Masons Falls Circuit, Kinglake National Park - November 2018.

Masons Falls

This being the last weekend until after Christmas that I had the chance to string two day’s together I’d pencilled in a overnight walk up to Mt Whitelaw. As is usual in my Feral world things didn’t actually pan out anything like I’d planned though. It’s been pretty dry in Melbourne but as soon as I planned an alpine walk the weather turned and we received a months worth of rain in a couple of days, the exact days I’d planned on heading up to Mt Whitelaw. So plan A was out the window and it was onto plan B which consisted of me sitting on the couch watching CNN, typing up a couple of retro blogs whilst I listened the to rain and wind lash the house, yep I’m hardcore!

After a day of sitting on the couch in front of the telly I figured that I’d better head out and get some kind of exercise. With all the rain I figured a waterfall walk might be the go this morning. Now this could be the most over used sentence that appears on my blog I thinking, but anyway here it is - over the years I’ve been there a few times before. Last time I was up at Masons Falls was only about 3 years after the Black Saturday bush fires and to be honest the place was still looking pretty devastated, so I figured that a return visit now might be interesting.

It was an inclement start to the day.... and that didn't change much!

Parking the ute at the picnic area just inside the Kinglake National Park gate on Masons Falls Road, I immediately had my doubts that this visit was a good idea though. It wasn’t that the bush was still devastated by the fires but more the fact that I could barely see the bush through the rain and mist. Setting off in my wet weather gear I picked up the Sugarloaf Track and headed off into the mist. I did have some good news this morning though in that while everything was wet and misty at least the walking track was fairly clear, there nothing worse than pushing through wet scrub on overgrown walking tracks I don’t think.

Sugarloaf Ridge Walking Track

Sugarloaf Ridge Walking Track stays fairly close to Mt Sugarloaf Road, crossing it once.

The Sugarloaf Ridge Walking Track stays fairly close to the crest of a high, broad ridge, never straying too far from Mt Sugarloaf Road as I headed south. The bush in these parts is largely Stringybark forest with a fairly open understory and from what I could see through the mist it looked like things were looking a little healthier on this visit. Sloshing my way along the deserted walking track I was lost in my own little world this morning, the rain and mist as well as my storm hood meant that I only had a fairly small field of vision. Drawing from my ‘glass half full’ attitude I suppose that there were some advantages to sloshing along in the constraint rain and mist, yep at least the surrounding bush was alive with colour, yes I know, it’s pretty thin but it’s all I’ve got!

Climbing to Mt Sugarloaf.

After crossing Mt Sugarloaf Road and passing the turnoff for Running Creek Track (my ongoing route) I climbed the last few, moderately steep metres up to the 570 metre summit of Mt Sugarloaf. The long range view of Melbourne are a feature from up here….normally. This morning I made do with an atmospheric shot of mist, now anyone who has read much of my blog will know that atmospheric photos is Feral code for crap photos and I don’t think I disappointed this morning. Tearing myself away from the extensive 3 metre view I dropped back down to Running Creek Track and set off on the fairly long walk around to Masons Falls. Running Creek Track is a closed 4wd track and it initially drops fairly steeply down to meet Running Creek, thankfully the track features a few switchbacks as it drops around 300 metres as the rain certainly wasn’t letting up, things would of been a bit slippery if it had been too steep.

The vista from Mt Sugarloaf was a little limited this morning. Btw, all except for three of the photos on this post are taken with my little waterproof camera.

Crossing Mt Sugarloaf Road I started dropping down Running Creek Track.

Running Creek Track drops around 300 metres.

Dropping down Running Creek Track I eventually emerged below the clouds, for the first time today I could see more than 20 metres. So now instead of getting photos of the mist I could now get photos of the surrounding ridges disappearing into the mist, still that was an improvement as far as I was concerned. With my track meeting Running Creek it marked the lowest spot on todays stroll, I would now follow this small creek upstream for around 2.5 kilometres before I would start to climb in earnest again. Running Creek is a fairly modest little stream and even after all the recent rain it was hardly a raging torrent this morning, it was still worth poking around a little checking things out despite the rain…or maybe because of the rain really. The fire regrowth down in this valley has knocked out a lot of the views down into the creek compared to what it was like twenty years ago, although there are still enough spots where it’s easy enough to access the banks of the creek though.

Dropping below the cloud I was now getting views of the cloud covered ridges above me.

Running Creek

Running Creek Track heads north, up stream along Running Creek.

The regrowth is pretty thick in spots along the creek.

Running Creek

After passing through a bit of a ferny glade, Running Creek Track started a fairly solid climb up towards the Mason Falls Lookout. Climbing up here it was about now that it dawned on my that I might not actually be able to see the falls, I was getting closer and closer to climbing into the clouds again, bugger! Reaching Wallaby Track I was dropping in and out of the mist. Thankfully after dropping down the last few metres to Masons Falls Lookout I dropped below the cloud again and soon enough the cascading Masons Falls were in view across the valley. Now the Masons Falls Lookout is actually a fair way away from the actual waterfall and with the rain still coming down solidly I was looking at trying to get a photo with my little water proof camera, not ideal. Thankfully, after around twenty of minutes standing forlornly in the rain it cleared long enough for me to dig out the DSLR and snap of a couple of half decent shots before, once again it started raining solidly.

Running Creek

After passing through this ferny glade Running Creek Track starts to climb away from the creek.

More cloud covered distant ridges.

I watched a bit of H.R. Pufnstuf in my younger days (google it kiddies)!

The atmospheric photos continued....

.....as did the climbing.

Climbing up Running Creek Track I got back into the drier forest.

Masons Falls. I stood in the rain for a long time to take this photo...makes you wonder why really;)

With the rain not looking like it was going to stop again anytime in my immediate future I set off on the next stage of the walk. I was now following the tourist walk that a drops to the lookout from the nearby Masons Falls Carpark and there has been a lot of money spent on this section of the walk, the track features not only a very good, even surface but also some big bridges. After passing a nice little cascade I picked up another nice little walking track, Lyrebird Track. Lyrebird Track passes through the site of an old sawmill and also passes close by some more nice little cascades as it slowly climbed up to the extensive Masons Falls Picnic Area and Carpark. The section of today’s stroll between Masons Falls Lookout and Masons Falls Carpark should be suitable for wheelchairs or strollers I'm thinking.

Have I mentioned the mist covered ridges...?

There's been some serious money spent around the Masons Falls part of the park.

This small un named cascade on Running Creek is just off the track.

Running Creek

Picking up Lyrebird Walking Track I past by another nice little cascade.

Lyrebird Walking Track.

Passing through the almost deserted picnic ground I picked up Boundary Track and headed into the bush again. I was now walking beside the headwaters of Running Creek as I sloshed my way towards the eastern edge of Kinglake National Park, the diminutive little creek even smaller up here. With grassy open paddocks appearing on the other side of the fence Boundary Track started climbing south, avoiding Goodenia Track I continued on a bit before branching right onto Wombat Track. With the rain still coming down this short section of the walk along Wombat Track was the slipperiest bit of my whole days walk, the hard clay surface taking all my Feral (dead) cat reflexes just to stay up right. Thankfully the Wombat Track section of the stroll was only fairly short and I was soon making my way back through the picnic area near the entrance gate, happy to dry off, get out of the rain and climb into the ute.

The Masons Falls Picnic Area was pretty quiet today.

Today's selfie.

Climbing Boundary Track.

With grassy paddocks on the other side of there fence I followed the eastern boundary of Kinglake National Park for awhile.

The Dirt.
A quick look at my map will make it obvious that I couldn’t use my GPS stats on this stroll, my Garmin GPS again dropping a cog today in the inclement conditions. So I’ll use Mr Chapman’s stats out of his book Day Walks In Victoria, he says the walk comes in at 13.5 Chapman kilometres and involves 420 Chapman metres of climbing on what I’d call a medium grade walk. Mr & Mrs Chapman, Mr Thomas, Mr Tempest and Mr & Mrs Daly have all written this walk up in various editions their books. Parks Vic also have plenty of free stuff online about this park. Kinglake National Park is slowly recovering from the fires, the dryer open sections high on the ridge lines are looking pretty good, although the Stringbarks are nowhere near mature and there are plenty of stark skeletons of burnt trees poking out above the canopy. Down in the damper sections there is quite often an almost impenetrable wall of sapling regrowth and while it’s great to see the bush regenerating it’s all still a little depressing I think.

Relevant Posts.
Andrew Hill Circuit, Kinglake National Park, 2015.
Mt Everard Circuit, Kinglake National Park, 2016.
Wilhelmina Falls, Murrindindi Scenic Reserve, 2018.

When I met a couple of private homes it was time to veer down Wombat Track. 

Wombat Track was super slippery today.

Arriving back at the car park near the entrance gate, todays walk was over.....and it was still raining!

Does anyone know how to edit these false tracks out? My GPS frequently drops out in crappy weather, dense tree cover or steep terrain, the GPS trace then goes crazy which makes the maps  of limited use.