Mount Speculation, Alpine National Park - June 2017

It's a wild old scene from the summit of Mount Speculation.

One of the disadvantages of walking at about the equivalent speed of a sloth on valium is that it takes me a while to get anywhere. Now while that isn't really too much of a problem on day walks, when I start to get into longer multi day jobs it can sometimes mean that I have to carry extra days worth of supplies. My up coming walk on the AAWT is a case in point, while some people scoot through in as little as four weeks, my extra relaxed itinerary will see me on the track for around six weeks. Okay, so what's that got to do with a walk up Mount Speculation? Well I'm glad you asked, you see when I actually leave to walk the first section of the AAWT from Walhalla to Mount Hotham the high country tracks will still be closed after winter, which meant that one of my last opportunities to get a food drop in around Mount Speculation was last weekend.

The road up to the gate on Speculation Road is not too bad as far as 4wd tracks go, although it still pays to drop your tyre pressures a bit.

It would be rude not to stop here....the obligatory shot across the valley to Dandongadale Falls.

I knew I was cutting it pretty fine trying to drive up to Mount Speculation on the first weekend in June and watching the weather the week before I was starting to wonder if I'd actually get there, enough decent snow had fallen during the week to have a few of the skiing resorts opening a week early. Leaving home at around 5am I pointed the ute towards the mountains and settled in for the long drive, with the outside temperature ranging between -4 and 0˚ I was pretty happy to be sitting on the heated seat watching the world go by. After dropping the tyre pressure a bit I started the long climb up past Cobbler Lake, only stopping for the obligatory photo of Dandongadale Falls across the valley. The climb from Cobbler Lake up to Mustering Flat was in hindsight the slipperiest bit of the drive, with a bit of snow on the ground combined with an outside temperature still in the negatives it meant that anything resembling a slope needed caution. Thankfully the majority of the climbing was finished by the time I got to Mustering Flat and with the temperature still below zero I had a pretty good drive around to the gate and car park on Speculation Road.

The ambient temperature hovered between 0˚ and - 4˚ on the drive up.

Speculation Road.

There was a couple of other 4wd's parked at the gate today.

So anyway after stashing my food and saying a silent prayer that it's still there when I pass through in October, I decided to head up to the top of Mount Speculation and check things out. It has been years since I've been up here, in fact the last time I was up here was before the area got torched in the big 2006 (?) bush fires. Now if there is anyone actually reading this waffle I have to warn you that this is a really short walk, with the car park less than 200 below the summit it wasn't going to be an epic. Just because the walk was short doesn't mean it wasn't worth doing though, the initial climb up through re-growth to the Mount Speculation ridge line might have you wondering though. Yeah the first climb is a bit scrappy and a little over grown, the track is always obvious but the alpine scrub is crowding the route a little in spots and the shrubby re-growth doesn't really prepare you for the awesome change in scenery that happens as you near the ridge line.

The start of the track passes through some pretty scrappy re-growth.

Things greatly improve once I neared the ridge line.

That's Mount Buller and Mount Stirling in the distance.

Once I reached the ridge line the scene that unfolded before me was absolutely stunning, beautiful mature snow gums framing distant views to snow covered mountains, the ground around me dusted in a smattering of fresh snow. Climbing up the ridge to the summit of Mount Speculation it was hard to know where to point the camera today, the Razor and Viking brooding in one direction, the snow topped Mount Howitt and Mount Magdala in another, the ski resorts of Mount Buller and Mount Hotham could be seen at opposite ends of the compass.

Looking down off Mount Speculation towards the Razor and the Viking, it all looks pretty easy from here..... you can just make out Mount Hotham and the Bogong High Plains in the distance.

The snow gums on the ridge line are a feature of this little stroll.

After slowly climbing to the summit I continued down the track towards Mount Buggery and the Crosscut Saw for a bit, savouring the crags covered in snow perched high above The Terrible Hollow.  Retracing my route back up to the summit I sat on the rocks for awhile, tracing out the AAWT for days in each direction, the good news for me was that while the ambient temperature was hovering around zero there was next to no wind so it actually wasn't too bad sitting up there. It had taken my eight hours to get from home to the summit of Mount Speculation, so after enjoying the peace and quiet for awhile I decided that I'd better make a move a start off on the long trip home.

Looking across The Terrible Hollow towards Mount Howitt.

Mount Magdala

The walk back down to the ute was another slow affair, although that wasn't through any hardship on the track it was just that I was continually stopping to take in another beautiful view. Once down off the ridge I moved a bit quicker through the re-growth, soon emerging out of the scrub back at the car park on Speculation Road. Instead of jumping straight into the ute I wandered back down Speculation Road a few metres to check out Camp Creek, happy to see it running well. A lot of the old creeks and water points have become a little unreliable since the fires decimated the high country, the theory is that the re-growth sucks up a lot more water than the old growth use to. Anyway, after checking out the creek it was time to head off home, arriving seven hours later after what had been a fairly big day out.

Mount Buller ski resort.

It was a beautiful day to be up on the summit of Mount Speculation today.

The Dirt.
Well I did mention that this wasn't a long walk didn't I, at 2.9 km this easy walk hardly counts as an epic! My moving average today was only 2.7 kph, although that may be because I was meandering around taking photos, but then again it could just be that I'm fat and old. I climbed 206 metres today, so there is a bit of climbing involved. No one that I know of has written notes for this walk although it does feature in the house of Chapmans Australian Alps Walking Track book as well as the Daly's Take A Walk in Kosciuszko National Park. Probably the main issue with this stroll is the access, it's probably more often than not accessed on a multi day walk. If driving up to the gate on Speculation Road you'll need a 4wd with pretty good ground clearance as the climb up from Cobbler Lake is pretty rough and slippery in spots.
Relevant Posts.
Howitt & The High Country, Alpine National Park, 2017.
The Razor Viking Circuit, Alpine National Park, 2006.

The re-growth crowds the track a little on the walk up and down from the ridge line.

Camp Creek was running well.