Stony Creek Road to Molly Hill via Bungalow Spur, Alpine National Park - May 2021

Today turned into a bit of an epic - my view from camp was also on the epic side too.

It's been around ten years since I last climbed Mt Feathertop up in the north east of Victoria and the last time I walked in here I came in across the Razorback from the Alpine Road - without doubt the easiest way to access the summit. It's been many decades since I'd attempted the route that I used on this visit, according to my blog it was back in 1999, although the timelines on those retro posts are rubbery at best so it could of even been a year or two earlier. Since that earlier walk a couple of bushfires have decimated this part of Victoria and I was thinking that the fire regrowth wasn't going to make today's walk any easier than it had been last century - looking at it from my glass half full perspective then at least I have less hair now so that should cut down on the wind resistance a bit!

It's no wonder that I do a lot of this stuff on my own!

After the usual alpine start from home I pulled up at the carpark next to the trout farm on Stony Creek Road at around 9 am, on what was a glorious late Autumn High Country morning. After pulling on my boots I filled out the intentions book (happy to see no entries for the last few days) re-set the GPS and set off up the North West Spur Track. Now despite my waffle I haven't yet mentioned what the plan was today, yes to make this walk into a circuit I was planning on climbing Mt Feathertop using Bungalow Spur and descending it via the North West Spur Track (Tom Keen Track). That all sounds pretty reasonable however to ramp up the degree of difficulty a bit I was climbing Bungalow Spur from down near Stony Creek and I wasn't planning on meeting up with the Bungalow Spur Walking Track until just past Tobias Gap some 750 metres higher up... and that's where the bushfire regrowth would make itself felt - literally!

The start of the North West Spur Track on Stony Creek Road.

The trout farm.

I stayed off the nice road on the right and kept on the marked walking track close to Stony Creek.

The rough creek side pad beside Stony Creek.

Shuffling my way through the wet grass along the marked track beside Stony Creek I was careful not to stray onto the private property nearby, although the extensive lawn and nice gravel road was very tempting. Back in the day there was quite a lot of angst with walkers accessing the North West Spur Track and trespassing onto the nearby trout farm and judging by the amount on no trespassing signs around I'm guessing things might not of changed much on that front? Still the Parks Vic people have thoughtfully stuck in a few track markers so it wasn't too hard to avoid straying. After climbing up past some flash country residences (that I don't remember from 20+ year ago) I picked up the old benched track, left the rural land and dropped to cross a gully. Now that riveting sentence is important because after climbing out of that first gully the North West Spur Track rounded the base of a spur... and this spur is the base of Bungalow Spur which meant that it was a fairly important navigational point for me. Thankfully I successfully identified the spot this morning and after getting a photo of the start of the spur it was time to leave the walking track and start what I was guessing would be the days hard work. 

Occasionally my markers led me across some short sections of lawn.

Climbing a bit away from the creek I was still careful to stay off the road.

North West Spur Track leaves the cleared land here and drops to cross a gully.

Initially at least I had an old fire break to climb as I struck out up Bungalow Spur, I'm guessing that this old firebreak must have been pushed through during one of the bushfires and while it's mostly revegetated it was still followable in spots. Now that was good news as this initial section of Bungalow Spur is steep, not quite North West Spur steep but still bloody steep. Just as the climb started to ease off a bit the old fire break seemed to completely disappear though and I was now scrub bashing my way up the spur. My mornings walk now consisted of trying to find my way through or around ever thickening belts of scratchy scrub while at the same time trying not to get lured too far away from the crest of the spur. 

Climbing out of the first gully I arrived at the base of Bungalow Spur. I had a very old firebreak to follow initially. 

Gaining height I got a few views.

The old firebreak got me up the steepest section of Bungalow Spur.

This stuff was pretty good to push through.

Bungalow Spur. The bracken wasn't too bad to walk through either.

I'm 6'3" and that was the view from eye level.

To be honest the scrub bash wasn't the worst that I'd ever done and looking at the map I could see that I was actually getting pretty close to the 1200 metre contour, and that was important as that was the height at which I would intersect with the Bungalow Spur Walking Track. Yes, you might say I was feeling a little cocky... well fuck me didn't I pay for that! Just before I reached a high knoll at just over 1200 metres elevation I started to pass through the Alpine Ash Zone. I've noticed that on all my off track High Country Spur Walks since the bushfires that there seems to be an elevation belt where all the dead Alpine Ash Trees have come down and are now littering the ground like a giants game of pick up sticks. Now climbing over or under one of these old trees is hard enough on a track with an overnight pack on, doing it on rough ground when the trees are piled randomly on top of each other while at the same time the scrub tares at every bit of bare skin can get a bit...challenging! Once on the knoll I only had around 500 metres of flat and gently descending ground to cover to reach the Bungalow Spur Walking Track... and it took me well over an hour and a half. Yes, this was probably the thickest and nastiest bushfire regrowth that I've ever pushed through. Standing on the fallen Alpine Ash I was able to get glimpses through the wall of scrub ahead and plan the walk out in ten metres sections, sometimes using the fallen trees themselves as the path of least resistance, although walking along a slippery dead tree trunk while the scrub grabbed at my legs had it's own issues.

I was using fallen trees to stand on to scope out the scrub situation ahead of me.

I was starting to get glimpses of the open country above me.

It must of been a pretty hot fire up here.

It was hard to resist these open leads that dropped off the side of the spur - but resist I did!

With more than a little relief I eventually emerged from my green hell, pretty well falling through the scrub onto the Bungalow Spur Walking Track...well that was an adventure! I happened to emerge out of the scrub a couple of minutes before a group of teenage school kids were coming down the walking track and I was still removing pieces of flora from various and unlikely orifices as they shuffled past, I couldn't help but wonder how they would of reacted if I'd emerged looking like the swamp creature just as they walked past. Anyway it was all happy days now all I had was another 5 or 600 metres to climb and my days exertions would be a thing of the past. 

I basically fell through the regrowth and landed on the Bungalow Spur Walking Track.

Once safely on the walking track I spent some time removing the flora and cleaning off the ash.

Bungalow Spur Walking Track.

If you are going to climb Mt Feathertop from one of the valleys then the Bungalow Spur Walking Track is arguably the pick of the bunch, the track is generally pretty well maintained and it's also very well graded. Having said that though I wasn't exactly flying up the hill this afternoon, it was around 2:00 pm when I emerged onto the walking track and I didn't shuffle up to Federation Hut until just after 4pm, yes I was pretty shattered. Bungalow Spur has certainly copped a beating with the fires, and the bush up here is a pale shadow of the majestic forest that I remember (fuck, I'm starting to sound like one of those boring old farts who are always saying how things were so much better back in their day!). The one advantage of the fire pruned bush was that it allowed for a few more long distance views, remember I'm a glass half full kind of guy though. 

Late afternoon climbing Bungalow Spur.

The Old Bungalow Hut Site.

The spring near the Old Feathertop Hut Site is now signposted and has a cut track to it - it's probably been here for awhile as it's been a couple of decades since I've been up here.

The positive side of the fires was that I had views where there was none before.

Arriving at Federation Hut I found it empty this afternoon and while the grassy surrounds did hold a certain appeal I was pretty keen on camping up near Molly Hill. So after topping up my water bottles I shouldered the pack again and set off up the track again, after checking out a camp spot at the intersection with the Razorback Track I continued on a few minutes towards Mt Feathertop, finally settling on a narrow grassy saddle on the high ridge just before spot where the North West Spur Track dropped off the ridge which coincidently would be tomorrows descent route. 

Federation Hut was empty when I passed through this afternoon.

Climbing away from Federation Hut I headed up to Molly Hill.

It was getting pretty late in the day by the time I shuffled into camp.

With the summit of Feathertop cloaked in cloud I decided against a sunset walk up to the summit and instead enjoyed the views from camp this afternoon. Now some people that read my blog might have picked up on the fact that I've been trying out some light weight gear and on this trip I was pushing the boundaries a little further to see how the gear handled it. So far today my HMG Pack had handled the brutal scrub fairly well, from what I could tell it had come through unscathed so far, I'm thinking that my Osprey may not have even fared that well. Tonight I was going to be pushing the limits of my ZPacks tent though, while I'd been watching the weather closely all week and was mildly confident that the wind wouldn't pick up too much over night I was still expecting moderate winds. Now if that all sounds a bit reckless and dangerous then you have to remember that I wasn't far from either Federation or MUMC Huts if I had to get off the ridge quickly so it wasn't too dodgy... I really need to see how far I can push this lightweight stuff and this was a perfect occasion I thought. Dinner was enjoyed that night out of the wind laying in the grass on the lee side of the ridge, however it wasn't long before the quilt was beckoning me.

 

The setting sun lighting up the flank of Mt Feathertop.

The sun setting behind Mt Buffalo from my camp.

The Dirt.

According to my GPS I walked around 12.4 kilometres and climbed about 1304 metres on what I'd call an extreme days walking. The thing that makes today's walk tough is the off track section up the lower bit of Bungalow Spur. The scrub got progressively thicker until I eventually broke out onto the Bungalow Spur Walking Track just past Tobias Gap at around the 1200 metre level - as I mentioned it took me more than an hour to cover the last 500 metres on flat ground, yes it was slow going! Navigation wise the main issue is to pick the spot to leave the North West Spur Track and start the off piste climb up Bungalow Spur. Once on Bungalow Spur I just kept to the higher ground and kept climbing so navigation wasn't too bad. Instead of camping around Federation Hut I decided to head up a bit further and camp on the ridge near Molly Hill. I've camped here before in a four season tent however I was using something a lot less robust today so I had to be a little careful with the pitch as the spot is very exposed, even with a four season tent I'd only camp here in fairly good conditions. Incidentally fires are banned up here above the tree line so if anyone does camp here then practise leave no trace principles and don't be dickhead and start a fire - the reason that I mention that is it was obvious that someone has had a fire here. I picked up water for camp as I passed by Federation Hut today, the spring on the Bungalow Spur Walking Track near the old Feathertop Hut Site is now signposted and has a cut track to it and could be a more reliable option than the tank at the hut. This walk is one that I discovered years ago in one of Tyrone Thomas' old books, his notes and mud maps that I used date back to 1993 so they are a little dated however to be honest, apart from the bushfire effected scrub the rest of his notes are still pretty spot on. I also used the Rooftop's map Bright-Bogong-Hotham Forest Activities Map along with my GPS topos.

Relevant Posts.

North West Spur, Alpine National Park, 1999.

My camp near Molly Hill - this'll test out the Duplex! I only camped here as I was relatively confident that the conditions overnight would be pretty benign. I also dropped the height of my trekking poles to lower the height of the tent a bit.

Dinners up.