge and use the first driveway on your left to make a U-turn. Cross back over the same bridge and pull in at 45 degrees into the parking strip on the left of Wielangta Road.
We will walk along an established vehicle track near the Creek. The track has a few puddles, fallen branches and young saplings to dodge around along the way.
We will return to the cars at 11:45 AM and then drive to another entry to the property where we will park about 1km in from Wielangta Road. From there we will ascend Chestermans Sugarloaf by gravel road, with an optional detour to the flooded swale, which requires a single file push through an overgrown track.
Near the top of Chesterman's Sugarload we will stop for lunch and a hot brew. The keen can walk to the summit. Afterwards we will return to the cars.
For anyone keen to walk the Sandspit River Track on the way home, there is a possibility of organising a car swap - one at the bottom, one at the top, and exchange keys when you meet in the middle.
Added 30 August, amended 31 August 2021
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