Running the Overland Track in the Depths of Winter

Ever since I embarked on my trail running journey I had the goal of running the Overland track. After years of training and many aborted attempts I was finally able to run the track as part of the Cradle Mountain Run in February this year. Another opportunity arose when a mate Dan messaged me proposing that we run it again over the Kings birthday long weekend. I responded with a resounding ‘yes’ almost immediately. I knew how much of an epic day out it would be and I was keen to do it with mates this time rather than racing against them. This is the account of our big day out running the Overland track in depths of winter.

Map

Planning and Logistics

Dan’s message got the logistical wheels in motion. Among the challenges of running the Overland track is working out how to get a car from the start to the end. Fortunately I had solved this problem 2 years earlier when we had a trip planned out but were thwarted by blizzard conditions closing all of the roads to Cradle mountain. So I sent a message to Dad and another to Bevo, the original drivers. Within half an hour they had both responded with ‘yes’ answers to being run support crew. All that planning years earlier was finally coming to fruition.

Initially it was just Dan and I planning to do the run. A few weeks later while in the Grampians for a training camp for the GPT100 I mentioned the Overland mission to Justin and saw his eyes light up. So I invited him to join in the adventure. Earlier in the year Justin and I raced along Lake St Clair to the finish of the Cradle Mountain. He finished 30 seconds ahead of me. We are friendly adversaries when we race each other. I was looking forward to running together with less competitive pressure.

Week Before

As with all of these big missions I spend the week leading up incessantly checking the weather. As usual the weather forecast seemed to change dramatically with each refresh of the page. It was alternating between horrendously cold and wet and slightly less cold and wet. This seems to be a quintessential aspect of the winter overland experience. We waited and prayed to the weather overlords hoping to see improvements in the outlook.

On the Wednesday afternoon we made the executive decision to run on Sunday rather than Saturday to avoid running through a blizzard. Sunday wasn’t ideal but it was by far the lesser of the two evils. We can thank the King for having a symbolic birthday and granting us a weather window. I sent a message to the group suggesting we leave Hobart at 1230 on Saturday to stay the night with my parents in Launceston. Justin was all good with the plan but there was radio silence from Dan all Saturday morning. I was starting to wonder what was up.

An hour prior to our planned departure time I got a call from Dan sounding like a croaky husk saying that he might be a few minutes late due his state of hungoverness. Dan arrived at my place looking like a corpse and sounding nothing like his usual chirpy self. We promptly hit the road and made it to Launceston in good time. A flurry of logistical mucking around took up our afternoon. After buying groceries, picking up an inreach, buying alcohol to pay all of our drivers and such we eventually made it to my parents place. Our early start leaving Hobart paid off with the rare opportunity for an early night.

Mission Day

Getting to Cradle

To reach Cradle Mountain and start the running by 630am we were awake at 330am and on the road by 400am. An alarm going off at that time of the morning is the definition of a rude awakening. All preparations done the night before allowed us to get on the road in good time and on schedule.

The drive to Cradle was the lowlight of my entire day. I was feeling car sick and I think Dan was too. A drive characterised by nausea and second thoughts. The weather was ominous with rain squalls and wind hitting the car as we approached Cradle. While I was having misgivings I thought of John Cannell who was out running an out and back of the PCT and Overland track. Thinking of him out in these conditions after already being out for days put our little Overland track run in perspective.

We arrived at the Ronny creek carpark at around 620am, somehow ahead of the google maps predicted time even though we were moving at a snail pace to dodge the suicidal wildlife. I am convinced that google uses the average times of all drivers and all of the slow driving tourists headed to Cradle must skew the estimated driving times. As we hopped out of the car and stood in the rain Dad looked at us and said ‘you guys are fucking idiots’. We then proceeded to begin our long day by running a few metres to the sign in shed. We signed in and both Dan and I stepped out of the booth straight into a puddle. Robbing us of even a few minutes of dry socks.

Cradle to Pelion

After waving good bye to Dad we embarked on our long journey to Cynthia Bay. Dan and I were both wearing our rain jackets and gloves but Justin took off into the freezing conditions in shorts and tshirt. He had been saying in the car that they always advise the guests on Overland trips to ‘be bold, start cold’. Within 20 minutes both Dan and I were stopping to take off layers. The climb up Marions lookout is guaranteed to raise body temperature.

As we approached Marions lookout we saw the fiery volcanic glow of the sunrise. It was the beginnings of what we all knew was to be a long hard day. As we ascended we began to encounter larger patches of snow. We were all thinking and occasionally mentioning how hectic it must have been for John Cannell being out there the night before in the snowy windy conditions.

My car induced nausea was quickly flushed away by the freezing cold breeze and light rain. I was feeling good as we passed Kitchen hut then onwards past Waterfall Valley hut. The distances that typically take a day for hikers fly by when running the track. We were deprived of most of the mountainous views that are on offer on a clear day. As we moved through waterfall valley we were gifted and teased by glimpses of majesty between the clouds.

Beyond lake Windermere the I was feeling the beginnings of a chafe problem and it was bringing on negative thoughts. With some strategic clothing changes and lubricant application and my problems were resolved and I was happy again. Dan on the other hand was struggling physically, attributing it to the alcohol imbibed on the Friday night. The physical struggles paired with the enormity of the run still ahead of us had him concerned for his future.

With no option but to get to Lake St Clair we kept moving forward and the section through to Pelion plains was quite enjoyable. The runnable trails through this section allowed us to make good progress. I had a rough idea in my head for when we needed to get to Pelion to achieve our 11 hour finish goal. We had to get to Pelion Hut in around 4 hours to stay on schedule. We arrived about 10 minutes behind schedule and stopped for a break to eat some solid food and rest to legs before the climb up Pelion gap. Dan was still struggling at this stage but Justin was cruising and I was still feeling pretty good. We still had a long road ahead.

Pelion Hut to Narcissus

As we ascended up towards Pelion Gap I reminisced about an epic fall I had running to Mt Ossa a few years back. I took a hefty gash out of my knee that took months to fully heal. Not long after my fall nostalgia I slipped on a root and hit my right knee on the ground. It didn’t seem too bad at the time but as I kept moving a pain persisted in my knee. Despite the pain I pushed onwards and we were soon at Pelion Gap surrounded by snow capped mountains.

We took a few minutes to take in the sights at Pelion Gap. We discussed having seen John Cannell’s photo from a day before showing the Mt Ossa sign completely covered in snow and were thankful for our decision to wait an extra day. Pelion gap is around the halfway mark of the track. It felt like we were on the home stretch from this point onwards. Yet we still had many hours ahead and the hardest times (for me) still to come.

We had an enjoyable descent from Pelion gap and were at Kia Ora hut in what felt like no time. Dan and I both decided it was a good time to crack into the caffeine gels. This was a major turning point for Dan. He transformed from the straggler to the pace-setting chatterbox. From this point Dan continued to get stronger while it was the beginning of my gradual demise. The next major landmark is Du Cane hut then we start ascending the final big climb of the day up towards Du Cane gap. We considered taking a detour to look at the waterfalls but by this stage we were running behind schedule and energy was waning so we decided to keep pushing on.

We took it easy on the climb up Du Cane gap. Dan and I planned to reward ourselves with Vegemite and cheese sandwiches at the top of the climb. This provided much needed motivation to get us to the top. We had our sandwich break at the top as promised then began our descent. We passed Windy Ridge hut next where I make a quick bottle refill. I was having flash backs to this section of the Cradle Mountain Run earlier in the year. I had been running alone for hours and at this section I saw someone up ahead of me and also someone behind me. This is when the run changed to feel like a race which it ended up being right till the end. But that is a story for another post.

Dan with his newfound energy lead us along this section at a vigorous pace. I kept up as I tend to do when I have someone to chase without paying too much attention to my condition. When we came to a stop at the Pine Valley turn off Dan turned to me in surprise and said ‘you look absolutely rinsed’, which is exactly how I felt. I had started the run with a long sleeve and tights out of fear of the cold but now I was sweltering. I should have heeded Justin’s advice around starting cold.

After a brief intermission of slurping fluids and downing calories we continued on our way towards Narcissus hut. My overheating woes persisted as soon as we took off again. I fantasised about taking my shirt off once we reached Narcissus. I was now counting down the kms till we reached the hut. Once we finally reached the hut I tore off my long sleeve shirt and fed my voracious appetite. Justin pulled out a bag of Pizza Shapes which we shared with delight. They were a culinary delight. I will cherish the memory of the Narcuissus Pizza shapes for years to come.

Narcissus to Cynthia Bay

After sitting down for a few minutes I was freezing and had to put my shirt back on again. Dan asked to borrow some toilet paper which made me think I might want to do the same. I went first and by the time I was done I struggled to stand up and could hardly walk. Dan came out and was afflicted by the same ailment. It was likened to rigor mortis. It seemed we were doomed based on the way we were moving but after we warmed up again we were back running again. It took us all quite a while to recover from our Narcissus stop, allowing our bodies to cooldown was a bad idea.

Leaving Narcissus hut we had to trudge through ankle deep water. This exacerbated the body temperature issues till we reached the forest. My body couldn’t seem to decide if it was hot or cold. We were all familiar with this slow frustrating section of the track and knew the end was still a long time coming. I had given up on any specific time goals and just focused on manageable chunks. My next goal was to get to Echo Point, I didn’t think any further beyond that. The fatigue was really starting to effect me, I was labouring hard but still enjoying the time out. I love it when it gets hard, it’s why I do these things. ‘Do hard things’ has become a personal mantra of mine in recent years.

We plod along at a painfully slow pace through the dense forest. Eventually we arrive at Echo Point to a glorious sunset over Lake St Clair. We wandered down and walked out on the jetty and took in the views. I took out my phone and saw that I had reception so I gave Bevo a call. He answered almost straight away saying that he was about to call me too. He said he was about 3km from Cynthia Bay, making him about 9km away from us. He said he was going to set up a mini aid station and wait for us. So our new goal became finding Bevan.

We went on our way again excited by the prospect of meeting up with Bevo. He had promised to surprise us with an assortment of treats as a final aid station for us. The next few kms flew by with us eagerly anticipating running into Bevan at some stage. I had fallen back behind a little way when I heard loud exclamations out ahead. We had found Bevo and he had an epic spread of donuts, beef jerky and two types of soup for us.

I proceeded to eat more donuts that was probably wise, then moved onto the jerky which did not go down well at all. Finally I finished off with some big swigs of the potato and leek soup. Eternally grateful for Bevo even driving, he went above and beyond the call of duty bringing us all of the treats and walking in to meet us. Buoyed by our newfound energy and companionship we set off to run the final few kms. Bevo ran with us too. After a few minutes Bevo laughed and said ‘what the fuck, you guys have been doing this all day’, with a tone of admiration and disgust. By this stage I was a hobbling corpse but I kept on moving knowing the end was so close.

At Watersmeet the trail became flat and runnable and we knew we were so close to the end. So we pushed as hard as we could and got about 5:30m/km pace. Finally we saw the lodge and the overland track sign marking our finish point. We had done it in just under 12 hours. Justin and I both had the stark realisation that we had just run pretty much half of 100 miles. The prospect of continuing on for another 80km was hard to fathom. Later in the year we are both doing our first 100 mile race so these thoughts weighed heavy on our minds.

After short intermission of standing around feeling pleased with ourselves we stumbled over to the visitor centre and optimistically checked the showers which are supposed to close at 4pm. To our delight one of the showers was still unlocked and Justin jumped straight in. Once he was done I went in and the shower was still running so I struggled getting undressed and went over and stood under it for about 5 seconds before it turned itself off. I stood there completely naked pressing the start button to no avail.

Thinking the shower had broken I stand shivering in utter disbelief at my pathetic situation. On the verge of laughing and crying not sure whether my it was funny or sad. I soon realised that there was probably a time out feature to stop people having extremely long showers. So I went over to the sink and started splashing myself with warm water. After what felt like an eternity passed and many failed attempts the shower turned on and I was granted my wish of warm cleanliness.

Getting Home

Once we were all showered and warm we went on to the Lake St Clair lodge to get some food. We had heard rumours of good Sri Lankan curries. We had dinner and then made our way back to Launceston on yet another harrowing drive. After having a stand off with a wombat that didn’t want to move off the road and us having to drive around it Bevo slowed down considerably. We noted less pademelons on this drive but more possums, wombats and even two deer. Thankfully the death toll remained at zero for this leg of the journey.

We finally made it back to Launceston at around 930pm. I waddled into my parents house feeling beyond tired. We ate golden syrup dumplings and chatted about our day before I finally dragged myself off to bed to lay myself to rest after a monstrous day. The tiredness I felt at the end of this day was immense and gave me grave concerns for how I am going to feel post 100 mile race. Laying in the same bed I started the day in after journeying so far is a surreal feeling. After all of that running I was back where I started and so glad about it.