The week before we headed off on this trip, we had storms and heavy rain and I thought the tracks would have had trees down and tracks washed out, but luckily the storms didn’t hit as hard up in this section of the High Country. Heading over on the Friday night we did see glimpses of disaster in different areas.
Friday saw Allan getting a camp at the bridge at the start of Snowy Creek Road and not long after Paul and Fiona arrived at camp as well. For the rest of us, we left Bendigo around 5.00pm, stopping at Violet Town Pub for a quick meal. We then fuelled up with Alpine diesel at Myrtleford and arrived at camp about 9.30pm with a nice fire to stand around straight away. That night it rained fairly heavy so we wondered what the next day would bring.
Saturday
In the morning it was wet and there was a bit of water lying around. We had breakfast and a coffee or two and then packed up camp. Dean and Kim turned up around 8.30am after opting for the motel luxury on Friday night. We had a briefing on the day’s events and how wet the tracks could be. We had 9 vehicles for this trip, and we all headed out of camp at 9.00am, over the bridge crossing the Ovens River, and then a right-hand turn onto Snowy Creek Road. It’s asphalt at the start and then quickly turns into a dirt road. We went on for a bit still in 2wd but as the road turned very slippery so we all went into High 4wd. Where the road changes to Dungey track the clouds were very low so the views out to Mt Bogong were non-existent. We got to the intersection to Pyramid Hill track and turned right and headed up to Pyramid Hill at 1350m hoping to get a bit of snow and as we reached the top there was just a little bit of snow. It made for some good photos but that’s about it. We headed back down the way we’d came as this track is a dead-end track. Back at the bottom we veered right onto Pyramid Track down to Simmonds Road and into Mt Beauty township. We stopped at the river for smoko and the rain was coming down. We then went into town to the supermarket to get a few more supplies and some grabbed coffees from the local coffee shop. We headed off after about an hour, driving through town and onto Mountain Creek Road. Karl had been saying he had a noise in the front end of his Toyota before we got into Mt Beauty and as we drove out of town he got on the radio and said the noise is getting worse. Then he said he had come to a complete halt and couldn’t go any further, so we all turned around and headed back to where he was and found his front left wheel had nearly fallen off. The nuts had all gone and the wheel was just sitting on the edge of his freewheeling hub. The rim and the studs were ok, so we put the wheel back on getting more nuts off his spare wheel carrier and we were back on the road again. We passed the Mountain Creek Reserve and over the bridge the road turned to dirt and we headed up for nearly 7 kilometres, reaching the intersection where I was planning to take Eskdale Spur Track. We found they had closed the track due to roadworks, so Plan B had to come into place. We aired down while I checked the maps to pick another way of getting around. We headed up Trappers Track (which is very easy) still in 2wd, and then we turned left down Shortcut Track and shifted into low range. It’s fairly steep and a little slippery. At the bottom we turned left up Snowy Creek Track hoping to get back to Eskdale Spur. We went along for about 6 kilometres and the track was getting steeper and steeper and very rocky and as I got 20m from the top we found they’d blocked access to Eskdale Spur Track from that point as well. Would have been handy if they’d put a sign at the start of the track rather than at the end! I got on the radio and asked everyone to turn around where they could and head back down. This meant we missed the views from Mt Emu. We got back to the bottom, and we had a lunch break around 2.00pm and worked out where to camp. On the map it had some camps marked so we headed towards a camp on Little Snowy Creek Track near the bridge. We pulled up in there and even though it wasn’t a very big area we all fitted in ok. We lit the fire and set up camp and had a nice night around the fire, with everyone getting to bed before midnight.
Sunday
We woke to a mild morning and got the fire going again and had breakfast and then packed up camp. We had a quick briefing and then we took off. I set up the camera and filmed us going through the river crossing. We then headed along Little Snowy Creek Track and turned right onto Elmo Track. The maps showed a township of Mt Elmo so we looked for the township but couldn’t find anything except for some mine shafts. The map also says the track is steep and narrow. It wasn’t very steep, but it is very narrow as you had to watch what you were doing with plenty of switch backs and steep drops off the side of the track. It was a great drive though. As we got higher the fog got really thick and you couldn’t see the vehicle behind you. It made the track look very eerie. At the end of Elmo Track we went down Dorchap Track a bit, and then turned left onto Scrubby Spur Track. With the fog still hanging around we still couldn’t see the views out to Scrubby Spur. This track takes you onto Trappers Track and we turned right down here and shifted back into 2wd for about 4 kilometres. We turned left onto Rodda Track and passed a very nice camp on the left-hand side. We kept going and shifted back into 4wd as the track was getting slippery again. We turned left onto Branch Track stopping at Toms Hut for a break and to have a look at the nice campsite. After a break we headed down Branch Track all the way around to Hollow Way Road where we turned right and went back to 2wd again for a bit. Then we headed down Rootsy Track (back into Low Range). This track is easy but has some steep sections down to Lighting Creek camping areas. The first campsite was busy with lots of caravans, and we stopped and had a lunch break. There’s an old Excavator still there from years ago which is worth having a look at. As we had lunch I went and checked out the other campsites and the next campsite was empty, so we headed there to grab that campsite right on the Snowy Creek. Andrew stayed at camp to save our spot and Dale left his car there as well. We decided to do a small drive to fill in the afternoon, so we headed up to Lightning Creek Track. It’s a great little track with 13 plus river crossings to go through, and then a climb out up to Razorback Spur Track. We traveled along here hoping to get some views of Lake Dartmouth but the fog was too thick again, so we went left down Holloways Log Road into Snowy Creek Camping area, back onto Omeo Hwy and back to camp. At camp some of the boys went and got firewood up Dunstones Track and we set up camp and lit the fire with the dry firewood we’d brought with us. When the boys got back, they split the wood up and we got the fire really going as the weather had got pretty cold. We cooked up dinner and had another good night around the fire.
Monday
We woke to a nice morning, and I had a quick swim and wash. It was very cold, but I felt great afterwards. Most of the group headed for home after they had packed up camp, but Andrew, Paul, Fiona and I headed off on another little trip. We left camp around 9.30am and headed up Rootsy Track to Hollow Way Road. Turning left here we headed along the road which changes to Camp Creek Road. We stopped at Camp Creek Gap and had smoko. After smoko we headed down Mountain Creek Track. This track is the most picturesque track out with all the tree ferns and tiny river crossings. It goes for about 4 kilometres of pure bliss. The track comes out at Mountain Creek Reserve where we turned left back towards Mount Beauty and then stopped at the lake in town for lunch. After lunch we got through town and headed back up Simmonds Road and then up Pyramid Track. We wound our way around to Stony Tops Track, and as we got higher the fog came in again. We started to get patches of snow and soon after we reached the top at 1560m. The views are supposed to be amazing but we couldn’t see a thing! We had planned to camp on top but it was to small and rocky, so we headed back down the mountain a bit to a track that headed off down a valley to the right. We went down there and found a great big campsite with plenty of firewood where we set up camp, lit a fire, and enjoyed a very peaceful night around the fire because this camp was so quiet and secluded.
Tuesday
After a really good night’s sleep we all woke up feeling great. We had breakfast and packed up camp and headed out of this amazing campsite, going back down Stony Tops Track to Snowy Road and back to the start of the trip. We parked in the day area and aired up. Then we drove into Bright where we said our goodbyes and everyone then made their own way home.
Participants
Russell 105 LandCruiser
Andrew. MQ Triton
Paul and Fiona. 80 LandCruiser
Dean and Kim. Ranger
Tim Mc. BT 50
Phil. BT 50
Dale H. 105 LandCruiser
Allan. MQ Triton
Karl. 105 LandCruiser
Tom’s Hut 
Tom’s Hut 
Tom’s Hut 
Tom’s Hut 
Stony tops track 
Mountain creek track 
Stony tops track 
Stony tops track 
Stony tops track 
Stony tops track 
Stony tops track 
Stony tops track 
Mt Beauty 
Mt Beauty 
Stony top track 
Mt Beauty 
Mountain creek track 
Elmo track 
Little snowy creek track 
