Mt Disappointment Trip Report

One of our Winter Trips took us down closer to Melbourne to Mt Disappointment State Forest. Only being an hours drive from Melbourne and 2 hours from Bendigo, Mt Disappointment is a great spot for 4wding, and despite Seasonal Track Closures we still found lots of interesting tracks to explore.

On the Thursday one of our temporary members Glen got a camp spot at the No 1 campground in the Mt Disappointment State Park. On the Friday Andrew, Jason and his family headed there as well and found a spot, the other five vehicles headed up on Saturday morning, meeting at Heathcote Bakery.

Day 1 – Heathcote to No 1 Campground

Saturday 30th June 2018

From Heathcote, we headed off at 9am, heading towards Melbourne passing through Pyalong and turning onto Pyalong-Glenaroua Rd to Broadford, then Strath Creek Road up to the Murchison Gap. At the top, we turned right onto the Murchison Spur Rd, which is the start of the dirt road, and this takes you straight into No 1 Campsite. We got into camp about 10.00am, set up camp and started talking about hitting those tracks.

We aired down to about 20psi, since it had been raining for the last few days and the tracks were going to be wet and we had 8 vehicles ready for a Saturday afternoon Drive.

Taking off down Main Mountain Rd for about 5km we got to Stoney Creek Rd and turning left we headed down and got our vehicles into Low Range. The track was rocky with plenty of traction, we headed straight down to a tricky creek crossing that winded its way around a rock step. The track kept going until its gets to another creek crossing, and we then came across a small hill that puts your vehicle on a 45 degree angle and you can’t see over the other side. We got over that hill and were faced with a hill straight up and with the rain we just had, there was no hope of climbing this one, not today anyway. We also saw a car down the bottom already that had rolled over – definitely not a hill we wanted to tackle today.

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So we turned around and headed back up Stoney Creek and had lunch at a picnic area on Main Mountain Rd. Heading of again South along Main Mountain Rd we turned right down Boundry Rd which was a fairly easy track, getting us to Anderson Garden Camping Area, we then got onto Raynors Rd which had a steep section but was very easy and then gets back onto Main Mountain Rd again, turning right and going for about 2km we turned left down Clarkes Rd.

Now I’ve travelled this track for years and I knew of the steep hill and the creek crossing coming up. The track turned very slippery, I started to head down and slid about 20m with no traction at all so I radioed back to tell them to stop and don’t come any further. Seeing that there was no return for me I had to keep going and pretty much slid the whole way to the bottom, just glad I had good mud tyres and the rear diff lock in to keep me straight and not slide sideways.

Alan had come a little of the way down and he had to be winched backwards by Glen in his 200 series, it took about an hour to get him back up the hill until he finally got enough traction to reverse up himself. Great Recovery. I had to keep going following Clarkes rd until it gets to Mill Range rd, keeping in radio contact from one ridgeline to the other; I drove along Mill Range Rd and back to Main Mountain Rd and the others went back along Clarkes Rd and we met at Main Mountain Rd and Mill Range Rd.

[youtube https://youtu.be/ldTugtRreCY]

After we had a laugh and a talk about the experience and what had just happened, it was certainly time for a beer, so back to camp it was, having a look up at Blairs Hut Campground we turned right down Main Mountain Rd and back to camp.

Back at camp the chainsaws and the wood splitter came out and we cut up a heap of wood for the fire, Glen got his blower out and got the fire roaring and we had a great night around the fire, getting to know the new members of the club. Thanks Jenny for the plates of cheese platters and Glen for the garlic bread before dinner.

Day 2 – No 1 Campground to Bendigo

Sunday 1st July 2018

Sunday morning we woke up to about -2 degrees, very cold but a nice warm fire didn’t take too long to warm us up. We decided on a small Sunday drive until about lunchtime, so we headed off at around 9am going along Murchinson Spur Rd, left onto Tonsil Spur Rd which was very easy, then right down Film Track (very easy as well). We then headed for Strath Creek Falls, at the falls there’s a short walk to the lookout for photos, then another walk down to the bottom with views through the valley, then we had the 157 steps back to the top.

On the map I noticed tracks heading around the back of the falls, so we went back out Falls Rd onto Murchison Spur Rd and left down Strath Crossing Rd. At the start it was easy and we veered left heading towards the creek, we were faced with a Bridge closed sign, but there was a track going down to the right under and around the bridge, which had a bank that put your vehicle on a very bad angle or over some very large rocks and a climb out the other side to a hill climb. Everyone picked a different line to suit there vehicle and we all made it easy.

The track we were on brought us out onto McMahones Rd, taking us on the other side of the falls, howevew we couldn’t see anything though. We then took a right down Diggers Gully Rd, right along Link 1 Track then left down Link 2 track, back along Diggers Gully Rd to Flowerdale Rd until we got to Mullers Creek Rd and turned right here. It was a very easy track and then we turned left along Neils Rd bringing us up to Alison rd, right here then right again down a U shaped track, which would of been a lot of fun if we had gone in the opposite direction.

Back onto Alison Rd we were nearly back to camp and I saw another track on the left called Burnt Track, this track had bog hole after bog hole, but we were able to take all the chicken tracks around the insanely deep bog holes, until Greg took one wrong move and managed to drown his Nissan Patrol and filled the inside of the vehicle up with water. Paul got his winch out real quick and winched him out. When Greg opened his doors the water just poured out (poor bugger). We kept going through a few more bog holes back onto the Main Mountain Rd and back to camp, where we had lunch, packed up camp and headed for home, stopping at Murchison Gap for some photos of the view over Strath Creek area, we then took the Strath Creek Rd to Broadford and back to Bendigo.