By Andrew Mertens
Monday 29th January 2024
Those remaining for the extra day said goodbye to those heading for home, and most of the stayers walked into town to the bakery. A few stayed at the park and I had a look at the maps to sort out a plan for a drive that afternoon.
I decided to head to the Mountain Creek campground and start our trip from there. When we arrived, the carpark was fairly crowded as it’s close to town and is a popular walking area. We aired down and then headed west along Mountain Creek Road, which is a narrow twisty track that crosses the creek in several locations. We had to take our time as the first half of the track was being used by quite a few people hiking. It’s worth going slow in any case as the area is stunning with large tree ferns and picturesque creek crossings.
When we reached the end of Mountain Creek Road, I looked at a couple of options for the rest of the afternoon and then we headed off along Trappers Spur Track. It’s a nice drive with a few steep rocky sections, but the grip is good so we made good time and arrived at the next intersection. I decided to turn left into Trappers Creek Track, which would bring us back to Trappers Gap Road, where we could cross and head up Eskdale Spur Track to a bush camp near Mount Emu. I had considered camping at Mountain Creek but it was too crowded for our 8 vehicles to fit in.
Luke cut a tyre sidewall as he turned into Trappers Creek Track, so we all waited while he attempted to repair it, and ultimately had to change it for the spare. We then continued on and came across a couple of small bog-holes. I drove through the first bit easily and then into the main hole which was less than 10 metres long. The base was fairly soft and slippery and even with the rear diff lock in I couldn’t get enough traction to get over what felt like a log or tree root in the middle of the hole. I then couldn’t back out as there was a log in the edge of the hole and a near vertical bank. After several unsuccessful attempts to back out, Aleks hooked his winch to my rear recovery point and with some winch assistance we got the Triton unstuck. We then all used the tight chicken track to go around the main hole and continued along the track.
We came across a number of bog-holes, which we walked along and did some exploration with a stick to work out the best lines to take. Most people managed to get through them, with only a couple of recoveries required.
After about an hour of driving to cover only 3km or so, I came around a corner to see a massive tree fallen across the track. It was over 2 metres in diameter and had broken off a metre or two above the base. The area next to the track was relatively steep and was blocked by the base of the big tree and several smaller trees. We had no option but to turn around and head back through all the bog-holes we’d just negotiated.
Geoff finished up at the front of the group and with a bit of slipping and sliding managed to get through the harder section of the longest boggy section. Luke slipped sideways into the ruts and needed some assistance from Geoff to get out. Everyone else managed to get through and we eventually got back to the end of the creek track, well over 2 hours from when we started. The total distance (in and out) was about 6km.
We continued on Rodda Spur Track to get up onto Trappers Gap Road. It had some steep sections and was a fun drive. It obviously hadn’t been used for a while as I got plenty of exercise jumping out of the car to drag fallen trees and branches off the track.
When we got to the main road it was late afternoon, so we decided to go back to Mountain Creek campground to see if it had cleared out, rather than going up to Mount Emu which has no water or facilities. When we got to the campground there was plenty of room so we backed into the parking area and set our swags up in the adjacent grassed camping area. Ian cut some firewood on the way down to camp, and we got a fire going and enjoyed a nice evening around the fire.
In the morning everyone took their time packing up and we made our way home.
Andrew Mertens
Andrew – Triton
Luke – Hilux
Allan – Triton
Aleks and Rachel – Triton
John – Triton
Geoff – D-Max
Ian – Patrol
Robert (Dutchy) – Prado
