The first time Mt Wellington and it's spectacular organ pipes came clearly into view this year I was on a bus to Geeveston. I decided I should go and check it out when I had a free day. I did this trip on my bmx. It was a pretty tough ride on a one speed but atleast things were pretty much straight forward. Up in one direction and down in the other. I started on Davey St in the city at the visitor center. I didn't know how to get to Mt Wellington but after grabbing a free street map it turns out all I had to do was follow Davey St until I got to the top. It was roughly 9k climbing easily upwards as the road changed to Huon Rd and eventually to the turnoff at Pillinger Drive. I enjoyed this section and admired the views that some of the residents in this area would enjoy of the river and beyond.
I turned onto Pillinger Drive after about an hour. Passing the warning sign with the gates marked on it, I found out it was 12k from this point onwards. On the bmx this section was slow going, with very little gliding and a lot of standing up. I occasionally passed the track markes of walking tracks heading up to the top. I'll hopefully check these out later armed with a bit more information and a muesli bar or two. I was doing fine as I passed the Springs stop off but arout 6k from the top my momentum started to wear off a bit. Occasionally I grapped a sip of water form the streams gushing on the uphill side of the road. The summit was covered in cloud and precipitating nicely for me.
The views on the ascent of the Derwent and the suburbs of Hobart were great. I slowly counted down the last kilometres which were marked on the road for cyclists and runners. The creek just before the chalet provided my with a bit more water, although I got sprayed in the process. My bmx isn't much of a hill climber but in the end I got up there with a bit of energy to spare and rolled into the top carpark at 1pm, about two and a half hours from Hobart. There wasn't much to see from the top through the clouds and covered in sweat wearing shorts I got cold pretty quickly. After a happy snap at the trig and a poke around in the loookout building turned my pushy around.
The cruise down the hill was fun. My bmx only has a front brake and I have no helmet so a bit of care was needed but the bike has got a low center of gravity and wide bars so it's stable when cruising at speed. I zipped my jacket right up and smashed it down the mountain. It was an awesome release after the hard work and I covered the 20 odd clicks back to town pretty quickly. I checked my watch while having a bowl of noodles at the backpackers on liverpool st and it was 1.45. All in all it was a pretty good trip and a good recon for walking trips and possibly some climbing in the future. Roughly a three to four hour trip in total.
