I had the pleasure of going for an overnight tramp on 23 April to Lake Man Biv in Lewis Pass via the Doubtful Tops.
I went as a party of three. We parked the car just past Engineers Camp, and anticipated a busy hut given all the cars we saw (plus the three day weekend). We were wrong. The hut was empty and I can’t recall seeing another soul. But I get ahead of myself.
We crossed the river which was fine in low flows - the best crossing spot was slightly upstream of the carpark. After gaining the river terrace, we meandered up the valley for an hour or so, before veering off track to ascend to the Doubtful tops at point 1258. It was a pretty easy ascent - steep for the first few hundred vertical metres, but through mature beech forest, so the understorey was quite open. It was comparatively gentle the rest of the ascent, with somewhat dense scrub the last 100 m or so. It took about 2 hours from the valley to the bushline.
Then we were on the tops! Travel was straightforward and the line was obvious. There was a bit of wind and some looming clouds, but nothing to write home about. I love tops travel.
We stopped at the marker post at Mt Murray, and wondered why it was the only named peak despite not being the high point. A mystery for another day. We also wondered at some of the placenames: Lake Man seems normal enough, but Mt Lake Man seems a bit odd. Pussy Stream needs no commentary. And to have all of these landmarks surrounded by the Hope and the Doubtful valleys? Too good to be true.
This was not my first trip to Lake Man Biv, and I had been looking forward to actually visiting the lake this time, but it was not meant to be. We had such a leisurely start (11 am river crossing) that we just made the hut before nightfall (5:30 pm). At least I caught a glimpse of the lake from the Doubtful tops (juuust visible in the below photo, if you zoom in).
We were surprised to have the hut to ourselves. It was a good thing as the tent sites are pretty sparse. The stars were great until the rains set in.
The next morning we wandered back to the car via the conventional route, following the track high above the Kedron River until we joined the main Doubtful valley track. I am a sucker for mossy beech forests and I certainly enjoyed that portion of the walk.
The track back to the car was wide open and rolled right along.
Doubtful Hut looked to be in better condition than last time I saw it, although I still wouldn’t want to camp there. The clearing in the trees just upvalley looked like a much nicer campsite, except for the alarming numbers of sandflies. We had lunch there but didn’t dawdle.
It was a quick overnighter, but I quite enjoyed the route choice. It was a lot of variety in a short amount of distance. I couldn’t find any descriptions online of the Doubtful Tops so I felt motivated to write this up. It was easy and very enjoyable. Highly recommend! Just, if you want to go Lake Man (or Mt Lake Man), leave a little earlier in the morning. It seems the more trips I do, the longer my list gets. I still have some unfinished business here so I’m sure I’ll be back again!