Overnight hikes of the Snowy Mountains Hwy

[Platythere]

Hi All,

Long time lurker first time poster.

Thinking of doing a one or two night trek in the Snowy's in november. Possibly around Long Plain. Only just started looking into it and surprised to not find many walk guides online. Any suggestions?

We are not SUPER intense experienced hikers, but we are plenty fit and are confident in the bush.

THANKS!

[Maculata]

I've wondered the same thing Platythere - if I recall correctly it is possible to walk into Namadgi (ie the ACT) from Long Plain. But it would be interesting to hear of possible routes.

[north-north-west]

If you want a tracked walk you'd best pick up one of the legs of the AAWT.
From Kiandra you can walk either south past Tabletop to Happys Plain and Mackeys, or north towards the ACT. One nice little leg if you can do a car shuttle is from Kiandra to Bullocks Hill, with a side trip down to the Murrumbidgee River. There are huts (if you're into that sort of thing) and as it's mostly on fire trails (not much in the way of dedicated walking tracks in the KNP) it's hard to get lost.
If you want to get off track, there is a lot of very easy open country there to explore. Just get a map and go where you want. You can put together a loop that's part tracked and part cross country by using the ridge that runs over Tantangara Mtn, for instance - there are even some good pads to help with navigation.

[RVG]

I was interested to see the comment about the lack of bushwalkers' guides for Kosciuszko National Park.

About 12 years ago, after the 2003 fires, a number of bushwalkers separately began to record the tracks and other information which were revealed when the fires cleared the undergrowth. Over several years we bumped into each other and also met up with Graham Scully from the History and Heritage group of Kosciszko Huts Association. Graham was recording oral and other histories of the families which owned land in the Park.

A loose group was formed and we (bushwalkers) began to work with Graham to locate and record old huts, graves, tracks, etc. A database was compiled of all the known European sites in the Park and many of the positions were groundtruthed by GPS to locate precisely where places were located. Six huts, not previously located, were found as well as graves, diggings and other features.

That work has resulted in a book about to be published as an ebook and a physical book. It will be put on Amazon in a couple of weeks. The hard copy will be distributed by Klaus Hueneke's Tabletop Press, some time near Xmas.

The book is called "Exploring the Jagungal Wilderness" and it records all the routes in the Jagungal area and especially towards the eastern side of the Jagungal Wilderness. It also includes recommended short and long walks. And it also includes extracts from old maps which showed where the old bridle trails were as well as their position as recorded by GPS.

What we found was that the old bridle and other trails used by pioneer graziers and miners made perfect sense and that their routes are just as useful for bushwalkers today. The book provides details of those tracks and trails. It should open up much of the Jagungal Wilderness to bushwalkers.

Klaus reviewed the book and described it as the most comprehemsive walking guide ever published to that area.

[MeanderingFlyFisher]

RVG,great to hear,sounds fantastic,please keep us informed on when it becomes available.

[RVG]

MFF

I'll start a new topic when the book is published because the information belongs to a broader topic relating to, say, Bushwalking Guides to Kosciuszko National Park, rather than to here.

In essence this is what it is about

"The 2003 fires in Kosciuszko National Park, destroyed 23 huts and did enormous environmental damage. But they had some beneficial side effects. By clearing the undergrowth they revealed things which had been hidden or forgotten. This book tells of the hut ruins, graves and other features which were found; along with the old tracks and bridle trails which were traced and recorded.
But the real revelation was that the bridle trails and dray tracks, which had been used by graziers and miners for over 100 years, were very sensible routes and that they are just as useful for bushwalkers today as they were to the old-timers then.
Even if the tracks fade away, as many have, we now know where they went. That makes it a lot easier for us to traverse the same country.
This book gives precise details of routes and makes recommendations for short and long walks in the Jagungal Wilderness.
Klaus Hueneke, author of “Huts of the High Country” and “Kiandra to Kosciusko” described it as

“The most detailed coverage of track and hut sites in the Jagungal Wilderness ever compiled. Chapter after chapter, map after map, reveal numerous routes and sites between Snowy Plain in the east and the Grey Mare Range to the west, and between Island Bend in the south and Happy Jacks Plain to the north.”

[kanangra]

Gee that does sound very interesting. I would like to get my hands on a copy when it comes out.

K.