Nathan's Bucks Weekend

Saturday

The day of the Bucks Night came along quickly, and we met at Nathan's Parents ready to make our way.  Once all had arrived, and a huge array of gear was loaded onto each truck we were off through Wandin, Warburton and up the Reefton Spur to Cumberland Junction where the route followed was the same as the previous weekend track test.

There was a recovery required at the start of Gum Top Trail, where the track was wet and rutted, but we all made it without incident to the lunch stop at Toponga River.

From the river crossing, we continued along the same planned tracks up to Mt Terrible, enjoying the scenery, the company and the at times hilarious radio banter.  Again the view from Mt Terrible was fantastic, and the weather was superb.

My Patrol for some reason found the climb to Mt Terrible on this trip and bit arduous, and was quite overheated.  Not quite sure why this happened, and I haven't had a problem previously or since with overheating.

We were soon on our way again, where Darren tried the old road down from the peak, along with Nathan who met up with the rest of us on Knockwood Track.  We made good time to the campsite, where we all started setting up tents, and enjoyed a bit of fishing and a swim before settling down around the campfire for some good yarns, a disgusted look through the pornos Clint brought, and dinner.

After dinner, a few of us went out on a night 4WD trip, across the Goulburn and up Holy Land Track which was quite steep and fun in the dark and along Snake Edwards Road to a side track which led to a helipad.  This was absolutely magnificent being on the top of the peak, with not a light in sight just looking up at the perfectly clear night at the stars.  A few satellites were also seen, as well as the odd shooting star.

Sunday

We cooked up an absolutely huge mess of bacon and eggs, packed up camp and continued on with day 2.  I'd plotted out a possible route for the second day, but time had not allowed us to test out the tracks or how long they would take.  We headed out the same way we had the night before up to Snake Edwards Road.  This really was a road, and didn't give us any real opportunities to enjoy 4WDing.  We eventually came out on the Heyfield Jamieson Road, which we followed across the top of Mt Skene.  We came to a side track, which led us through an enchanted forest of snow gums where the track soon started to descend quite steeply and through a number of very sharp and edge of your seat switchbacks took us down to Rumpff Saddle.  This was the Barkley River Jeep Track and I loved it, even though it was a bit on the scratchy side towards the bottom.  We all caught our breath for a while then drove along the Alpine Walking Track past the Gorge and up to Mt Sunday.  This track was generally a very good track, with some good steep ascents and descents, but the travelling was a lot slower than anticipated and had a few quite scratchy sections.  We came out of a particularly scratchy bit of track onto the Mount Sunday Road, which was a very good quality road which enabled us to pick up a bit of speed, tough the spoon drains where quite severe and caught me by surprise.

We came to a side track near Wrens Flat, which on the map indicated that it went down to Brissces Hut.  We drove down to check it out.  The track down appeared unused for quite some time, and was overgrown with grasses towards the end,  There was a tight switchback with some deep ruts halfway along too, which caused me some grief on the way back out requiring some winching to get through.

Though the hut was in ruins, there was a small walking track through the scrub which brought us out to a magic gorge on the Jamieson River, which we all sat down and enjoyed after recovering from the Mt Sunday leg of our trip.

The original plan had been to travel up Mitchell's Road past the Homestead site and Slate Mine and then down into Mansfield.  The Mt Sunday leg had added much to our time, so we drove out from Wrens Flat back to the Heyfield Jamieson Road, and a very long haul into Granny's Flat via the steeper access track.

From Granny's Flat, we crossed the Jamieson River, and found ourselves on a great 4WD track that wasn't on any of the maps we had.  This had some good little steep sections of road, and would be very challenging after rain.

Looking for the quickest way home at this point we made our way through a farmers gate and into Jamieson and then Mansfield for dinner and then the long stretch back home.

This is a satellite image of how much of Victoria we covered on this weekend...

And here is a close up view

Reconnaissance Trip for Nathan's bucks Weekend

Nathan, Dana: Landcruiser
Mark, Michelle, Liam: Patrol

As part of the planning for the 4WD Trip for Nathan's Party, Nathan, Dana, Michelle and myself drove out day one of the trip to make sure the timing would work out OK, and that the tracks would not be too difficult.

As we were coming from different directions, we arranged to meet at Cumberland Junction, at the top of Reefton Spur.  We continued down Big River Road to Stockman's Reward, and then turned up Vans Road, and the wet and rutty Gum Top Trail.  This track climbed into drier forest and joined up with Rough Hill Road, which travelled up and over Rough Hill.  We continued onto Bull Range, and down to our lunch stop on the Taponga River.

From the shallow river crossing we turned right into Second Creek Track and we then followed Dray Track down to the Jamieson-Eildon Road and onto Big River Road.  We followed this towards Enoch Point, before turning up Danes Spur Track, which had some loose rocks and slightly steep sections.  This brought us to Newman's Track which took us up to Mt Terrible.  This was the first time Michelle & I had been to Mt Terrible, and the view was fantastic.

From Mt Terrible we headed on down along Mt Terrible Track, and then along Knockwood Track.  All tracks were easy 4WDing though scenic bushland.  The track came out across Gaffneys Creek at Knockwood where we crossed the Mansfield - Woodspoint Road and went along Army Track and Lazarini Spur.  We had to use the chainsaw to clear a fallen tree from the track near the proposed campsite, which was completely empty.

Nathan was happy with the proposed route, the timing of the stops and the likely arrival at the campsite so it was all agreed for next weekend and we made our way home.  On the home trip, Nathan ran over a snake, which by the time I was able to stop was under the front of the car.  I reversed back, but we were unable to see it anywhere.  A full inspection of the engine and undercar at Knockwood gave us a reasonable degree of comfort that it didn't slither up into the engine bay, but must have disappeared off into the bush somewhere.

Alpine National Park

Henric:     Pathfinder
Mark:        Patrol

Saturday 2nd November 2002

Well I just have to say that this was an absolute magic long weekend.  We did some exploring along some fantastic parts of the Victorian High Country which I had only previously heard about, but of course there is so much more to see so I look forward to many more trips into this magnificent area of Victoria.

Henric and I made off early on Saturday morning towards Mansfield.  At Mansfield we stopped for some last minute supplies in an extremely busy town.  Cup Weekend is the Mansfield Cup weekend as well, and judging by the throngs of people and seas of cars, it is very popular.  Out of Mansfield we drove up Buttercup Rd which follows Buttercup Creek and had a number of nice campsites which didn't appear to see too much use.

From Buttercup Road onto Carters Road, and we passed through some recently logged areas as we continued our climb.  We drove past Tomahawk Gap, for some reason missing Tomahawk Hut so I'll just have to travel up that way again.  We drove along No. 3 Road, which had some very nice views across the high country, and explored Mount No. 3 Hut, complete with timber rocking chair.  We continued along the Razorback to Circuit Road, and then travelled down the valley along King Basin Road to our lunch location at Pineapple Flat.

This is a very nice campsite on the King River, and was also very popular.  We stopped on a little side track near the river and spent about half an our trying to open the back of my car because the picnic table had jammed against the door lever on the inside.  Somehow we managed to get a contrivance of ockie straps and rope around the cargo barrier and shelving units to hook onto the picnic table and pull it through 90 degrees away from the door handle!  A quick fish also proved more complicated with my reel turning belly up, so a thorough cleaning of the reel got it back into working order.  The fishing was nonetheless futile, so we packed up and drove along King Basin Road as it followed and crossed the King River a number of times until we reached King Hut.  This also was a very popular camping area.

From here we ascended the Staircase, a very rocky piece of road, which the Pathfinder danced up with at least 2 wheels on the ground at any one time.  We drove down into Lake Cobbler which we explored around as far as we could looking for the best campsite, before settling down on the lakeside not far from the hut.

There were a few other people camping here, but it certainly wasn't crowded.  I tried fishing again, but didn't see any sign of any fish.

As it was a total fire ban, we sat in the cold and ate cold chicken.  It was soon raining, so we sheltered in the car until it cleared again.  There was no chance of a fire getting out of control today.

Sunday 3rd November 2002

Packing up camp, there was little sign of the thunderstorm that had passed through the night before.  Driving down from the Cobbler Plateau, we had a fantastic view of Dandongadale Falls, which I believe are the longest falls in Victoria with a 255 metre drop.

We drove along  Abbeyard Road down McIvers Spur to McIvers Picnic Ground, where a quick fish of the Buffalo River also was fishless.  We followed the Buffalo River upstream through lovely green valleys with cattle grazing and then turned back onto some 4WDing up Razor Track.  Razor Track followed the ridge for some distance before descending through some steep sections and across a couple of ferny creek crossings.

At the junction of Razor Track and Harry Shepherds Track we stopped for lunch beneath tall trees and verdant grassy undergrowth with King Parrots alluding the camera.

We climbed Harry Shepherds Track, and made a wrong turn down the Alpine Walking Track.  We soon realised our error, and backtracked onto Van Dammes Track, and then made our way down into Wonnangatta Valley.

The Valley is certainly a very popular location, with many people camping along the river and across the flats.  We explored the homestead site and cemetery, and continued on through the valley before climbing out on Cynthia Range Track.  We followed this track which had been recently regraded, past Mt Cynthia and down Eaglevale Track into our campsite on the banks of the Wonnangatta.  Henric went off in search of firewood, while I tried again in vain to catch a fish.

Henric was soon returning with a good sized log chained behind his car, which with the help of his chainsaw, gave us enough wood for the night, and our nearby campers wood for the next day.  After a top BBQ dinner, and some chatting with the family camped adjacent it was time to call it a night when I heard some large animal rustling in some tall bushes near the campsite.  Some nervous exploring with the torch unearthed nothing, so a hasty retreat was called for.

Monday 4th November 2002

Bacon & Eggs for breakfast, packed up the tents and we were off.  We continued along Wonnangatta Road until we reached the famous Billy Goat Bluff Track.  I really enjoyed climbing this track, which had some steep sections which often saw the Pathfinder with a wheel left high in the air.  There was one section where the track ran across a rocky escarpment where I would have loved to have taken a photo, but there was a little too much traffic that day.  We continued to the top of Billy Goat Bluff, and visited the fire lookout at the Pinnacles with some light snow falling.

From the Pinnacles we drove along Moroka Road and stopped to visit MacFarlane Hut.  We walked some distance along the walking track but never found it.  is it still there?  I think the track went all the way to Lake Tarli Karng.  Back into the warmth of the cars as the snow was starting to get heavier and we continued on through Arbuckle Junction and along Howitt Plains where the snow was quite heavy and the countryside was covered in white.

We stopped for lunch in the shelter of Howitt Hut, where Henric cooked some mighty tasty lamb kebabs.

We passed Zeka Spur Track, which I must try out on another trip, and made our way down King Billy Track.  This was a visually amazing track, descending down past huge rockslides which I'd love to know the history of.  Into and through the valley, we were soon climbing the slopes of King Billy, and came to the junction with Brocks Road.  

The snow had been falling quite heavily, and the tracks were becoming very wet and slippery, though we got through it all without need of recovery.  Driving along King Billy we came across a Patrol heading towards us, who had to reverse a good distance back down the track until we were able to pass.  We waited to make sure he could get back onto the track, which was just as well as the slope and snow proved too much, requiring him to winch himself back out of trouble.  Travelling down and past the ominous King Billy, we found ourselves at Lovicks Hut, and onto Bluff Road.

We travelled past Bluff Hut, Refrigerator Gap and down into Sheepyard Flat for an Afternoon Tea revival before heading home after a very enjoyable and memorable long weekend 4WDing.