Australian Alps Walking Track - Day 016 - Taylors Crossing to Johnnies Track

 

Day:	016
Date:	Wednesday, 30 March 2011
Start:	Taylors Crossing
Finish:	Johnnies Track & Beloka Range Track Junction
Camp Location	Here
Daily Kilometres:	21.6
Total Kilometres:	344.1 AAWT
Animal Encounters	Birds, cows
People Encounters	Bridge workers, one vehicle
Weather:	Mostly overcast, intermittent showers
Pictures:	Here
Journal:	During the night some people turned up on the other side of the river and were walking around the construction site (the bridge is being worked on) by torchlight. Later I heard a couple of gun shots. However, no-one came near me. I had a good night's sleep and got up at 7 AM to a very dewy and damp camp. Lots of condensation in the tent. I didn't hurry my packing and left at 9 AM. The first 6 km was along quiet rural roads, the first and only time that the AAWT passes through a "settled" area. I enjoyed the easy walking. Then it was back onto faint foot trails as I climbed over a hill then made a long slow descent on a narrow difficult hillside path to Morass Creek, which lived up to its name. It was dirtyish water (came from farmland), quite wide and very marshy with multiple channels. I could not be bothered changing into my running shoes and gradually worked my way across the channels. The water was knee deep and flowing and my boots and socks got wet. On the other side I scrambled up the bank and climbed away from the valley on another faint trail through scrubby forest. However a little higher up it became open forest and grassy underfoot and quite pleasant walking. I crossed the Corryong-Benambra Road and began a steady climb up onto the Beloka Range. It was mostly gum forest with some scrub and occasionally rocky outcrops. The forest obscured views and nearer the top the route followed an overgrown firetrail. However, it wasn't as bad as past days and my pace was reasonable. I had lunch in a saddle about 1:30 PM, knowing I only had another 10 kilometers to go. Soon after, I joined a clear fire trail and the rest of the afternoon was spent following cleared fire trails higher and higher along the Beloka Range. Just before 5 PM I reach the Johnnies Track Junction where I had hidden my next food dump. I didn't find it first go, which was a little concerning, but found it easily on the second go with my GPS. I then had a drawn-out evening meal along with my treats and definitely over-ate. I was in bed soon after 8 PM.

Australian Alps Walking Track - Day 015 - Mt Wills Hut to Taylors Crossing

 

Day:	015
Date:	Tuesday, 29 March 2011
Start:	Mt Wills Hut
Finish:	Taylors Crossing
Camp Location	Here
Daily Kilometres:	26.1
Total Kilometres:	322.5 AAWT
Animal Encounters	Birds, snake, kangaroos
People Encounters	One hiker, several vehicles
Weather:	Partly cloudy and mild
Pictures:	Here
Journal:	I didn't sleep all that well. Maybe the metal bed was too hard. I got up at 7:30 AM to what looked like another perfect day. The hut was on a clear grassy crest on top of Mount Wills (1757m) and had great views to the east. I didn't leave till around 9 AM and after a little bit of initial trouble finding the trail to Mt Wills South (1621m), I picked it up. It went through grassy wooded snowgum forest and although faint, was followable. The views east and west were great and I really enjoyed the walking. There were also boulder outcrops adding to the beautiful scenery. No views from Mt Wills South, which was the last peak of the Bogong High Plains. From here I followed overgrown foot tracks and fire trails through increasingly dense forest. Also some blackberries. On the way down I met a hiker on the way up who had just started a week's hike south along the AAWT. We had a brief chat and continued on our separate ways. I reached the Omeo Road about 11:30 AM and had my first break. The next sections involved quite a lot of scrub-bashing along older overgrown fire trails though not as bad as a few days ago and not wet. On the other hand I picked up lots of spider-webs and bugs. It wasn't very pleasant hiking but I could follow the trail and make reasonable time. The route went downhill to Gill Creek which was ankle deep and, after working out the shallowest route, I dashed across. On the other side was more very old overgrown fire trail which climbed steeply uphill for a few kilometres until it reached a ridge where I stopped and had late lunch. Another tedious section. Here I joined a better forest road for another long descent into the valley of the Mitta Mitta River in a semi-rural valley. I reached Taylors Crossing, a pedestrian suspension bridge across the Mitta Mitta, where there was a designated hikers campsite. It was 6:30 PM and I had time for a quick nude dip in the river before cooking dinner. I'm a little ahead of schedule and have a relatively easy day tomorrow to my next food dump. Went to bed at 9 PM. Star-filled night but already a heavy dew.

Australian Alps Walking Track - Day 014 - Edmondson Hut to Mt Wills Hut

 

Day:	014
Date:	Monday, 28 March 2011
Start:	Edmondson Hut
Finish:	Mt Wills Hut
Camp Location	Here
Daily Kilometres:	29.0
Total Kilometres:	296.4 AAWT
Animal Encounters	Birds
People Encounters	One southbound AAWT hiker
Weather:	Sunny and mild
Pictures:	Here
Journal:	I forced myself to get up at 7 AM even though it was barely light and quite cold. The sky was clear and it promised to be another sunny day. I didn't get going until nearly 9 AM because I lost time dealing with prickles that had attached themselves to some of my clothes and towel. I hiked cross country up the slopes of Mt Nelse to rejoin the AAWT and avoid backtracking a kilometer. Once on the trail, it was about 5 km of easy walking across more High Plains with stunning views of Mt Bogong. Along the way I met Paul, a young southbound AAWT hiker, travelling a bit slower than me, and we had a brief chat. At Roper's Hut the descent of the Duane Spur began. It seemed to go on forever, though wasn't too tough. Eventually I reached Big River and decided to take off my boots and socks and put on my spare running shoes for the crossing. I also packed a few things more securely in case I fell in! There was a wire rope across which I used to help me and the water was deep enough to wet the bottom of my shorts.  On the other side, I took a break and put boots and socks back on leaving are my runners on the outside of my pack to dry. Then I had a long ascent up T-Spur which also seem to go on forever. It was hard work though the shade was cool and the views great as I got higher. Around 1:30 PM I reached Maddisons Hut site and had lunch lying in the sun with the tent out to dry. It would've been easy to have a nap after the exhausting climb. After checking the map, I decided to try to get to Mt Wills where there was a hut with water for the night rather Big River Saddle where I would have to camp and water was not convenient. It was going to be hard work. The long journey down Long Spur wasn't too bad in terms of grades but it was very rough track. I was now heading east away from the High Plains. The spur was quite narrow and the views were marvellous. Lower down the track was more overgrown and some of it was blackberry vines which was annoying. I didn't get to Big River Saddle until 6:30 PM, but decided to continue the last 3+ kilometres even though it was all climbing and likely to be rough trail. It was very slow going, and was getting quite dark by the time I reach a fire trail where I had less concern about losing my way. It was almost too dark to see when I eventually reached the summit of Mt Wills and the hut at 8 PM. It was empty and in good condition. I picked a bunk (hard metal) and unpacked and had a wash outside before cooking dinner. It wasn't that cold and quite comfortable. Having gone a bit further and not having to pack up the tent, I may have a bit of a sleep in tomorrow. I went to bed at 10.

Australian Alps Walking Track - Day 013 - Daveport Village to Edmondson Hut

 

Day:	013
Date:	Sunday, 27 March 2011
Start:	Ski Lodge at Davenport Village
Finish:	Edmondson Hut
Camp Location	Here
Daily Kilometres:	32.3 AAWT, 1.0 to hut
Total Kilometres:	267.4 AAWT
Animal Encounters	Birds, snakes, brumbies
People Encounters	Several groups of hikers, two mountain-bikers
Weather:	Sunny and mild
Pictures:	Here
Journal:	I got up at 6 AM with the goal of leaving the Lodge around 8 AM. I was mostly packed but wanted to grab a quick shower and then had to clean my room, etc., before leaving. As I ate breakfast, Ken came out and offered to drive me up to the Mount Loch Car Park where I had left the AAWT to come down to the village. I accepted his kind offer and we left soon after 8 AM. A part of me would have liked just spending another day hanging out at the lodge and bistro, but there was no point in staying and it looked like being superb weather for hiking. For almost the entire day I would be in very familiar territory. The AAWT across the High Plains is the same route used for much of the Rooftop Run (a.k.a. Bogong to Hotham 64 km) run each January and I have completed it three times. I also used to come up to the High Plains in summer about 30 years ago when a serious athlete to spend a week or two training at altitude with friends. As I started walking it warmed up rapidly as the sun rose in clear skies and I was soon wearing shorts and T-shirt. There was a very light breeze and a great sense of stillness about the mountains and plains.  As I left the ski fields behind me, I descended a rocky foot trail to the Cobungra River and then climbed up the other side to reach the start of the High Plains. The descent and ascent were slow but not particularly difficult. As I reached the Plains, I caught a school group and chatted for 10 minutes with one of the teachers. It was then about 15 km walking across the tussocky grass snow plains following a narrow track that followed a very long line of numbered snow poles. It was quite wet underfoot compared to January when I ran here. It was a picture perfect day and I had the place to myself as far as the eye could see apart from a couple of small groups of brumbies. On some of the hills and in the distance there were silver forests of dead snow guns, presumably from the bushfires of 2003. I had lunch at 1 PM sitting on some rocks and then kept moving. (For the interest of my Bogong to Hotham running buddies, they were starting to construct a professional foot trail from the road towards Hotham, which should make the run easier next year.) Around 2:30 PM I crossed a sealed road and after a short descent the trail began following an aqueduct that contoured around the eastern edge of the High Plains and gave extensive views to the east. It was easy walking and I was making good time for the day. Finally the AAWT climbed away from the aqueduct (I was ready for something else) and climbed to the High Plains again. I reached my goal, Edmondson Hut, an old cattlemans' hut, just before 6 PM and was in bed soon after 8 PM. I could have slept in the Hut, but decided to sleep in my tent.  When the sun went down it got very cold very quickly. I suspect I've been quite sunburnt by the High Plains sun today, but it was memorable and special hiking.

Australian Alps Walking Track - Day 012 - Davenport Lodge

 

Day:	012
Date:	Saturday, 26 March 2011
Start:	Ski Lodge at Davenport Village
Finish:	Ski Lodge at Davenport Village
Camp Location	Here
Daily Kilometres:	0 (day off)
Total Kilometres:	235.1 AAWT
Animal Encounters	None
People Encounters	Plenty
Weather:	Foggy early then mild and sunny
Pictures:	Here
Journal:	The day was spent drying out all of my wet and damp gear, washing everything I could, updating my diary, reorganizing the way I packed my gear to try and ensure greater waterproofedness in wet scrub, and reading the paper and eating junk food. The weather forecast for the next few days looks good for high country hiking and I will be passing through some familiar and spectacular country and am looking forward to it.

Australian Alps Walking Track - Day 011 - Selwyn Creek Road to Davenport Village

 

Day:	011
Date:	Friday, 25 March 2011
Start:	Selwyn Creek Road
Finish:	Ski Lodge at Davenport Village
Camp Location	Here
Daily Kilometres:	24.9 AAWT, 3.5km Twins Tk detour, 2.2km to Davenport Village
Total Kilometres:	235.1 AAWT
Animal Encounters	Birds
People Encounters	Two trailbikers, many others
Weather:	Mostly overcast, cool and breezy. Cold and foggy at Mt Hotham
Pictures:	No pictures, iphone not working
Journal:	It again drizzled during the night and there was heavy condensation in the tent despite a rising wind, so everything was damp when I began my early rising at 6am (no light til 7am). I knew I had a lot of ground to cover if I hoped to get to Mt Hotham in time to be sure things would be open. I am unfamiliar with the ski village there and didn't know what I would find. To get there, I figured I had about 30km of walking, predominantly uphill, with a pack loaded with five days food and plenty of wet (and therefore heavy) gear. My guess was 25+kg. I hid my food drum, now containing mostly rubbish, but also a few things I didn't think I would need, e.g., extra gas canister and extra peanut butter. The first 20km was going to be on the Twins Jeep Track where the going was quite good underfoot and no undergrowth to deal with. It was quite clear and, as I kept my pace solid, I enjoyed the expansive views over the mountains, many valleys still filled with fog. The trail either followed the ridge of The Great Divide, or followed the contours. The pack was heavy, but I was optimistic and, apart from my wet socks and boots (for the third day in a row), I felt dry for a change. I took a break after 2 hours at the Mt Murray turnoff, and decided in the interests of staying dry and on time, to avoid some "faint trail" official AAWT route along the crest of the ridge and later over The Twins. This meant walking an extra 3.5km along the Guide Book alternative, but was probably faster and drier. The Twins were lower than Mt Hotham that I would be climbing later. After a brief lunch in a pleasant grassy saddle under The Twins, with great views north and south, it was only another hour before I reached The Great Alpine Road, and the 8km uphill slog on the bitumen, obligingly waving to every grey nomad RV that gave me a toot (which was pretty much all of them, plus most cars) as they ground down the long hill in low gears. Although a grind, the grades weren't too bad and I maintained a reasonable pace. Near the top the road disappeared into fog and about this time my route left the road to follow a foot trail from Diamantina Hut to the Mt Hotham summit (1868m). It was a cold lonely foggy and windswept place which I had all to myself. The Rooftop Run, which I've done a few times, finishes here so I was familiar with the place. No views because of the fog so I made a quick exit and embarked on the road walk down to Davenport Village where, with the help of a friendly barmaid in the only apparently open establishment in the largely deserted ski village, I got a room in a Ski Lodge, 50m from the bistro which doubles as the General Store. I was to be the only resident apart from the caretaker, a friendly guy named Ken. I emptied my pack and all contained bags and hung or laid everything out to dry from every available place in my room. I didn't have any clean clothes, so had a lovely hot shower and put some dirty clothes back on for dinner at the bistro. I'm booked in for two nights and will be washing clothes tomorrow morning. Did I mention that one of the first things I did on entering my room was to smash my head onto a protruding bunk causing a substantial bleed down my forehead into my eye. Apart from that it was a day which largely went to plan and I'm looking forward to my day off. Ken said he had a couple of Army guys here a few days ago walking the AAWT, who chucked it in here. As the leader of the Trail Crew I met yesterday said, you have to be pretty hardcore to walk this first third of the trail at present. The terrain is tough enough, but the bushfires of a few years ago combined with the wet summer mean that the scrub growth has been prolific. It's much worse than 30 years ago when I hiked the same stretch.

Australian Alps Walking Track - Day 010 - Barry Saddle to Selwyn Creek Road

 

Day:	010
Date:	Thursday, 24 March 2011
Start:	Barry Saddle
Finish:	Selwyn Creek Road
Camp Location	Here
Daily Kilometres:	22.6
Total Kilometres:	210.2 AAWT
Animal Encounters	Birds
People Encounters	Trail-clearing crew and one 4WD
Weather:	Mostly overcast with some fog, rain and drizzle
Pictures:	No pictures, iPhone stopped working
Journal:	I got going about 8:45am. It had rained overnight and all my stuff out "drying" was saturated. It continued drizzling through breakfast and almost everything was either wet or damp, including my sleeping bag. I rugged up in all my wet and cold weather gear and started hiking for what should have been an easier day than yesterday. The old firetrail was overgrown and I quickly got saturated again, though it was still easier walking than yesterday. However, sadly, in mid-morning on one of the more overgrown parts of the firetrail, I missed a sharp left turn onto another overgrown old firetrail and continued straight ahead down a very difficult and dense wet scrubby descent. I reached a saddle and worked out I had gone off course. After crashing around for probably two wasted  hours, I eventually made it back to the missed junction. I suspect I'm not the first to miss this turn. There were signs of others having crashed around in the same scrub - broken branches, scuffed logs, etc. It was extremely disheartening and tiring and I didn't reach the Barry water tank (put out for hikers on this remote and usually dry section of the AAWT) until 1pm when I should have been there by 11am. I was VERY unhappy, not to mention cold and wet. While having a 15 minute break, I realized I could hear a chainsaw going in the distance. Not long after, I was surprised by a worker who was the lead man of a trail clearing crew from Mt Beauty Fire Station. He was a very nice and knowledgeable young guy and we chatted for about 15 minutes during which time we were joined by a second chainsaw guy. I had seen a chainsaw blade stuck in a partially-cut log a kilometer back and they said they had to leave it there a week ago. I continued on down the still very overgrown firetrail, though with fallen trees now cut and  making life a bit easier when, about 15 minutes later, I could hear a loud brush-cutter getting closer and closer from the other direction through the very dense scrub as I muscled through. In the end, there was a brief pause in the noise and I shouted I was coming through, much to the surprise of the guy wielding the brushcutter. More chatting, and I thanked them all for their work. A little later, I met a group of Australian Conservation Volunteers - four backpackers, three girls and a guy, three of them foreign, and a supervisor - clearing the cut brush off the trail. They were very pleased to meet someone actually using their cleared trail. I enjoyed their cleared trail for the next kilometer or two until I joined the Selwyn Track which was much easier walking. Along here I encountered a guy driving a new-looking 4WD with a baby strapped into a child seat in the front passenger seat looking bemused by the whole thing. The weather began clearing a little and I hung some things on the outside of my pack to dry, but it was soon raining again. I left the nice, though hilly, firetrail to climb Selwyn Mt South (1398m) which was a wet steep ascent into the clouds. Pretty country, though, with long grass, open snow gum woodlands and ghostly big boulders in the mist. After a short descent, I made the (poor) decision to follow the official AAWT route over Mt Selwyn (1424m) rather than taking a slightly longer firetrail alternative I could see on the map. It was getting late and I should have dodged the "faint trail" descent that followed Mt Selwyn, especially since it was in cloud and not much higher than Selwyn South. Predictably, I lost the faint trail and had trouble orienting myself because of the fog. I ended up crashing around on the steep and difficult wet scrubby slope for 45-60 minutes. Eventually, I climbed back to where I should have been and carefully made the descent to a road. It was already 6:30pm and I covered the remaining distance along a firetrail to Selwyn Creek Road, where my next food dump was, by 8pm, just on dark. I found the drum easily and repacked food and then ate dinner (and food dump treats) by headlamp. I didn't wash for the second night in a row and wore damp clothes to bed in the hope they would dry a little. I'm hoping to cover the 30km to Mt Hotham/Davenport Village without problems tomorrow and then get a room for two nights and dry everything out. Everything is damp and it's still drizzling a little outside.