Falls Creek to Mt Hotham to Falls Creek

My plan was to do the Falls to Hotham Alpine Crossing walk and then return to Falls Creek by a different route. My return route, while harder, was more spectacular. The highlight of the hike was undoubtedly seeing so much of bulky Mt Feathertop. 

March 24 I drove through Falls Creek, parked at Langford Gap, 11 kms into the Falls to Hotham Alpine Crossing, and set out along the aqueduct on the Australian Alps Walking Trail towards Mt Hotham. At first it wasn’t too interesting since a lot of the trees in view had died after fires. After Cope Hut I crossed a vast expanse of alpine moorland with just low scrub and grass, and some alpine daisies, passing Mt Cope. I stopped at Cope Saddle Hut (a hydro hut) to camp; it was on the flattish plateau, atmospheric, and it was pleasant just sitting in the sunshine. The hut was beside another aqueduct and the sounds of the water sometimes seemed like people in the distance talking. A school group was hiking a loop passing the hut and the kids provided me lots of entertainment. Then I had a chat with a Polish couple. As the sun got lower it soon became cold and before dark I was in a cloud. 9 kms 

March 25 Freezing cold morning, not surprising as I was up at 1658 metres. I continued across the plateau to Pole 333, a big track junction, seeing several little peaks; an illusion that they were little because I was already so high. On this bright sunny day the junction scene could equally have been in the desert. 

Then I descended among snow gums to the Cobungra River and I could see buildings at Mt Hotham across the deep valley. On the way down I met two people marking the route for the Falls to Hotham walking event tomorrow with hundreds of walkers so I was pleased with my timing. I stopped at Dibbins Hut campsite for a break: lovely, in a grassy glade by the river with snow gums. I passed the old Dibbins Hut 

and climbed Swindlers Spur among snow gums with grassy breaks. There were good views back to the Falls Creek range (even Mt Cope) and many other mountains. I was getting anxious to find some water and I went past my intended overnight stop (Derrick Hut) as there wasn’t any. On the edge of Mt Hotham resort area I found a tiny creek so I filled my bottles (with difficulty) and had a coffee. Next I toured the ski runs on my way to the summit of Mt Hotham (1858 m) and had a pleasant stroll with good views of Mt Feathertop and tiers of blue-tinted mountains. 

(Along this stretch was the western end of the Falls to Hotham Alpine Crossing.) When I reached Diamantina Hut  (which is right by the main road) I was disappointed to see there were roadworks  by the hut but on the plus side there were unexpected portaloos. I found a nice spot to camp behind the hut where I was out of sight but had a view. It had been a hot day and I was tired. I watched the sun set over the mountains and went to bed. 20 kms 

March 26 Time to separate from the AAWT and start on my return to Falls Creek. I headed out on the Razorback trail towards Mt Feathertop - along with a crowd, there were 15 cars at the trailhead when I left - a beautiful walk on an undulating ridge 

with perfect mountain views including Mt Buffalo 

and the range across the Kiewa River valley, and back to Mt Hotham. 

After a couple of hours I turned onto the Diamantina Spur to descend to the Kiewa River. I had been worried about this trail because it has a reputation for being rough and steep and I have a bad knee. It began innocently enough with some ridge top undulations among snow gums and then cleared to give a magnificent close up view of Mt Feathertop. I didn’t like to look the other way down into the valley and see how far down I had to go. I remained on the tops for a while and passed a guy I had also met yesterday who told me to be really careful on the trail. Soon the steep part came, and it was steep, and a few bits were hairy with sharp dropoffs but mostly it was fine if I went slowly. As I descended the vegetation changed markedly from alpine to ferns. I was delighted when I could hear the river and better still when I could see it but access was tricky until I came to a bridge across a tributary; I had lunch there by the water, the first water I’d seen since before Mt Hotham yesterday. 

I went on to Blairs Hut, one of the original 100 year old cattlemen’s huts, in a large creekside clearing and then climbed an unrelenting 430 metres to Westons Hut in a tiny hillside clearing. The climb was in unburnt forest of towering eucalypts but the area around the hut had been burnt and the original hut burnt down in 2006. I plonked my tent right in front of the hut. 17.5  kms 

March 27 It was still good weather but cooler. I continued to climb, getting views of Feathertop with the sun on its higher part and I could clearly see the spur I had come down,

and reached the treeless plateau. At Pole 333 I took the 4th trail (so I’ve used them all) and this turned out to be the best walking on the plateau with views of the Fainters and Mt Jaithmathang, a lot of burnt trees on their slopes, and Mt Bogong in the distance. I descended to Pretty Valley lake and had a break. 

After that I had a long road walk with a nice view of Mt Mackay but sadly Pretty Valley is not so pretty any more as it’s full of dead trees. I walked high above Rocky  Creek dam and then past lots of ski lifts, but avoided the main part of Falls Creek. I walked down a ski run on lovely soft grass and then went right beside the dam, crossing the dam wall to get to the Heathy Spur trail which is the start of the Falls to Hotham Alpine Crossing. I still needed to do this first bit. 

I walked the Heathy Spur fast, climbing and crossing an almost treeless expanse of heaths with limited views. Then I slowly took the descent through snow gums, part way down stopping at a creek for a coffee break, emerging at the Langford aqueduct. As I walked along here I was in hot sunshine but I could see a strange grey sky and then I saw forked lightening around Mt Cope and heard thunder. I got to Langford hut then my car (and a school group) and decided to camp by the hut. 

(I wasn’t intending to go all the way back to my car today and I had underestimated the distance, but I had no water left at the start of Heathy Spur so in order to camp I at least had to walk until I reached a water source, and by the time I got to the first creek I was almost at the car.) 27 kms

Blowhard Spur Loop, Lake Eildon

The forecast was for a very hot weekend so I thought this was a good opportunity for an overnight walk at Lake Eildon which I wouldn’t normally consider long enough to take two days. 

March 19 I set off from Perfect Cure Creek and from the get go this walk was nice, following the lake edge in dry bush. The lake is very indented so the trail wound around a lot but almost always in sight of the water while remaining shady. Even this early in my hike I was away from any activity on the lake. It was hot from the time I started. 

I had a break at School Point and sat on the stony beach. I was still surprised how quiet the lake was. 

From here the trail moved away from the water. I made a detour to Stones Outstation, an old shed among the trees, and picturesque. It would be a lovely place to camp as it was surrounded by grassy flats, if only there was water in the creek.

Then I had a serious climb above (dry) Mountaineer Creek, first in grassy woodland and then forest, and ended up on a ridge along a spur with views of forested hills and spurs, and a brief view of the lake. The scenery looked quite rugged and I didn’t feel many people come here.

I descended on the slippery trail to Mountaineer Inlet, my campsite. It was hard to find somewhere to sit that was both shady and comfortable because the ground was either muddy (a stale mud from the lake bed) or stony.

I settled on a place to camp by the water (no swimming because the water has algae and the edge was muddy) and I was alone until some people arrived in a tinnie and took over the campsite. I ended up moving my tent away to get some privacy, ironically to the spot higher up where I had initially decided to camp, and then I waited for the wildlife to arrive as there was kangaroo poo everywhere and lots of grass. I saw two yellow robins and one kangaroo. 13.5 kms 

March 20 Some big hills today. I climbed back up the Spur and over the ridge to join the trail to Blowhard Spur and had a long climb (over 300 m unbroken ascent) in the sparse forest to Skyline Road at the top of the Eildon valley. It was peaceful with dappled sunlight but without views of the lake. 

After the road walk I descended a bit on Blowhard Spur with some nice mountain views and stopped at High Camp, where the steep track up to Blowhard Summit was in full view. It was definitely steep, in three stages, and I was not keen on the idea of coming down something like that as it would be very slippery. At the top were tree-obscured views of the lake, especially a nice view down the length with the many spurs and distant mountains, a bit hazy because of the heat. I was still getting the feeling that hardly anyone comes here.

The descent was steep but mainly in the forest and the track was a bit damped down so it wasn’t too slippery. There were good views of the lake as I descended and soon the sounds of boat motors.

 

I had a short walk along the lake to my car. 13 kms 

Burchell Trail, Victoria

The Burchell Trail is an approx 37 kms point to point walk in the Brisbane Ranges National Park which I thought I could incorporate into a three day loop by doing the full trail and returning to my car on forest roads. In the days before my walk the forecast for the three days got wetter and wetter, until the morning I set out when suddenly there was very little rain expected. I have seen the walk described as boring as batshit so my expectations were not high. 

March 14 I parked at Boar Gully trailhead and set out into the forest. It was initially dry eucalypt forest and a bland track. After a while I thought it was odd there were no track markers and I realised I was no longer on the Burchell but on another trail. I was able to rectify this but it meant I was going to walk some extra kms today. 

As soon as I got on the correct trail the walking was much nicer: I descended on single track into a narrow gully with grass trees and ended up at a dry creek bed, where I had a further navigational challenge where the trail must have been rerouted due to a fallen tree. I climbed out of the gully to follow a dirt road with the alarming name Macleans Highway and got to Little River picnic area for a break. 

The next kilometre was lovely as the trail went through a steep sided little rocky gorge, repeatedly crossing the creek which had a small amount of water and easy stepping stones. Then I had a brief foray into a second gorge and climbed back up onto the plateau where I remained. I had one view over extensive forest and ridges. It was by now hot and humid. 

The last few kms were back on a dirt road with a steep descent to Stony Creek picnic area, rife with mozzies. Sophie and I came here last year on a day walk between lockdowns. It wasn’t an official campsite but I thought it would be ok to camp there. The local cockatoos made a tremendous din at dusk and dawn. 19.5 kms 

March 15 There was a lot of stagnant water in the creek which would account for the mozzies. I went past Lower Stony Creek reservoir, pretty with reflections of its rocky sides, and followed an undulating fire trail through rejuvenating forest (2006 fires) and lots of grass trees. 

At the Old Mill campsite I stopped for a coffee break, waited for the rain that was threatening to start and hid my pack in the bush for the next stage. The route made a big 11 km C shape to get to Fridays campsite (only 500 metres away as the crow flies), first in not terribly exciting forest and then following several dry creeks through grassy gullies; those stretches were really pretty despite some unattractive pools of black stagnant water. I stopped at a nice picnic area to sit out some rain. I passed some gold mining remains. Fridays was the end of the Burchell Trail so I ate a nut bar to mark the occasion, and then had a 2 kms road walk (turning the C into an O) to return to the Old Mill campsite. It rained lightly all afternoon. There were lots of very active little yellow birds and a few crimson rosellas. 

I concluded the trail was fairly typical of the bush near Melbourne, unfortunately lacking in major features but pleasant enough. 19.5 kms 

March 16 On my way up the hill from the campsite I was passed by the ranger and a big truck that was arriving to service the toilet. As anticipated the walk back to my car was a bit of a slog. It began nicely, passing close to the Upper Stony Creek reservoirs and through some varied terrain including swampland. Most of the way was on dirt roads (no traffic) through grazing country and flat. In 3 1/2 hours I was at the car. 16.5 kms 

40 Lakes Peak hike

 

February 28. I wanted to go back to Ironstone Hut by Lake Nameless on the Central Plateau in order to climb 40 Lakes Peak directly behind the hut, and for a different walking route I drove to Lake Mackenzie and hiked from there. That way my car did the climbing onto the plateau. 

Initially I thought there was a trail that immediately left Mackenzie Lake and I wasted three kms trying to find it following some random red tape; instead I scored a close encounter with a white lipped green snake which I haven’t seen before. So I took the route along the lake edge to the Fisher River and Explorer River which I crossed on stepping stones. The ground was much damper than it has been due to the recent rain, and I saw a lovely cascading creek. Rain was already starting to fall. By chance I found I was on the Explorer trail, which surprised and pleased me, and I remained on it for several kms until I reached Explorer Lake. It was nice open country with cushion plants, mountain rocket and other low ground cover. This was a welcome change after all the forests I’ve been in. I met a couple coming from the hut who said the trail is well marked all the way. 

But on the south side of Explorer Lake, after crossing the Explorer River for a second time (the cairns guided me to and over this crossing) I completely lost the cairns and never found them again. It was raining so it wasn’t possible to use my phone gps so I climbed to high points to get my bearings and used the lakes I could see to navigate. I had a lot of boulders to clamber over and tea tree to push through. As soon as I went off the trail I saw lots of wallabies jumping around all over the place. It was raining hard. All worked out well when I came to the Higgs track half way down Lake Nameless, which I knew led to the hut. I noticed a whole lot of clumps of pencil pine, and the contrasts in the shades of green seemed to be emphasised in the wet weather.

The day wasn’t brightening up and I wanted to achieve my main goal of climbing 40 Lakes Peak so I soon set off during a break between showers. To my great delight the route up was well cairned (through snow gum woodland and scrub) and I was able to race to the top in twenty minutes. The views were tremendous in all directions from the Walls of Jerusalem to the Western Tiers but quite a desolate landscape of rocks and scrub, broken up by lakes. I could see lakes and lakes and lakes - there seemed little point in counting as I knew the answer.

At dusk the local fauna came out for dinner around the hut.

March 1. An extremely wet night and morning, a bit frustrating because the toilet is 300 metres from the hut across bog. The weather would appear to start clearing and then the cloud would come down again. At least I had used my only chance to go up the peak. I had a new breakfast: roll with Nutella and tomato while the wallabies had their usual. 

I delayed leaving until the rain had stopped for a while, although the shores of Lake Nameless were in cloud, and worked out my strategy for walking on the north side of Explorer Lake which should be more straightforward than yesterday’s walk. I powered along the Higgs to the Snake River and crossed it, then turned to follow Snake Lake shore. This side of the lake was harder to walk than the other side requiring lots of scrub bashing; I was glad when I reached Explorer Lake. 

It was raining properly and didn’t stop until I was back at the car. Initially the walking was easy along Explorer Lake apart from a lot of pools of water and saturated bog. Suddenly, out of the blue, I saw a cairn and then several more so I followed them and they helped me cross an area of dense scrub and large boulders. Then I lost them but I was back on the bog with easy going. One time I followed a wallaby since he seemed to have a good route. The mountain rocket was everywhere, a blaze of colour. 

Again unexpectedly, I came back to the cairns and I could see I was already past the point where I had crossed to the other bank yesterday so I wouldn’t now get lost as the trail was obvious. I met two guys heading for the hut. I retraced my route back to Lake Mackenzie, once going thigh deep into a pool, and had a break when I got my first sighting of the scree around the lake. I waded knee deep across the Explorer/Fisher Rivers as being wet didn’t bother me so close to the car (not that I had a choice). I carefully crossed the lakeside scree and boulders and took an unintended detour along the dam wall. Just as I reached the car a torrential downpour started. 22 kms total