Mt Juliet hike

Last week I got some great hikes done in Tasmania, especially the Walls of Jerusalem, so I wanted to be sure to keep this up when I came home. I picked the hike up Mt Juliet near Healesville for my first hike. Now, I won’t be recommending this hike to anyone because it’s more the sort of hike you do in order to have done it, rather than for the pleasure of the experience, but I’d read about how steep it is and I wanted to see for myself.

Verdict: yes, some parts are really steep, but a lot of parts aren’t so bad. The main thing about this hike is that you get to see a lot of forest, a lot of tree trunks (fallen and upright) and not much else. No views, no clearings, no space for wildlife sightings. Although I saw three disappearing wallabies and a fair few crimson rosellas. There is one section near the top where the mountain ash are spectacular but other than that it’s just forest, some with ferns and some without.  A certain mistiness added atmosphere. 

There’s a disproportionately large summit cairn and a sign at the summit so you don’t continue on (under the false impression that summits always offer views).

It had been raining heavily the past few days so I expected the track to be muddy, but it was merely damp; there wasn’t any mud as such. There were many fallen trees, some quite challenging to clamber over, and some that had obviously been in situ for a very long time. The track is quite overgrown so I was constantly pushing wet branches out of my face. For this purpose my hiking poles proved invaluable.

I was alone on the ascent, over 900 metres in about 5 kilometres, and on the way down I only passed two hikers. From my point of view this was good because I was sure I was going to be slipping over and falling on my descent and I didn’t want spectators. But I didn’t fall once, although I skidded a few times. The  descent was not as difficult as I expected, and after I completed the steep sections it was really easy going. I arrived at the end of the hike feeling completely relaxed and fresh.