Lake Eildon

[neil_fahey]

Planning a trip for sometime in the next month... We only want to drive a couple of hours from Melbourne so I was wondering if anyone has any reccommendations for the best short/day hikes around the southern end of Lake Eildon?

Thanks in advance!

Neil

[Earwig]

There are some nice day to half day walks around Fraser campground, Lake Eildon National Park, through dry-ish Red Box forest. Most require a reasonable walk up a ridge but have good views over the lake to Mt Buller. Mt Torbreck is another good place for a day walk in that area – not much of a view from the top unless you climb the cairn. The Tramways near Rubicon are also good – the bridges are magnificent - and Snobs Creek Falls are also worth a visit. Both are more drives than hikes though and I haven’t been there since last year’s fires. Pick of the bunch in the area is Cathedral Range State Park, excellent walking – short steep climbs to the top of the range or, if you want to climb Sugarloaf, very steep, like hands and feet climbing. It’s good to see how it is coming back after the fire.

[neil_fahey]

Thanks Earwig! I think we'll do Cathedral on another trip but they're all good tips for Eildon. Will check them out and make a decision... I'm getting excited about this trip! Probably the last one before the cooler weather sets in I guess...

[wobbly]

Big River was a favourite spot of mine tho its been quite a few years. There is an old coach road to Enochs point and on to the falls that is a good easy walk for kids, some blackberries in the gullies tho. Also liloing down the stretches of the Big river itself e.g from the road bridge to burn't bridge or paddling it if the water is high great fun.

http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/CA256F310024B ... +Guide.pdf

[neil_fahey]

I ended up doing a makeshift circuit of Estate Spur on the Saturday and on Sunday the two of us did the short version of Blowhard Circuit... My notes are here - http://bushwalkingblog.blogspot.com/sea ... nal%20Park

I forgot to bring either of my hiking books so all I had to go by for Blowhard was some notes from a blog (and a map from ParkWeb). We had planned to do the full 20-21 km's but the notes led us on the shorter version. Funnily enough, my iMapMyFitness app for iPhone still tracked it as 20 km's (it's a bit crappy sometimes) and after the initial climb (from near Merlos Lookout to Blowhard Summit), we felt like we'd walked a lot longer than we had too! How embarassing...

Anyway both of these walks are highly recommended, though I'm sure they wont be long enough for the hardcore hiking snobs! teehee

[neil_fahey]

PS. Earwig: We checked out Snobs Creek Falls as you suggested so thankyou for that! It was definitely a nice spot though you were right about the drive/walk comment. I put it on my blog anyway as it's a worthwhile spot to visit for anyone who's up there doing other hikes. Unfortunately though, I forgot my camera and had to use the iPhone for photos... http://bushwalkingblog.blogspot.com/201 ... orest.html

[Pebbles]

Hi guys,
With regard to Cathedral range, the Black Saturday fires basically burnt out the entire range. Not sure what is or has been done as far as clearing etc. Just thought I'd let you know.

[neil_fahey]

From ParkWeb:

Change of Conditions
Cathedral Range State Park was severely affected by the Black Saturday bushfires. 92 per cent of the park, including all the visitor facilities at Sugarloaf Saddle, were burnt.
Most of the park reopened to the public on Friday, 18 December 2009.

Tweed Spur road is closed until further notice due to the loss of a bridge. No estimated date for replacement is currently available.

Most of the walking tracks are now open. Trail markers, trailhead signage and directional signage are being replaced. Visitors to the park are requested to bring contour maps with them to assist with their walking and climbing visit.

The Little Cathedral Tracks from Neds Saddle to Little Cathedral Peak and from Cathedral Peak to Little Cathedral will remain closed until further notice while extensive works are carried out. The track that runs between North Jawbones and Neds Saddle is now permanently closed and will remain so.

The Friends Nature Trail will re-open around July 2010 when all boardwalks and bridges are re-built.
Cooks Mill Heritage area will remain closed while new decking and railing are installed.

Neds Gully, Cooks Mill and Jawbone carparks are open. A smaller Sugarloaf carpark is now also open. The day visitor area is currently closed and expected to re-open around July 2010.

Camping is available at Neds Gully and Cooks Mill. Cooks Mill has sites suitable for a small number of caravans. Camping fees apply and a permit is required for Neds Gully and Cooks Mill campgrounds. The Farmyard has a smaller camping area available.

[north-north-west]

Most of the Cathedral Range is walkable. It may be necessary to ignore the odd 'track closed' sign to get to Little Cathedral Peak, but otherwise everything's OK.
Nice little spot for a day walk.

[neil_fahey]

Thinking of heading up this Monday. I was planning to do the Little Cathedral section but I'm not keen on ignoring track closed signs personally.

Looks like I could park at Jawbone Carpark and then head to Sugarloaf Peak, returning the same way but that looks like about 12km's return. Might take 5 or 6 hours judging by the way the tracks are described???

Or park at Jawbone Carpark and head to The Cathedral peak, returning the same way. That looks like about 9km return

Also a bit worried about the rain and slipping on wet rocks... Does anyone have any recommendations or suggestions?

[north-north-west]

Well, I did the full circuit, from Jawbone carpark, in one day, including hitting every summit there. That's including starting the day by going down Bernards to Cooks Mill, and along the river to the start of the track up to Ned's & the Cathedrals.
If it's windy or wet, be careful and think twice about going over Sugarloaf - it's a brilliant little scramble, but it's very steep on both ends. In fact, I was thinking of using it as training for the Western Arthurs.

[neil_fahey]

Thanks for the response!

I think we can probably assume it will be windy and/or wet so we might avoid the Sugarloaf section (or make a call when we get out there).

We wont be leaving town till after 10am so probably wont be walking until 1pm I'd say. That gives us about 4-4.5 hours of hiking before sunset.

I just used MapMyWalk.com to measure the circuit from Neds Gully -> Cooks Mill -> North & South Jawbone -> The Cathedral (skipping Cathedral North and Little Cathedral) -> Neds Saddle -> Neds Peak -> Neds Gully and it looks like about 13 km's.

If it's only The Razorback and Sugarloaf that get's tricky, it sounds like we might be able to do that with photo stops in 4.5 hours. Would anyone disagree?

[Earwig]

Little cathedral section is now open I believe!

[neil_fahey]

Really!?! How did you find this out? Still listed as closed on ParkWeb

[Earwig]

Spoke to the ranger. Maybe it's not officially open yet but tracks are marked and ready to be walked. I was also told that all road and track access to Sugarloaf Saddle will be closed between 21 and 25 June to allow for tree works.

[neil_fahey]

Thanks Earwig. Hopefully they'll announce that officially soon then... After my visit yesterday, I'm eager to get up there again as soon as I get another chance. That's one of the most beautiful places I've ever hiked!

We ended up having a bit more time than we thought, so we went to the Sugarloaf carpark to check how slippery it was. It didn't seem too bad, so we decided to proceed. The hike/climb up to the peak and then along The Razorback were absolutely incredible! So glad we did that. Very keen to do a circuit at the north end next time though.

[Earwig]

I was wandering around there on Monday as well - trying out my new camera with pics of fungi around Cooks Mill. I need more practice!

yellow coral fungi - Cooks Mill.jpg (60.42 KiB) Viewed 22886 times

The Razorback is one of my favorite walks there - very spectatcular.

[neil_fahey]

Nice one! It was the perfect day for it!

[Earwig]

I spent last Sunday in Lake Eildon National Park walking up Blowhard spur from Merlo’s Lookout and then down to Cooks Point and back along the lake edge. The story of the walk is in my blog along with a couple of photos. It was about a 13km loop. We climbed the spur at the start to make it a bit easier. It was a pleasant walk and if anyone is up that way looking for a day’s outing this is one to consider.

[Hallu]

Thanks for all these infos, I'm going there this week-end. Probably 3 walks if possible : Blowhard, Estate Spur and then I was thinking about walking from Jerusalem Creek to The Pinnacle, then follow the 4WD until Dingo Track, go to Taylors Creek, and then back to Jerusalem Creek via the Taylors Creek track. Is it a good idea (I checked the website and it avoids the currently closed 4WD tracks) ? From the map, it looks like a good 20 km stroll though, it may be a good 5/6 hour walk. Anybody has any idea for walks along lake Eildon outside the Fraser Block ? Thanks.

[dplanet]

An amazing walk. Just take it in.

[Hallu]

Well the map on the Parks Victoria website wasn't perfect, far from it ( http://parkweb.vic.gov.au/__data/assets ... l-Park.pdf )... The week end was good, but we were mislead by a lot of mistakes from that map : first of all, we did the Estate Spur circuit. We though we could do the short one because it started to rain, but it turned out the 2 short cuts (the first one leading directly from Spur Track to Lakeside and the second one between Lakeside and Stockyard bay) don't exist anymore (and since the second one is actually the one recommended by Tyrone Thomas in his book, people need to know it's not there). So you have to take the third one indicated on the map, leading to the Parks Victoria office. We didn't care because we had great views anyway.

On the second day we wanted to do something different since one of our friends already did Blowhard, so we tried doing the Pinnacle track near Jerusalem Creek, then go to Rocky Spur, Taylors Creek, and then back to Jerusalem Creek. We were a little late, so we thought we should do a short version that wouldn't go to Taylors Creek (skipping the Dingo Track and Taylors Creek) because it looked like between 15 and 20 km on the map. First, the turnoff at The Pinnacle wasn't the one we thought : it doesn't exist. It's actually more like the second one at Rocky Peak, we saw no mention of The Pinnacle anywhere. So we rejoined Taylors Creek track, and went left. The Dingo Track was nowhere to be seen, neither was Water Track, and soon we actually saw the Wombat Track, closed because it only opens in November, while we thought we were still a few kms away from it judging by distances on the map... The scale seems wrong, either that or the point at the summit of Pinnacle Track, called Rocky Spur, with a turnoff (left to Taylors Creek Road, right to the rest of Pinnacle Track), is actually North-West of Taylors Creek and not South-West. . And we did what looked like 15 km on the map in about 4 hours with lunch and pauses so it was about 3 hours of walking with a fairly steep slow ascent. We saw a brown snake too, on the road, and a couple of motorbikes. The views were lacking, as the track until Rocky Spur is hidden in the forest. It's fairly strenuous, it climbs for about 2 hours before joining the Taylors Creek Track, and it would be dangerous to do this track after heavy rains. Had we though it was shorter, we would have been to Taylors Creek, but since we never saw Dingo or Water Track, I have no idea how to get there.

Here are some photos :

[madmacca]

It's so good to see Eildon full again.

[MickyB]

Agree with you Madmacca. It's a great sight. Last time I was there (a few years back) the water level was down to about 8%

[Hallu]

Right now it's 95 % =)

[neilmny]

Not being a bird expert in fact far from it, a total amateur.
I'll take a stab at Nankeen Kestrel. http://www.davidkphotography.com/index. ... image=1082

[Hallu]

Yeah definitely looks like it, thanks Neil. It's supposed to be common, but I've never seen one before.

[madmacca]

Right now it's 95 % =)

I just checked, and right now it is 99.7% full.

I remember driving past Eildon when it was less than 10%, and I practically had to stop and take my shoelaces and belt off it was so sad

The other one that's good to see finally full is Dartmouth. It is a big dam on a small river, so takes years to fill.