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.

Mt Defiance Ridgetops Circuit, Great Otway National Park - February 2020

It was a walk of contrasts today, both in terrain and over head conditions.

With Melbourne and a fair slice of eastern Victoria still either burning, cloaked in smoke or locked up for recovery I looked west for a walk this week. After checking out Willy Weather and the BOM I decided to head down the Great Ocean Road to the Cumberland River to go for a stroll, hoping that I would be far enough west to avoid the smoke that had been hanging around Melbourne this week. Well it turned out there was some good news and some bad news on that front, arriving at the Cumberland River first thing this morning there was no smoke, although it had been replaced by low cloud and mist…still a good step forward in my books.

I set off under a grey and brooding sky this morning.

Parking in front of the Cumberland River Reserve I locked the ute and headed off up the Cumberland Track. This old 4wd track heads for the hills a few metres to the west of the Cumberland Reserve Office. Once on the Cumberland Track the hard work started immediately as I climbed away from the coast, although initially at least I had some views back over my shoulder down towards the coast to keep me interested. After twenty minutes or so of climbing though, I was enveloped in the mist and my world became a lot more claustrophobic…and would stay that way for hours as it turned out.

Looking back down towards the Cumberland River mouth from Cumberland Track.

The views across the Cumberland River valley were pretty sweet as I climbed.

Cumberland Track made for nice walking.

It wasn't long and I was in the mist.

After climbing over the 309 metre summit of Mt Defiance I set off on what was a long ridge walk. Now I’d like to tell you about the great views that I got as I shuffled along the ridge for the next 6 kilometres, however with the mist and cloud hanging around there were no views this morning. It wasn’t just mist and fog now, I was also walking through light misty rain, although after such a hot and dry summer some warm(ish) misty rain was quite enjoyable really. The walk along the ridge line on Cumberland Track eventually topped out at a little over 450 metres at the spot where Cumberland Track intersected with Curtis Road, although along the journey there was a fair bit of Toblerone style action, including one very steep and slippery descent.

Ridgetop walking along Cumberland Track.

Cumberland Track

Cumberland Track.

Once I'd met up with Curtis Road (another 4wd track) I was pretty well at the highest point on the stroll. Turning left I dropped easily down Curtis Road for 15 minutes until I once again turned left, this time onto Wye River Road. Wye River Road is more your traditional gravel road and it was as I dropped down here that I met a few other people out and about, although two mountain bikers and a 4wd hardly constituted a crowd, especially as I’d now been walking for the best part of four hours.

Dropping down Curtis Road the walking was still pretty good.

Wye River Road is more your traditional gravel road.

The view today from Wye River Road.

Wye River Road.

With the misty light rain continuing I arrived at Jamieson Track and set off left down this closed 4wd track towards the coast. Jamieson Track started off fairly gently before passing Godfrey Track and dropping very solidly down towards Bass Straight. It was while I was dropping down here that the mist slowly started to lift, well actually the mist hadn’t lifted it was just that I’d once again dropped low enough to emerge from it. With some views both down to the ocean and across distant ridge lines the scenery side of the day was suddenly looking up.

Jamieson Track was a little overgrown to start with....

...although things were clear enough mostly.

Easy going down Jamieson Track.

The next ridge line to the south-west looks like it was burnt in the huge Wye River fire of December 2015.

My first glimpse of the coast line that I'd be walking for the next couple of hours didn't look overly promising.

I was pretty interested in the coast line view too. The reason I was keen to check out the coast was that I was hopefully going to be walking it back to the Cumberland River and I’d never heard of anyone walking it before. Peering down through the gloom from up on Jamieson Track things down along the coast looked a little daunting, Bass Straight seemed to be throwing everything it had at the cliff line and it didn’t look like there was going to a lot of dry real estate to walk on. After dropping down the last few hundred metres of Jamieson Track I passed through the national park camp that was in the middle of a renovation and then emerged at the Great Ocean Road…right next to the ‘road closed’ and ‘no un-authorised entry’ signs….hmmm. It seems that almost every walk I do lately either the tracks or the parks are closed.

There was a bit of renovation action going on at the national park camp ground.

The faint line in the cliffs is the Great Ocean Road.

Bass Strait was living up to its reputation today.

The bottom end of Jamieson Track - it seems like every walk I do at the moment is closed!

Once down on the small beach at the Jamieson Creek mouth I pulled up a rock, had a bit of a break and sussed out the situation. I’d already walked over 18 kilometres, most of it in light rain, I still had 4 or 5 kilometres to go along the coast to get back to the ute…4 or 5 kilometres that may or may not be do-able. Now I had sussed this bit of the walk out before leaving home, having a very close look at the satellite photos and checking out the tide times. The aerial photos didn’t show any obvious problems, although everything looks easier from space I suppose! With low tide at around 4pm things had looked about as promising as they could be really as far as the tide went, although the rough as guts, huge swell that was pounding the coast gave me reason to pause a little.

The over head conditions out in Bass Strait looked better. That's the Jamieson Creek mouth.

Heading north-east along the coast the easy sand walking only lasted for a few minutes.

Walking across these rocks isn't easy.

Progress was still being made.

Normally I'm checking out ship wrecks on those coastal walks...on this one I was checking out rusting engine blocks and differentials - I hope they had their seat belts on when the launched off the Great Ocean Road!

After carefully analysing the situation I set off along the coast anyway. The sand lasting for only a few minutes before I arrived at the rocks. Now sometimes walking these coastlines I get lucky and find myself walking extensive rock platforms…. Yeah, Nah, not on this walk though. Well there were some rock platforms, however there were also a lot of very, very rough rock walking, either over beaches of round boulders or long sections along jagged rocks. To make this walk a little tougher there was very little dry land, especially where the Mt Defiance Cliffs met the coast, which meant that not only was I having to scramble but also in a couple of spots I was having to keep an eye on the swell to keep my boots dry.

I got lucky occasionally and had some rock platforms to walk.

Looking back towards the Jamieson Creek mouth, things looked a little...grim!

Looking forward things weren't a lot cheerier either.

The geology of these cliff lines is interesting, it looks like its a mix of Conglomerate Rock and Sandstone.

Passing below Mt Defiance dry real estate was getting a little valuable.

A quick look at the map (although I’m not sure anyone bothers looking at my maps except me;) and a lot of people would be thinking that ‘this Feral bloke is a bit of a wanker, the Great Ocean Road is only a couple of millimetres away’….and they’d be right, well at least about the wanker bit…but I digress. Yes, the Great Ocean Road is very close and quite often I could see the tourists tootling along in their SUV’s, however between the coastline and the road there is a cliff…a big and high cliff….a big and high cliff that there was no way I was going to be climbing. Occasionally the cliff line did finish for short stretches to be replaced by very steep scrub and blackberry lined gullies, I suppose if things did go really pear shaped I could of escaped up one of these gullies but it wouldn’t of been pleasant.

The waves surging over these rock platforms looked pretty sweet.

Bass Strait was wild today.

After rounding Mt Defiance things opened up a little...it was still slow walking though.

I haven’t mentioned the weather down here on the coast yet, while it had been misty rain up in the mountains down at water level it was vey warm and humid, while I was mostly walking in a sea mist I could see Bass Straight bathed in sunshine a little off shore. Now normally I’d be a little peeved with grey overhead conditions, however this afternoon the contrast between the mist covered mountains and cliffs and the blue ocean seemed to work for me a bit. The rough swell of Bass Straight was also helping my photos a bit too, the waves surging up and over rock shelves looking particularly sweet.

Looking back down the coast, the contrasting over head conditions were obvious. 

Ahead of me out towards Bass Strait things looked completely different. 

The hard walking returned as I got closer to the Cumberland River mouth.

It doesn't look like much however scrambling over these rocks is slow going. I've just scrambled down off this one which to give it some perspective, is around 3 to 4 metres high.

I was walking almost directly beneath the Great Ocean Road again now.

Like last week’s walk from Fingal To Cape Schanck my coastal route seemed to get progressively rougher the further I went this afternoon, now this was a little concerning as I’d already walked around 20 kilometres by now today and was pretty well rooted tired, I certainly wouldn’t of wanted to rock hop my way back to Jamieson Creek and then walk the Great Ocean Road. So I was more than a little relieved when I rounded one more headland to suddenly see other people on the coast, figuring that I would be the only one stupid enough to have walked too far to get here I assumed that they must of come from the Cumberland River…and for once I was right.

The walking was rough as guts however the scenery was pretty sweet.

I stopped to look back over my shoulder again - I might never come back here so I wanted to take it all in and remember it.

Almost at the same time as my boots touched the sandy beach near the Cumberland River mouth the sun emerged from the clouds above me and I was able to get a few blue sky shots. The Cumberland River Reserve is a large and popular camping area and there were many people out this afternoon and it was slightly surreal for me to suddenly see so many other people after so long on my own today. Passing the beach side crowds I wandered up the west side of the river, carefully crossed the Great Ocean Road and arrived back at the overflowing car park. Time to head home.

I've just noticed some people on the small rocky outcrop in the distance, this was the first time I was reasonably confident that I'd make it.

Hey, hey, I'd made it.

The Cumberland River.

The Dirt.
I walked 23.4 kilometres and climbed 870 metres on this extreme walk. Yep, I’ve dusted off my extreme rating again. This walk is tough, while the climb up into the Otway Ranges is hard and long enough, it was the coastal section that was the next level stuff. It looks like the coast is only walkable very close to low tide (maybe 90 minutes each side), the dodgiest section is the bit closer towards the Cumberland River. Even with a favourable tide the coast requires some moderate scrambling and a fair understanding of tides and swell, not to mention the ability to move over very rough ground fairly quickly and efficiently. What was pretty easy today was the navigation, once I picked up Cumberland Track I basically just kept turning left until I arrived back at the ute, 23 kilometres later. I used the notes and map out of the House of Chapman’s Walking the Otways written by the Geelong Bushwalking Club, the notes and maps in this book only cover the inland section of the stroll though.

Relevant Posts.
Skenes Creek Circuit, 2019.
Lorne Forest Walk, Great Otway National Park, 2017.

Cumberland River mouth.

The sun came out for good now.

Cumberland River

There is normally plenty of parking here, although it was very busy today. There is another car park on the other side of the bridge on the Great Ocean Road.