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.
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