Circumnavigating Quilty's Mountain

[bushnut]

Hi All

Can anyone provide some guidance on circumnavigating Quilty's Mountain: how long would this take starting/ending from Endrick River Road? Would like to explore Hidden Valley / Mt Sturgiss as well.

I had been planning a fantastic three day trip in Kanangra but due to some work commitments we need to be back in Sydney (CBD) by Sunday lunch time. We are able to leave Friday morning very early so effectively its a 2.5 day trip including travel.

If anyone can suggest other options that fit this criteria in Budawangs, Blue Mountains area or elsewhere I would love to hear about them! (excluding The Castle, Mt Solitary as we have been there a bunch of times).

As always, any advice is appreciated!

[Huntsman247]

In the Budawangs you could do mt owen via the castle and camp the last night at the castle carpark.
Or you could go in from wogwog and do the corang loop via the corang arch. Staying the night at burrumbeet caves then exploring and swimming at the corang ribs too. Camping the last night at the corang lagoon. From there it's only a 3hr walk max back to the car. That would be an easier walk over 2.5 days. Or camping at the carpark campground.
Alternately you can enter via sasafrass or nerriga and as you mentioned and explore the hidden valley on the first day and camp at styles ck. Then explore some more waking back and camping closer to the car. If coming in from sassafras there is a pretty flash campsite with a toilet about a km in from the carpark. Bit harder to do anything on the last day if you need to be in the cbd by lunch on Sunday.

Starting from endrick river rd up to red Johnny's cave and up to sassafras the whole track is a firetrail. It's more scenic coming in that way opposed to sassafras and if you start early and are able to hoof it you can get from endrick river rd to the vines by mid to late morning. It's quite possible to get to the hidden valley turn for lunch if you were keen.

Hope that helps.

[bernieq]

Yes, I'd second the Corang loop, particularly since your 2.5 days includes travel. Wx is good; cold overnight but daytime midteens and dry.

[bushnut]

Thanks for the suggestions. I have done Corang a few times as well (probably should have mentioned that!)

Do you think we could make a loop of it in two days including exploring a bit? e.g. enter from Endrick, hidden valley/sturgiss, camp at styles and then back via western side of quilty's? Happy to walk a bit in the dark as the last bit is on firetrail I believe. I reckon we'd drive to Wog Wog campground and camp there the night before heading back to Sydney the next day.

[FionaShedden]

We were out here in July. We mountain biked in from Endrick river via Redgrounds Track to the Vines and then walked in to Styles. We were originally planning the circuit you described but heard there might be issues getting in via the Endrick River firetrail, so changed our plan to use the bikes instead and so we didn't do the full circuit but rather just returned out same way.

According to the sign at the gate it appears to confirm there is no longer access to the Endrick River firetrail from here:

Endrick Entrance

Redgrounds to Styles is about 20km (14km to the Vines is all Firetrail) so is still walkable if you start early, but wouldn't give you alot of time to do Hidden Valley and/or Quiltys summit.

Was easy riding though, so next time we might just leave the bikes at the second Endrick River Crossing (where you join onto the Endrick river firetrail) and do the circuit - it was a fantastic walk very variable landscapes.

Also the track from Styles looked pretty good at least for the first km or so, but I have heard it gets a bit swampy/less clear as you head further around Quilties.

[bushnut]

Thanks Fiona. I was thinking more along the lines of completing the loop via the track that runs on the southern/western side of Quiltys (sorry don't know the name and Doughton book isnt in front of me!) which meets up with the Alum Creek Fire Trail.

However based on the comments, it sounds like this would be quite rushed and would likely mean missing out on some of the special sites (Bora, Hidden Valley etc).