There was a time when the Cass Lagoon track would never have crossed my mind as a 1-day option. But, oh, how the times have changed. After I abandoned my plan to traverse the entire Cragieburn Range due to some extreme fog, I had to find a backup. I parked my bicycle the previous day at the Cass trailhead, so the best option was to head over to the lagoon side, run the loop, and then cycle back to the car.

From the lagoon side, the Cass Lagoon track heads up a steep side of the hill. To warm up, I fast-hiked until the trail exited the woods and out onto the tussock-covered side of Mount Bruce. From here, I attempted to start running.

Unfortunately, the tussock was sitting on top of what I can only describe as a bog. There was thick mud underfoot, and more than once, I plunged almost knee-deep into muddy water. The view of the white river valley below slightly caught my mind off it. But nothing seemed like it could fully distract from having mud-filled shoes. According to my map, the trail would go into the woods again at some point, where I hoped the ground would be a little firmer. That way, I could actually start running.

After passing Lagoon Saddle, I entered the woods again, and I started to jog a bit on the firmly packed trail, which was 80% runnable for the first small section heading towards Lagoon Saddle Hut. After the trials of the bog, I was happy to be moving at a normal pace again. But as luck would have it, I wouldn't run for long. There are a lot of trees down across the trail, and there are multiple landslips. By this point, I was starting to feel frustrated.

I decided to do some forest parkour to convince myself to keep going. So, instead of walking around all the downed trees, I began bouncing off of them and bounding my way down the hill. Once again, according to my map, the trail would level out at the bottom of the hill, and I might have a chance to jog for a bit again.

However, the trail after descending winds in and out of the Harper River bed. Instead of a trail, the run was through large boulders up and over riverbanks. For about the next 8k, that is all the trail is—a river bed.

The most notable thing that happened along this section of my "run" of the Cass Lagoon track was losing the trail at one point and deciding to follow the river because, well, the trail had been following the river. However, I was quickly funneled into a very narrow gorge, where I was forced to continuously cross the Harper River in knee-deep water. Thanks to it being the middle of summer, making my way through this section was possible, but if the river was high, this mistake could have been deadly.

It wasn't until I was about halfway through the gorge that I realized the Cass Lagoon track works up a hill and around the corner before returning to the river.

Thankfully, the remaining track to Hamilton Hut went by with some ease winding through the forest.

After taking a break at Hamilton Hut and eating some lunch, I was ready for the final push back to my bicycle and then to the car. From Hamilton Hut, the Cass Lagoon track climbs quickly uphill towards Cass Saddle. The trail is extremely steep in spots, making running almost impossible. Instead, I just tried my best to walk fast up to the saddle, stopping frequently for some heavy breathing.

The Cass saddle is by far the best part of this loop. There is no bog under the tussock, no river rocks to run over and around, and a fantastic view. The joy of Cass Saddle was to be short-lived, though.

Once leaving the saddle, I ran a section of a forest leisurely until the Cass Lagoon track again dropped into a river bed. As you can probably guess, running in the Cass River bed was heaps of fun. Especially because whoever placed the orange trail markers must have had a sense of humor.

Many orange poles marking the track are hidden in tall grass or occasionally behind large boulders. By this point, my only source of navigation was following whatever part of the Cass River was easier to run through and waiting for this very challenging day to be over.

I managed to make it through the 36km in a day, running alone. That I will take as an accomplishment. But I can firmly say I will never be running the Cass Lagoon track again.