FERN GLADE

1965 HWC map by C. A. Meech, traced by M. Grist 1991

TRACK NOTES by JOHN CANON

There is more than one track linking Fern Tree with the Springs and the upper reaches of the Mountain. One, constructed in 1928, is the Fern Glade Track. The botanist (and dentist) Ernest Rodway proposed its name. It’s the most popular of the tracks passing, as it does, through a beautiful fern glade on its way up to Radfords Track, and uphill to continue to The Springs. Constructed after World War II, Jacksons Bend Track also ascends through a beautiful fern glade to join the tracks around O’Grady Falls (Woods Track and Betts Vale). In this vicinity once were several other tracks including Rogers Track, Mountside Track, and the Featherstone Cascades Track, but these have fallen into disuse and lie overgrown.

Postcard from “Mountside” to England. From the Grist collection.