We left home and ducked into the Caltex servo on the outskirts of Wodonga to top up the LPG tank. Mmmmm nearly 80 cents a litre – that’s high! Anyway topped up we headed straight down the Kiewa Valley Hwy arriving at Mount after travelling for just over an hour. We grabbed a coffee and a hot chocolate for the road and then headed onto Mountain Creek Rd for a quick run to it’s name sake.
The second half of Mountain Creek road is closed over winter, so we continued on to Trappers Gap road before turning right down onto Eskdale Spur Track. This can also be known as Trappers Spur Track however different maps show different things. We worked our way the 8km’s up to the base of Mt Bogong, where the Eskdale Spur Track becomes a walking track up to the summit.
If you consider walking up to the summit, it isn’t a beginners trek so make sure you are prepared properly. There was a little bit of snow around as we turned off Eskdale Spur Track on to Trappers Spur Track before the descend down to Trappers Creek. We turned left onto Trappers Creek Track and had to wait for 15 minutes whilst a group of deer hunters finished their stalk. I could imagine someone from the city coming across 5 blokes armed with 12 dogs and absolutely crapping themselves hahahahaha
A grader had recently been through, so with the light rain/sleet that was falling it made for a very slippery track. I had earlier dropped tyre pressures down to 20psi, and I was glad I had done it now. Arriving back at the intersection with Trappers Gap Rd, we crossed and returned back onto Eskdale Spur Track.
From this intersection it is all uphill pass a transmission powerline trail up to an old disused hut in a poor state of repair. I had to clear a small tree that had fell across the track, before continuing up the hill to the summit of Mt Emu. With a little bit of snow sitting about in patches, Mt Emu sits 1361 metres above sea level.
Continuing on we followed the spur track past Bowman No.1; Bowman No.2; Redbank Track; Bohun Rd and the Dederang Track. About 7km’s past the Dederang turn-off we came across the show stopper – a bloody big tree that I couldn’t do anything about. So we reversed back up the track and turned down what we thought was the eastern side of Dederang Track.
Instead we ended up running north of Snowy Creek and popped out pretty much at Tallandoon. I wasn’t happy that we hadn’t completed the Eskdale Spur Track so we turned onto Steeles Track. I worked out after I got home that Steeles Track is just under 3km’s long and you end up climbing around 800 metres.
We had a bit of a moment whilst climbing the hill, where forward progress was halted and when I put my foot on the brake we started sliding backwards down the hill. I threw the auto transmission into reverse to try and arrest the slide, but it didn’t do anything. So the transmission was (literally by now) thrown back into 2nd, and I floored the accelerator. It spun a little but then it thankfully arrested the slide. I had to basically gently work the accelerator and brake whilst still in 2nd to let the vehicle slide back to a safe place. Talk about getting the old heart racing!
Going back down wasn’t really an option so I lowered all of the tyre pressures to just under 15psi. I then flicked the fuel to petrol for a bit more oomph and gave it another go whilst basically modulating the accelerator. With a little slipping and sliding the Prado made its way up to the top – and yes I was very relieved. It’s been a while since I found myself in a sticky situation, and I don’t like things happening like that when I’ve got the kids in the vehicle. Hindsight is a wonderful thing isn’t it.
BTW – the track starts off steeply but it’s a rock base. However half way up it turns to a clay base and by the time you hit it, well it’s too late to turn around. Lesson learnt about not walking stuff first – never forget the basics…..
Arriving back onto Eskdale Spur Track on just the other side of where we’d initially been stopped, we continued on towards Lockarts Gap. The run across was quite easy and we found a nice powerline trail as well as a great camping area just big enough for the trailer I reckon. The powerline trails look very interesting for a play in the Landy so I’ll be keeping them in mind.
Arriving at Lockharts Gap we stopped and let the kids have a play whilst I pumped up the tyres. Being that it was well after 6pm and it had gone dark quite a while ago, I decided not to continue off-road down to Tallangatta this trip. I’ve been lucky enough to have done that run before, and I can thoroughly recommend it to anyone interested. Some great views on a clear day.
With tyres pumped back up, it was a quick run down Lockharts Gap and into Wodonga for a lazy dinner of fish and chips. Overall it was a great day run and doing it through winter makes it a whole different experience to summer – and in a lot of ways better. The best trip in my opinion would be a nice clear day in the middle of winter with snow down to around 1100metres. And I’m still waiting for that day to get out there and do it all again!!!
Cheers
Chris