 |
| Guess what, yep...there was a bit of weather around today. |
One of the disadvantages of sharing huts is that once the first occupant stirs then basically it’s all over as far as any quality sleep goes, with my mountain bike brothers being in a race they were keen to get going pretty early. So anyway that’s why I found myself heading north at a fairly early hour this morning also, I’m not talking an alpine start here though but I was on my way before 8am. Thankfully the weather looked reasonable this morning, warm and unsettled probably best described things again, I was shuffling along in the sun but I didn’t have to look far to see mildly threatening clouds.
 |
| The relatively early start meant good light for my photos. |
Leaving the Schlink Hilton I continued on down Munyang-Geehi Road for half an hour or so, the dirt road contouring the side of a shallow valley with Dicky Cooper Creek flowing through it. With the hour being fairly early and the light being pretty good there was a few stops as I shuffled along the dirt road down to meet up with Valentine Trail. Reaching the more minor Valentine Trail I met my first mountain biker heading south, over the course of the day I’d pass a steady trickle of riders sweating there way towards Melbourne. The interesting thing (well for me anyway as I’ve considered using a mountain bike and doing a bit of off-road touring in the future) was the amount of hike a bike these guys were doing, they were pushing their bikes up hill and then struggling to ride most of the short sharp downhills along Valentine Trail on their loaded up bikes. This was a bit of an eye opener as from what I could see they had very minimalistic gear (I would say a lot of them were very under prepared for alpine country), I would definitely need to be carrying more gear to feel comfortable.
 |
Heading off onto Valentine Trail, the walking is pretty good along here...
 |
...the scenery was pretty sweet too.
 |
Valentine Trail
|
|
|
As I alluded to in the last paragraph Valentine Trail has a fair few steep little ups and downs as it makes its way north crossing numerous gullies. Not that the little climbs and descents made for bad walking, the grassy surface and open alpine scenery made this a fairly pleasant place to be this morning. By mid morning I found myself dropping down to Valentine Creek, passing the bright red Valentine Hut on the way. Arriving on the bank of Valentine Creek I made the usual, risk versus reward calculation in my head, would it be probable or just possible that I’d make it to the far bank with dry boots, or should I just admit defeat, stop and remove my gaiters, boots and socks and wade through in my sandals? Heading upstream for a few metres along the bank of Valentine Creek I managed a boots on crossing today on some handy rocks, my walking poles coming in very handy at times like this.
 |
After a couple of days of walking fairly hard tracks the soft grass of Valentine Trail made for a pleasant change this morning.
 |
 |
 |
The alpine scenery up here really does it for me.
|
|
|
|
Leaving Valentine Creek the AAWT climbs a little before dropping down to cross the more substantial Geehi River, here my risk versus reward calculation was a little more marginal! Not to be perturbed though I headed up stream a few metres finding myself a nice flat rock shelf that was damming half the width of the river, the rock shelf at least providing me a pleasant spot for a drink and a bite to eat as I contemplated the crossing. Refreshed after a bit of a break I managed to once again complete the crossing with dry boots, although the exit involved a fairly steep off piste climb up to re join the AAWT on Valentine Trail. I was now climbing solidly again for a bit as I crossed a ridge and then started to descend into a deeper, broader valley. Valentine Falls were now visible off to my left, another spot that I pencilled in for a return visit one day when I had a bit more time up my sleeve.
 |
Valentine Creek
 |
 |
 |
Looking back towards the Main Range.
 |
The Geehi River provided a more substantial obstacle this morning.
 |
| It was still a boots on crossing....just! |
|
|
|
|
|
Dropping into the grassy valley the AAWT crosses a series of creeks as it makes it’s way towards the intersection with Grey Mare Trail, the crossing of Back Flat Creek was indeed a boots off ford today. Resting on the grassy plain while I had a bit of a break and waited for my legs to dry off a bit, I couldn’t help but notice that the overhead conditions were looking a little more ominous. I was hoping to get to somewhere around the Tumut River tonight and maybe climb Mt Jagungal as a side trip, that was still hours away though although with the looming storm the climb of Mt Jagungal was already looking doubtful. Pulling on my boots I climbed up to the intersection with Grey Mare Trail, bypassing the side trip up to Grey Mare Hut I set off north along this trail, a trail I’d now follow for many kilometres.
 |
Hmmm, here we go again.
 |
 |
Valentine Falls, I'll get closer one day!
 |
| There was a bit of abandoned, rusting machinery scattered about the grassy valley below Grey Mare Hut. |
|
|
|
Grey Mare Trail is a little more substantial than the grassy Valentine Trail that I’d been following for most of the morning so the walking was pretty easy as I chewed up the kilometres. With no navigational issues or big hills to consider my main interest now was how far north I’d get before I got caught in what was looking like the inevitable storm. Thankfully I managed to shuffle my was a fair way north which meant that I got a couple of descent shots of the brooding Mt Jagungal, looking more menacing than normal with the back drop of the dark storm clouds today. Arriving at a low saddle above the Tooma River the rain caught me, after sheltering under what little protection that I could find with just my gortex jacket on, it soon became apparent that this was a full wet weather gear event, bugger! Undoing my pack, pulling out my water proof over pants and dry bags out, and then stuffing everything back in it was a little debatable whether I wouldn’t of been better just battling through and coping a drenching. It can be a pretty marginal call sometimes in these storms, once I open up the pack things start to get wet pretty quickly when there is no real shelter and sometimes it’s better just to get soaked on the outside while keeping everything inside dry, especially if it isn’t too cold.
 |
Grey Mare Trail, the weather was looking pretty sweet in this direction. The shiny spot on the tree line is Grey Mare Hut.
 |
The weather in the other direction was not looking so flash.
 |
 |
Heading along Grey Mare Trail before the storm, I managed to get a couple of photos of Mt Jagungal.
 |
| I'm thinking this is a snow gauge? |
|
|
|
|
Setting off again Grey Mare Trail starts to cross a wide plain to intersect with Round Mountain Trail. I was now back in familiar territory again as I’d come in along Round Mountain Trail a couple of years ago on a trip to Mt Jagungal, things looked a little different this afternoon now, my world limited to a narrow field of vision out of my jackets storm hood as the hail belted down on it deafeningly. It wasn’t just the hail on my head that was causing a few problems, the trail itself had turned to a clay based mud and I was now walking along with half a kilogram of mud stuck to each boot! After meeting Round Mountain Trail the AAWT continue to follow Grey Mare Trail as it heads towards the Mt Jagungal massif, thankfully as the trail climbed a little the surface became a little more rocky and walking became a little easier again.
 |
 |
My last photo of Mt Jagungal today, it was time to put the DSLR away in it's dry bag.
 |
Did I mention the hail..?
 |
Hey, I did get another photo of Mt Jagungal, this is from the junction of Grey Mare and Round Mountain Trails. Derschkos Hut is a couple of kilometres down Round Mountain Trail.
 |
| The track was rated as heavy this afternoon. |
|
|
|
|
Reaching the Tumut River I very quickly decided that not only was the ascent of Mt Jagungal off the cards but it wasn’t really worth camping here either. It was only 4 pm and with the rain hammering down it would of been a long night in the tent, with O’Keefes Hut not that far up the track I decided to head there instead. Trudging along Grey Mare Trail as it contours the western slopes of Mt Jagungal I forced myself to stop every now and again to try and take a photo with my waterproof camera, there are many great perfectly framed photos on walking blogs around, but I reckon that they can be a bit misleading occasionally, it’s not all sweetness and light out there sometimes. A few blurry, waterlogged photos can sometimes illustrate what the walking was really like a lot better than my limited vocabulary can describe it.
 |
Grey Mare Trail crossing the Tumut River, I was originally planning on camping here and heading up Mt Jagungal.
 |
| The camera might be waterproof but the lens still gets wet unfortunately. |
|
After trudging through the rain I arrived at
O'Keefes Hut at 5pm only to find it chockablock with mountain bikers and their bikes, bugger. The guys had all called it a day due to the weather and with their lack of gear they were all needing the shelter from the hut, they did offer to put their bikes outside but after a quick call to Sam to let her know I was OK I decided to keep on trudging my way north into the gloom. The problem was because these guys had virtually no gear then the huts were really the only viable survivable option for them, now if they moved their bikes out there was probably room for everyone but I wasn’t sure how many more racers would turn up later, so seeing that I could fairly easily survive the weather camped out I figured that it was best to head off and leave them a bit of space.
 |
Grey Mare Trail
 |
Hmm, I'm looking surprisingly chipper considering that I was pretty well rooted tired. |
|
So anyway that’s how I found myself shouldering my pack and shuffling off into the rain towards Bogong Creek, muttering to myself something about Mr Hunt and his mountain bike race, well by that stage I was calling the race the #unt 1000, well it sounds like Hunt anyway. Just before 6pm I started dropping into the valley of Bogong Creek, thankfully the rain had eased off a bit and there were now just showers scudding through and not constant rain. Crossing the creek I found myself a nice little grassy spot and quickly had the tent up, removing my jacket and over pants I threw the pack in and jumped in behind it, happy to be out of the elements after what had been a fairly solid day. I was fairly lucky tonight in that by the time I’d organised the inside of the tent the showers had become infrequent enough that I was able to emerge from my shelter to cook dinner without having to pull on my wet and cold wet weather gear again, although dinner was punctuated with a few dives into the tent to avoid the heavier showers passing through.
 |
No photo of O'Keefes Hut on his trip unfortunately.
 |
| My Bogong Creek camp was a pretty good one. |
|
The Dirt.
I walked 30 kilometres and climbed 550 metres on today’s hard stroll. On my 32 days walking the AAWT so far I’ve walked 562 kilometres and climbed 24,255 metres. Once again water, camping and navigation didn’t present any issues today. Valentine, Grey Mare, Derschkos and O’Keefes Huts are either on the AAWT or a short side trip off it, each of these huts provide great refuge and some camping opportunities. I got a Telstra signal today at O’Keefes Hut although with the crappy weather about I didn’t pull my phone out of it’s dry bag that often to check for a signal. I used John Daly’s and Chapman’s notes for this section along with SV Maps 1:50,000 Kosciuszko Alpine Area and Rooftop’s Kosciuszko National Park Forest Activities Map Jindabyne -Khancoban map.
Relevant Posts.
No comments:
Post a Comment