Mushroom Rocks, Baw Baw National Park - June 2016

I mentioned in my last post that I was heading out and doing a snow walk next and indeed that's how it turned out. The weather in Melbourne has turned seriously cold with snow in the hills around town, there's even been some snow in the hills behind Lorne on the Great Ocean Road, not a usual occurrence. Now with snow falling down to a low altitude its just as well I've just bought some new snowshoes, yep they'll be here next week....oh well at least that will make my next snow walk a little easier! This walk was meant to be a fairly easy amble up to Mushroom Rocks, a walk of around 4 kilometres, things turned out to be a little harder than that as it turned out. Actually this may be my last reasonably solid walk for awhile as I'm going in for a bit of maintenance soon on my leg, the operation will put me out of action for a couple of weeks and I wont be doing any harder walks for a fair while after that. I had a similar procedure on the other leg around eleven years ago and that kept me off the harder trails for a couple of months.

Early morning in Erica, the snow had settled to a very low level over night.

Now pay attention this next sentence is the most unusual in the whole post. I was up early on Saturday morning and out the door by 6am (that's not a typo). With the temperature at home hovering around 4C I was thankful that the new ute has heated seats, although I wasn't sure that the warm seats were going to make it any easier to eventually get out of the ute and start walking. Before I had to cross that bridge though I had a 2 hour drive to get to the start of the track, after a quick stop for coffee at Macca's I entertained myself by watching the ambient temperature readout creep lower and lower. Leaving the Princes highway at Moe it wasn't long before I started to drive past patches of snow, by the time I got to the small town of Erica everything was covered in a thin layer of the fluffy white stuff. Now I made a smart decision here (another un-common occurrence) and decided that if there was snow down here then there was going to be a lot of snow on the ground by the time I got to the Mt Erica Carpark, best to get all my snow gear on here rather than muck around getting dressed up on the side of the mountain. So after pulling on all my waterproof gear I jumped back in the ute, quickly turning off the heater and heated seats before I started to melt. Turning onto Mt Erica Road there was a good covering of snow on the ground as I ploughed my way up the hill. At 8am in the morning no one had been far up Mt Erica Road since the yesterdays big dump of snow, it wasn't long before I was slipping and sliding through deeper and deeper snow, I had chains though so was still in with a chance of getting to the car park. Before I had to break out the chains though I came across another problem in the form of a tree blocking the road, in fact there had already been a few trees down in the first kilometre of the road so I wasn't surprised when I arrived at one I couldn't get around. After a fifteen point turn I headed back down to find a spot to park, the walk was now going to be a lot longer and harder than planned.

They're the mountains that I'm heading into.

This is where forward progress ceased on Mt Erica Road.

After a fifteen point turn I back tracked until I found a spot to park, with any luck the ute would still be here when I got back.

Saying a silent prayer that the ute would be un-molested until I got back I shouldered my pack and set off on foot up Mt Erica Road. For anyone who's been up here before, I actually started walking well before the Australian Alps Walking Track (AAWT) intersects with the road, so I had a fair walk in front of me. Initially I had my wheel tracks to follow until I got back to the fallen tree but from there on it was just ever deepening virgin snow. The walk up Mt Erica Road was actually really pleasant, being a road the gradient is fairly gentle and the scenery was winter wonderland beautiful. My luck was holding out with the weather too, I was copping a few passing snow showers but I was also getting some glimpses of blue sky through the canopy. There was one aspect of the walk that was a little concerning at this early stage though and that was the amount of snow covered branches that were dropping off the trees at random intervals, my only warning of another branch crashing to the ground was the inevitable large cracking sound before a second or two of silence as gravity did its job and then the muffled thump as it hits the ground, hopefully not on my head!

Heading up Mt Erica Road on foot, the total lack of traffic and the still early morning conditions actually made this road walk quite pleasant.

Passing the AAWT turnoff I continued climbing up Mt Erica Road, the snow now starting to get deep enough to make walking harder, by the time I climbed up a steeper pinch and arrived at the car park for The Mountain Monarchs Walk the snow as around mid shin deep. Dropping my pack I wandered down the Mountain Monarch Walk for a little way, the deep snow and fallen trees stopped me after a couple of hundred metres, I was now starting to wonder if I'd actually get up to Mushroom Rocks as they are around 200 metres higher than my height here.

I've just met up with the Australian Alps Walking Track on Mt Erica Road, for anyone who knows the area that will illustrate how far down the mountain I had to park.

The Mountain Monarch Walk was tough going.

The good news is that Mt Erica Road has finished most of its climbing by the time it gets to the Mountain Monarch Car Park, so even though the snow was getting quite deep at least I wasn't climbing steeply. Arriving at the Mt Erica Car Park I stopped for awhile, had a drink and took stock of the situation. I was still tracking pretty good although the now knee deep snow was starting to sap a bit of energy, I had plenty of food and water obviously wasn't going to be a problem, navigation was going to be a bit tricky with the track obliterated by the fresh snow but if it got too tricky I could always just retrace my steps. What was going to be my most obvious issue was that with heavy snow down so low there were a lot of trees with their snow laden branches hanging down and completely blocking the track. The road walking so far had allowed me a lot of width to get around any low hanging branches, but now on a traditional walking track I didn't have any room to detour around the snow covered obstacles.

The Mt Erica Car Park, this is where I'd planned to actually start walking.

Sounds easy enough!

But the snow covered track was going to present a few issues today.

Leaving the car park I picked up the track and started climbing. Normally this track is a well graded easy walk, with steps in spots and duck boards in others, today though that meant that I had to be careful not to trip or fall off the hidden snow covered obstacles. It was still stunning walking though, the virgin snow coating everything like icing sugar, if you do a lot of back country skiing or boarding you'd be familiar with this, but for a walker like me who only gets to the snow every now and again its a special. Watching carefully I slowly managed to progress up the mountain without having to break out the map or GPS, the overhanging trees not only making progress slow but also making navigation harder as they obliterated any clues as to where the route would go.

There was even a small waterfall as I left the car park, it wasn't quite the Coomera Walk though!

The weather was on the improve as I climbed, the large snowy mounds are actually large ferns covered in snow.

As I climbed higher I got some views down through the Mountain Ash and Myrtle towards the Latrobe Valley in the distance, but more importantly I was starting to get views of the larger patches of blue sky appearing above. This was hard work now though, I was down to just a thermal and my gortex jacket as I waded my way up through the deep snow. Climbing higher the route starts to pass through an area of massive boulders, it was near here that my walk got harder again, until now I'd mostly been able to push past, go under or get around the snow covered bushes and branches but now I got into a section of flora that was completely covering the track, the vegetation interlaced as each side sagged onto the walking track. There was no way I could push through this stuff, I couldn't easily get around it either so that left me with one option, drop the pack and crawl through underneath, pushing my pack in front of me, I'm getting to old for this stuff...

The route require a little detective work to follow.

It was hard work pushing through the snow covered scrub.

But I was still having a ball.

I thought I'd post a crutch shot off the pay per view section of my blog, apart from advertising my massive package I'm trying to illustrate how deep some of the drifts were that I was ploughing through.

Now I'd be lying if I didn't tell you that I was thinking of pulling the pin about now, but after a quick look at the map I realised that I was only a few hundred metres from my destination of Mushroom Rocks. What a few hundred metres that was though, I reckon it took me 30 minutes to walk, crawl, push that last 200 metres, eventually though, and with some relief I arrived at the large cluster of huge rocks that is Mushroom Rocks and dropped my pack. Mushroom Rocks covered with a deep coating of fresh snow was a very pretty spot, I spent the next half hour or so wading around through the snow checking out the various different shaped rocks, it was while I was mucking around up there that the sun finally made an appearance, the blue sky and sun not hurting my photos at all. It had taken just over 4 hours to get up here and looking at my GPS I could see that I'd walked around 8 kilometres, slow going, but not ridiculous. After having some lunch and giving Sam a call to let her know all was well I set off from Mushroom Rocks for what I figured would be another slow walk back down.

I was trying to capture the moment that the icicle dripped....without luck.

Mushroom Rocks.

With the sun now out I was starting to get smashed on the head as the thawing snow started to fall off the branches of the trees, the now wet snow giving me a good soaking, oh well at least it was preferable to a full branch falling on my head as I'd been concerned about earlier this morning. The walk down was actually quite easy as having already broken the track through the fresh snow I just had to follow my mornings foot steps, the low overhanging flora was a bit of an obstacle initially, but sliding underneath going down hill was a lot easier than pushing my pack in front of me up hill. With the sun now out the scenery was still taking my breath away, so there was plenty of photo stops on the way down the mountain as well.

Alright, its time to head back down.

The weather was now officially perfect.

Pushing my pack through snow laden tunnel of trees.

With the sun out I was copping a lot of snow falling from the trees.

Arriving back at the Mt Erica Car Park I rejoined the still deserted Mt Erica Road, the wide road making for even easier walking now that I was going down hill. It wasn't long however until my peaceful day came to an end though, just before arriving back at the Mountain Monarch Car Park I could hear chain saws and revving motors. All to soon the first 4WD slithered into view, its high profile mud tyres making a mess of my pristine snow covered road, it is a road I suppose...such is life! It was automotive carnage on the hill this afternoon as the 4WD brigade competed to be the first to conquer the mountain road, it seemed like every corner I went around there was another 4WD parked in the ditch having slid off the road. Initially I helped a few, even holding the side of one as he tried to turn around without sliding down the hill like an out of control toboggan, but by the time I'd walked past ten stuck 4WD's I figured that there were enough people up there that they could help each other out. Soon I started to pass the odd 2WD car stuck as well, before I got to the mother of all Mexican stand-offs, a queue of 4WD's trying to get down had met a car trying to get up the hill, with another queue of 4WD's stuck behind the car trying to get up. The car had lost forward progress and was effectively stuck and going nowhere, luckily it appeared every bogan in the immediate area had turned up to offer advice in their 4WD. Judging by the amount of bogans queued up and offering advice to the hapless car driver I reckon there must be by an equivalent App for bogans that is similar to Tinder or Grinder (maybe it's called Bogger), although instead of hooking up they seem to get their rocks off smoking winny blues and drinking stubbies whilst holding court and enlightening anyone who will listen about their prowess behind the wheel. Thankfully the traffic jam was higher up the mountain than I had gotten to at 8am that morning so I just strolled past the chaos, arriving back at the ute ten minutes or so later I just chucked everything in and got the hell out of there before I could get caught up in the circus, heading back to Erica to change out of my wet clothes before heading home.

The snow covered ferns looked like giant snow balls to my eyes.

By the afternoon the bush was starting to emerge from the snow.

The Dirt.
I walked 16.1 kilometres on this stroll (that'll give you an idea how far down Mt Erica Road I had to park) and climbed 559 metres. As I did the walk I'd rate it as a hard walk, if you do the walk without snow and walk from the Mt Erica Car Park then it would be an easy stroll. Melanie Ball has written up this part of the walk in Top Walks In Victoria, and I carried her notes. I really enjoyed this walk today, it may have been easier with snow shoes but really when you have to crawl under vegetation I don't think it matters if you're on foot, snow shoes or skis, it's hard work whatever you've got on your feet I reckon.
Here's a link to a walk I did to Mt St Phillack in Baw Baw NP a month ago if this post has got you interested.

Back at the Mt Erica Car Park, mine are still the only footprints.

Even the old stumps left over from the loggers of old looked nice draped in snow.