Tag: bushwalking

Categories
general hiking trip reports

scrub bashing II: the sequel you have all been waiting for

With our previous failed attempt echoing at the back of our minds, combined with a challenge issued regarding a cache unfound since placement on Mt Latrobe 800 days ago, we realised that we had less than four weeks before we left the country for quite some time – leaving the cache wide open for others to collect it before us. We spotted a window of good weather at the Prom, and the decision was made – this time, we were getting that peak (and the cache with it).

Having learnt our lesson from our previous attempt however, this time we came properly prepared. *cue dramatic music*

GARDENING GLOVES!

They were our secret to success. Other important ingredients included light packs – we were going fast and light to make it to the cache and back in a day (although we did have enough extras that we were prepared to stay overnight if we had to), and it made the acrobatic manoeuvres required when scrub bashing on steep slopes oh so much easier. We carried plenty of water, M&Ms, jelly beans, as well as some other more boring food (and the emergency tube of army ration condensed milk).

Spending Sunday night at Tidal River, we woke up early and drove to the Oberon carpark for breakfast, before finalising our packing, donning our scrub-proof hiking attire, and setting off finally as the sun rose. There was an early scare as my large dinner the night before combined with a muesli breakfast obviously hadn’t been enough: with plummeting blood sugar I struggled to walk the graded path to Windy Saddle. This problem was solved with an impromptu second breakfast, and all was fine again, the mission could begin.

With memories of thick impenetrable scrub from last time, we found this time round it was comparably easy going. The light packs helped, and we were a bit more canny when it came to picking the best route through the scrub, and the best line up the mountain. In general it was a bit less damp than last time as well, which helped as well.

Having reached Mt Ramsay in about an hour, we quickly admired the view, then set off again. We only made the mistake of sitting down in leech territory once – the saddle between Ramsay and Latrobe is a BAD resting spot people, even if reaching it does feel like a significant milestone. We didn’t feel the scrub in the saddle area was particularly bad. From memory (repressed though they are) the worst scrub patches we hit were near the summit of Ramsay, with a few nasty bands coming up Ramsay from Windy Saddle, and a few more unpleasant bands coming up on the south side of Mt Latrobe.

Finally we reached the summit of Latrobe shortly after midday, the cache about 30 seconds after that. There was much rejoicing, photo taking, lunch eating, and claiming of the mountain for the great pirate nation

Our return journey was relatively uneventful, as we passed by the site of the Great Leech Battle of 2007 (where we had fought of the two leeches Megan had somehow acquired, and there was much singeing of leg hairs), and by the Campsite of the Great Cache Attempt of 2006.

By the time we got to the summit of Mt Ramsay, we felt like we were almost on a graded path it was all so familiar. As the scrub finally spat us out into Windy Saddle there was much rejoicing and consumption of jelly beans. As we walked back to the carpark, the sun sunk lower in the sky, and we had a lovely sunset to watch, silhouetting the burnt tree trunks. We reached the van just before the sun started tipping the edge of the horizon. Aaaahhhhh.

The statistics

Return time from Mt Oberon carpark: 11 hours 20 minutes
Attached leeches found on person: 3
Unattached leeches found on person: Innumerable

Telegraph Saddle departure 06:30
Windy Saddle arrival 07:10
Windy Saddle departure 07:30
Mt Ramsay 08:45
Ramsay/Latrobe Saddle 10:45
Mt Latrobe 12:10
Latrobe Summit departure 13:00
Ramsay/Latrobe Saddle again 14:20
Mt Ramsay again 16:00
Windy Saddle again 17:00
Telegraph Saddle again 17:50

Categories
general travel

glasshouse mountains

Pineapple farms! The Glasshouse Mountains were surrounded by the bloody things.

Pineapple farms with Mt Tibrogargan in the background

 

Mum on the summit of Mt Ngungun

 

Scribblygum. No really. The zigzags are from tunnels made by larvae of the Scribbly Gum Moth – they lay eggs between layers of old and new bark, the larvae burrow into the new bark, and as the old bark falls away, the trails are revealed. The tunnel diameters increase as the larvae grow, and the ends of the tracks show where the larvae stopped to pupate.

 

View of the Glasshouse Mountains from Wild Horse Lookout (L-R: Mt Beerburrum, Tunbubudla, Tibrogargan, Mt Beerwah, Coonowrin and Ngungan). Click for a bigger view.

 

Categories
general hiking travel trip reports

albert river circuit

The overnight hike of the trip – the Albert River Circuit in Lamington National Park, from Green Mountain out to Echo Point and back.

Albert River was that way apparently. We followed the arrow, the sign seemed to know what it was talking about.

 

The walk goes past many waterfalls. Thanks to the drought (Brisbane is in Stage 5 water restrictions) most of them were not particularly vigorous about the whole falling thing. Trickle would have been more accurate.

 

The view from Echo Point, from the Lamington National Park up in Queensland, down to the hills of New South Wales. None of the photos could do it justice. Here Mt Warning is visible in the light of the setting sun – it was first to be lit up by the sunrise as well. To the left of it the Cape Byron lighthouse could be seen at night, and to the far left the Gold Coast was visible. And in the valley below us – lots of tiny little moving dots that were possibly cattle.

 

Our little dark rainforest campground, just by Echo Point

 

Categories
general

trees and water

Walking around the Yarra Ranges National Park on Sunday, the experimenter found large amounts of both trees and water. It can be assumed that these are always in place, and not just a temporary phenomenon. Hence the hypothesis was validated. Error calculations are shown below.

Categories
general snow trip reports

“i can see why people eat them”

In honour of the Queen (may she long reign over us, etc) we hiked up the highest mountain in the state on the long weekend. Much less pointy and impressive than the mountains available in Europe and Asia and those sorts of places, but high(ish) at 1986m (6516 ft). And snow-covered, which has to count for something.

After parking the car at around 650 metres, we spent most of Sunday going uphill.

Up Staircase Spur, through the singed mountain ash, past Bivouac Hut, past the growing collections of snow at the side of the path, through the snowgum regrowth, and finally out into the open, where it started to get seriously windy.

We ditched our packs for the final press up to the summit. After climbing on top of the summit cairn and admiring the amazingly clear view, we spent most of our time cowering in the shelter of the cairn. With winds around 80km/h, and a temperature of -8oC or so (down to around -20oC with wind chill) it was nice and cool.

After retrieving our packs, we didn’t have far to go to reach Eskdale Spur. Not far, but over the very exposed section of about 100 metres before the spur turnoff, Corey lost his pack cover, Mikey was blown over a couple of times, and managed to break the handle of the snow shovel strapped to his pack (and in the process coming to the conclusion that Blundstone boots really aren’t the ideal snow hiking shoe). Once we started heading down the spur, the wind died down and things became quite pleasant. We dropped down to below 1700 metres, and found Michell Hut, newly rebuilt after the previous hut at the site was burnt down in the 2003 bushfires.

The full moon popped up as soon as we’d finished watching the sunset. Dinner was cooked, no port was consumed, and we all crawled straight into bed (spending some time enjoying the educational ‘Outback’ magazine).

After 10 hours of sleep, the sun finally reappeared, and we hiked the other 1 km of down down down to get off the mountain. The good weather held, my knees held, the car was still there, and we got to meet a ferret.