Mount Donaldson
Corinna
Directions - Mount Donaldson is located just outside of Corinna and three and a half hours west of Launceston. From the Tarkine Hotel head north along Corinna Road until you reach the turn for Norfolk Road. Turn left and keep going until you reach the bridge over the Savage River. The parking area is on the other side and around the corner where you will find a few information boards on the opposite side of the road leading into the forest.
The Hike - With our time in Corinna coming to an end, I still had one more hike left that I wanted to do and it was the summit track up to the top of Mount Donaldson. The next leg of the trip involved driving from Corinna up the coast towards Arthur River and the location the final stop for Caris and I. Luckily Mount Donaldson was on the same road that we would take out of Corinna but not everyone was keen to join me. In the end it was decided that I would be doing it solo and so we had to shuffle some of the gear around between the two cars so Caris could fit in Hal's Mercedes SUV.
After such an enjoyable time spent in Corinna doing hikes like the Savage River Walk, Whyte River Track and Old Telegraph Hill, this would be the last adventure on the itinerary that would cap off an amazing visit. It's not a long drive to the starting point along the narrow and winding unsealed roads that lead in and out of Corinna so I was soon parked up at the small clearing that serves as the car park for the walk. With some sketchy weather forecast for the day, I loaded up my wet weather gear into my pack and set off to take in the views from the bridge over the Savage River first. I had a brief encounter with this river a couple of days prior when I sat on a wooden pontoon and admired the gentle waters on the Savage River Walk so it was nice to see it a bit further upstream. With a mountain/hill to climb, plus a drive out to Arthur River on winding and rough roads, I thought it best to start my adventure. A continued theme for these west coast hikes was that the trail head contained little fanfare but were the beginning of something very special. This one at least had a couple of extra information boards to accompany the wooden walker sign pointing you in the right direction.
One tells you about the early prospecting in the area while the other talks about the infamous Tasmanian Tiger, the Buttongrass plains and the fire ecology starting with the First Nations people through to today. I was more interested in the second board so gave it a quick read before starting the hike. Hoping to see a Tassie Tiger but being a bit realistic about my chances, I would be happy with a pleasant hiking experience and maybe some clear weather at the top given the sprinkling of rain that had been around most of the morning. After crossing a small creek, you join a wide trail leading through the forest that I assume was once used as a management track but has since been reclaimed by the forest. The width of the trail certainly made for a different experience compared with other walks in the area but the open nature was still enjoyable nonetheless. Lining the trail and forming a barrier of sorts was a line of regrowth trees that was fun to photograph, along with some early fungi finds. One of them looked like a meringue with a smaller, crispy meringue on top and made me feel a bit hungry for dessert (possibly Mycenastrum corium or Gaestrum triplex).
Meandering along the wide track, my eyes were scanning the edge of the trail for more fungi and in the damp leaf litter there were many to be found. Every now and then when the trail closed up a little and some more mature forest was visible, there were fallen logs with bracket fungi making a home. With over 400m of vertical ascent to cover in the 4.5km hike to the summit, this is more a gradual climb than a short and sharp affair, which is nice because the gradient never feels like you are working too hard. Eventually the wide track starts to narrow permanently and it feels like every other amazing trail in Tassie. With a more enclosed feeling, you wind your way through the lower forests that are full of ferns, fungi, damp places and plenty of musky smells. Every now and then you can tell that you've climbed a bit further when a fallen log has cleared a path on the slopes and the views looking down are clear. Reaching a series of little hairpins, the transition to drier eucalyptus forest becomes apparent as the canopy thins out and the thicker understory plants start to line the edge of the trail.
Feeling more like a climb now the scenery was starting to change, I was excited to continue on and see what else this trail had in store. While the forest hikes had been some of the best of the whole trip with their magical shroud and ancient trees, I was looking forward to something different and the possibility of seeing the area from a higher vantage point. Looping around another hairpin, this was the moment where the smooth trunked eucalyptus trees started to appear in greater numbers. This was much more familiar terrain as it felt like a mix between the Karri and Jarrah forests that I get back home in Western Australia, an odd feeling after being in the temperate rainforests and alpine scenery of Tasmania for the past couple of weeks. Switching between narrow corridors of thick undergrowth and the occasional clearing where a tree had succumbed to the elements, this stretch is where I got my first, albeit limited, views of the forest lining the river. The further I walked, the better the views became until I could see some pretty cool scenes of the mists rising up through the trees.