Staircase, Cairn Creek, Granny Spur, Cleve Cole, Eskdale

[bigkev]

Cairn Creek Hut

On the Thursday before Easter I headed up to Mt Bogong to check out a walk that I haven't done for around 25 years, the figure 8 loop over the mountain and down to Cairn Creek Hut. I haven't walked up here since the bushfires that went through 10 years or so ago and I was interested to see how bad it was pushing through the fire regrowth. The answer was it was fairly tough, but as I've made it back then it's obviously doable. The track down from Quartz Ridge to Cairn Creek Hut is for the most part OK, although you will still be pushing through some regrowth, particularly when the pad leaves the spur crest and plunges down the side of the spur towards Cairn Creek Hut. The Granny Spur/Horse Ridge climb was hard walking, the scrub was a lot more sustained than from what I remember 25 years ago - although that may be because I'm 25 years older! Including stops it took me almost 6 hours to climb out of the valley and meet the pole line near Tadgell Point.

Heading down Quartz Ridge on day 1.

Pushing up through the scrub on Granny Spur, day 2.

The rest of the walk was pretty much as I remember it, Staircase is unrelentingly steep but generally a good clear track, Quartz Ridge is stunning walking in spots on a clear pad and Eskdale was a better way for me to descend although the track is more eroded and gravely than I remember from years ago.

High up on Horse Ridge, that's Tadgell Point infront of me.

This was a walk of two parts really, on my climb up Staircase and then down Quartz Ridge and finally to Cairn Creek on day 1 I only saw one day walker. Surprise, surprise on the climb up Granny Spur and Horse Ridge on day 2 I didn't come across anyone, but once on the pole line near Cleve Cole I had no shortage of company for the remaining day and a half of my walk, in fact on the Easter Saturday I've never seen so many people on the mountain, just as well that the conditions were as benign as I've ever experienced up there as it appeared that a lot of the day walker's kit consisted of a plastic water bottle and nothing else.

Climbing out of the Snow Gums near Cleve Cole, day 3 was a cracker of a day.

I've written up a blog post about my walk here http://goinferalonedayatatime.blogspot. ... -park.html if you want to check out a few more pictures.

If your really interested then my journal http://hiking.topicwise.com/doc/goinferalonmtbogong has a lot more info and photos on it.

I'm on my way down Eskdale Spur now, heading home for a hot shower.

[neilmny]

Nice work Kev, I'll check out your blogs a bit later on.

[andrewp]

Hi Kev,

That's strange. I did Cairn Creek hut 2 years ago but in the opposite direction. I found conditions quite different from you.

The last 1/4 of Granny Spur was quite scrubby, but the rest was pretty open as far as I remember.

Going up from the hut to reach the ridge of the spur was very thick and a bit of a struggle, but we found some recently cut branches in a couple of places. There was also a brand new saw in the hut. Once we reached the ridge not far along we found a very recently cut track that took us all the way out to Quartz Ridge. Later I confirmed that Parks had done track maintenance. I would have assumed that they would have completed the work by now.

[bigkev]

Hi Andrew,

Yeah, I could see the section from the turn off on Quartz Ridge along the spur that had been cleared, but once off the crest it hasn't been cleared yet, I managed to follow a rough pad until I could see Cairn Creek Hut maybe 100 metres away below me...and then lost the vague pad.

From what I could work out from the log boot at Cairn Creek the conditions on Granny Spur are changing as the regrowth gets more mature, parties that visited in the years after the fire had a pretty good run but as the re growth is getting more mature and thicker over the years it appears that its getting a bit harder, having said that maybe I'm just getting old and soft:) I think if I do it again in ten years or so I'll probably head down Horse Ridge/Granny Spur as well rather than push up into the scrub. There was 100's of dead trees down on the upper parts of Granny Spur, were they down when you went through?

I still think its a good adventurous walk though and even on a busy weekend you would normally get the place to yourself.

Cheers Kevin

[Xplora]

This is good info Kev. Thanks very much. A friend of mine had planned a walk up Big river from T spur then up Granny spur to Cleve Cole. It was going to be a summer walk but things did not work out this year. He did a section of Big River to T spur and then up to Cleve Cole. Granny spur was a popular track once and if clear it would be much quicker to Cleve Cole than Quartz. I will let him know of your observations. Fortunately I am now in a position where I can walk the mountains outside long weekends and public holidays for the most part, unless of course if we have others with us who are tied to some sort of Mon-Fri work but picking a walk such as this would ensure some peace and quiet for a while at least. That is getting harder to do. Well done.

[neilmny]

Read all your blogs Kev, a lot of good work there and great pictures. thanks for your effort. Neil.

[bigkev]

Hi Xplora, I suppose if you did that walk from T Spur to Granny Spur in late summer you could rock hop/wade your way up the river bed. It would certainly be an adventurous trip. For the most part I think the river would provide the easiest route, if there are any river flats then the ground is normally full of wombat holes which makes walking awkward, it would be good fun though.... I did Granny Spur /Horse Ridge around 25 years ago and don't remember there being such thick scrub, to be honest for an old unfit bloke like myself the climbing over and under the huge amount of fallen trees was harder than the scrub. It's a good walk though, the struggle only seems to make it all the sweeter in the end.
Cheers Kevin

[bigkev]

Hi Neil,
Thanks for taking the time to check out my blog, the reason I do all this online stuff is I like to share some of the great places that we have in Australia, its a labour of love really, so its always great to get some feedback from experienced walkers like yourself.
Cheers Kevin