Cowombat Flat to Tin Mine Huts, AAWT, Kosciuszko National Park - November 2017

Looking across Cowombat Flat to The Pilot.

After a night listening to the horses bolt up and down Cowombat Flat I was a little slow arising this morning, opening the tent just in time to wave good bye to Libby and Hilly. I didn’t know it at the time but I wouldn’t run into Hilly again on the walk. Crawling out of the tent into the bright sunshine I enjoyed a leisurely brekky on the soft green grass as I planned the rest of the day out in my mind. I was hoping to climb The Pilot this afternoon but this morning I decided to do a bit of exploring around Cowombat Flat, I’d had a bit of a poke around yesterday but the overcast conditions didn’t really do justice to this spot I didn’t think.

Straddling the Murray River.

The remains of the RAAF C-47 Dakota.

There isn't a lot left of the old plane now.

Shuffling over to the Murray River to refill my water bottles I got the somewhat cliched photo of me with my legs straddling the river. With that box successfully ticked off I meandered my way up to check out what’s left of the wreck of an RAAF C-47 Dakota aircraft that had crashed landed here back in 1953. There isn’t a lot left over from the wreck now days though but it’s still worth a bit of a look. Dropping back down from the old wreck I swung past a couple of fenced off areas in a damper spot on the flat. These areas have been fenced off by Parks Vic to help assess the damage being done by the feral horses, looking at the areas inside the fences and comparing them to the areas outside the fences that the horses access, it would be pretty hard to argue that the horses aren’t having a major environmental effect on this alpine country, although argue I’m sure many will!

Cowombat Flat

While the sun was shining on my head I didn't have to look far to see a bit of weather around.

The brumbies are fenced out of a couple of plots on Cowombat Flat, the difference couldn't be starker.

Heading back to the tent I packed up and set off towards tonights destination of Tin Mine Huts. Crossing the Murray River I was now in New South Wales, my second state on the walk so far. The fire tracks that I was following now were actually a little faint as I crossed the open grassy Cowombat Flat this morning heading for the start of my climb up Cowombat Ridge. Now I’d mentioned over the last few days that I’d been feeling a little crook and it was on this climb that I really hit the wall. I must of stopped at least ten times as I made the 400 metre climb up onto the ridge, a climb that normally wouldn’t stop me once, I just had nothing in the tank today. To make it a little tougher the day was very warm and humid and by the look of the clouds building up I’d be lucky to get through the day without getting a drenching.

Crossing into New South Wales.

One last look back towards the Cobberas.

Pilot Creek Trail was a little faint in spots.

After way too many stops, doubled over my walking poles wondering if I’d ever top out, I eventually arrived at Snow Gum Trail on the crest of Cowombat Ridge, f*#k that was hard today! Once on the ridge Snow Gum Trail (the fire tracks are fire trails up in NSW) unsurprisingly heads along through an avenue of Snow Gums, although unfortunately most of them are white skeletons now days. Heading along the ridge to what I guessed was the high point I pulled out the phone and once again I got enough of a signal to get a text message out to Sam letting her know where I was. Now earlier on I’d mentioned that one of my aims for today was to climb The Pilot, but heading down to the spot that I’d need to turn off to get to The Pilot the brooding black clouds ruled out any peak bagging this afternoon, not that I was overly upset as in my currant lethargic state it might of taken me all day to get up to the summit anyway.

Climbing up Pilot Creek Trail onto Cowombat Ridge really took it out of me today.

There are a few glimpses across to the Main Range from Cowombat Ridge.

I was thinking that I'd be lucky to stay dry today.

Cowombat Ridge

Dropping down Snow Gum Trail the weather over The Little Pilot was looking pretty nasty, there'd be no climbing The Pilot this afternoon.

So with The Pilot out of the equation this afternoon I turned left when I met Cowombat Trail I headed off towards Tin Mine Huts. I had just under eight kilometres to walk down the gently descending Cowombat Trail this afternoon before I’d reach Tin Mine Huts and to be honest for the whole length of the walk it looked like at any stage it could bucket down. It was only when I arrived at Tin Mine Creek a kilometre or so before the huts that I actually thought that there was a chance I could get to camp before the rain. After a quick drink and a bite to eat at the very pretty Tin Mine Creek I grabbed my pack and set off over one final low ridge to Tin Mine Huts, a bit less than two kilometres away now.

It was pretty much down hill for the rest of the day.

The Main Range was getting closer.

There were a couple of rills of water flowing across Cowombat Trail today.

Cowombat Trail

I'll give this bloke a wide berth.

Meeting Cascade Trail I crossed straight over and dropped into the valley that is home to Tin Mine Huts, unfortunately it wasn’t just the huts that this quiet valley was home to today though, nope here was also two, yes I said T W O schools groups camped on the grass around the huts, fuck me! It’s not that I don’t like school kids, it’s just that sometimes they are a bit loud and boisterous and I am old and grumpy after all! Almost at the exact same time that I arrived at the camp it started to hose down too, my day was just getting better. I had the tent up in about four minutes, threw everything in and dived in on top, thankfully still more or less dry. Shuffling around in the tent I got everything set up and then settled down for awhile to wait for the rain to ease off a bit.

Dropping down to cross Tin Mine Creek there was some nice forest.

Tin Mine Creek

It was only when I arrived at Tin Mine Creek that I though that I may of had chance of getting to camp without getting wet.

It turn's out that I probably should of camped here.

After a little under an hour of very heavy rain and lots of wind things eased off a bit, so I grabbed my food and cooker and headed up to the bigger of the two huts to find somewhere dry to cook dinner. The group camped up near this hut was actually a Tafe school from Newcastle running an outdoor education course and to be honest these guys were all really good kids/young adults and while I’d been use to my own company so far on the AAWT these guys proved to be very good company. Hilly and Libby must of been over whelmed by the number of people here as well as they pushed on into the rain to Cascade Hut, I know that because the only other people here that weren’t in a school group was another mother daughter team Matilda and Felicity, and they had passed Hilly and Libby on the way in. Having been walking on my own for the last four weeks all the sudden unexpected company was a bit over whelming tonight, so after dinner I made my excuses and headed to the sanctity of my tent to write some notes and listen to a bit of ABC local radio, the radio doing a little to drown out the swearing and yelling coming from the second school group though. I’m the son of an interstate truck driver and at work I’ve got 30 blokes working for me in a factory, so I’ve heard a bit of colourful language in my day, but these young guys from a private Canberra school were as bad as I’ve ever come across, if it wasn’t for the squeaky voices you’d think that I’d pitched my tent amongst some wharfies.

There were a lot of walkers at Tin Mine Huts tonight.

The Ingeegoodbee River flows through this valley below Tin Mine Huts.

The Dirt.
I walked 17 kilometres and climbed 590 metres on what was a hard day for me today. On my 27 days on the AAWT so far I’ve walked 459 kilometres and climbed 21,555 metres. Water today was available from the Murray River and Pilot Creek at the start of the day, I then got water in a couple of spots along Cowombat Trail although the most reliable would be Tin Mine Creek. Water for camp was from the Ingeegoodbee River 100 metres from the huts. As is pretty usual on the AAWT camping is available in many spots but the pick is Tin Mine Huts, mind you if I had of known how many people would be at Tin Mine Huts tonight I would of camped near Tin Mine Creek. Navigation today was easy, the only spot where things were a little vague was across the grassy expanse of Cowombat Flat, however once Pilot Creek Trail starts to climb towards Cowombat Ridge everything is straight forward for the rest of the day. I got a Telstra mobile signal from the high point on Cowombat Ridge. I was using John Chapman’s notes and maps along with Rooftop’s Corryong-Omeo-Thredbo Adventure Map for an overview.

Relevant Posts.
AAWT, Day 1, October 2017.
AAWT, Previous day, November 2017.

The Barn

At least I had a dry place for dinner tonight.