After completing this loop years and years ago with a good mate, we thought it was time to revisit as it’s a great route and our favourite in the Bogongs – challenging and spectacular.
Day 1- Mountain Creek to Bogong Creek saddle. 15 kms
We headed off from the inner north of Melbourne around 10am, a later start than usual, with a buzz of excitement in the air as we hadn’t hiked together for a good years. Each time we go away seems to always turn into an epic.
After a tasty preparatory lunch in Myrtleford we drove the last one and a half hours to the Mountain Creek carpark arriving a bit after 2 pm, only one other car was there so we knew we had the mountains to ourselves – a bonus of going midweek and post long weekend.
We headed up the fire trail to the Staircase Spur trailhead, after signing the intentions log book we started the steep walk up at approximately 3pm.
Now one thing to note here is my hike companion Spira is a masterchef in the wilderness and for this trip we decided to share our dinners, I determined that making my backpack weight a lot heavier than normal would be worth it to experience Spira’s culinary creations but more on this later!
We dropped packs and refuelled our water at the Bivouc Hut which sits at 1450 metres ASL. Warm and sweaty but we were making good progress, just the final stretch now lay ahead to the summit. After four and a half hours we hit Summit Cairn at sundown, the temperature had dropped a lot so was time to layer up and head to our intended camp spot at Bogong Creek saddle. As night fell we navigated down Quartz Ridge by headlamp, to the west we were treated to an amazing lightning storm in the distance, every few seconds the sky would light up completely, illuminating the mountaintops, we stopped for a few minutes to take it all in.
As it was getting on 9:30pm we decided to stop at the next flat open area to camp, as we were still an hour off making it to Bogong Creek Saddle. After pitching our tents we started dinner, on the menu was rice with broccolini, tuna, anchovies and snake beans - fantastic as we were hungry!
After dinner we retreated to our tents. I tried to settle in but bug light insects had invaded and were buzzing in my face driving me crazy I was waving my arms around like a conductor and one actually flew deep into my ear driving me further insane for a good ten minutes. I was panicked and feeling like a little toddler I whined out to Spira for help, he shouted out a few suggestions with the help of Google. Luckily it flew out shortly after because I wasn’t keen on the idea of pouring olive oil down my ear! I was looking forward to a good night’s sleep…the weather gods had other ideas!
We had checked the forecast and radar images prior and knew there were storms to the west and northeast of us but they appeared as though they would miss us. At approximately 11.30 pm it started to rain heavily then a stellar storm hit us with hail, thunder and lightning. Every crack of thunder would shake my body from the inside out, it was terrifying! With every lit sky I would brace myself waiting for the thunder, to add to the drama the the seam tape on the fly was leaking water into my tent directly on my head causing anxiety for most the night. I lay there thinking of ideas to fix this problem and constantly checking the BOM radar for when the storm would pass. I ended up using my rain jacket on top of my pillow and slipping my head under the jacket to stop the drip on my head and avoid the “Chinese water torture method”! My sleep bag was also getting wet at the foot end because I was pressed against the inner tent to the fly sheet trying to avoid the drip on my head. It was a frustrating experience and knew if my sleep bag was too wet by morning the trip couldn’t go on. It was a sleepless night the rain finally subsided after 4am.
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| Post storm Quartz Ridge |
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| On Bogong Summit |
Day 2: Ropers Hut via The Grey Hills - 16kms
After both having a rough night with little to no sleep the mood was sour and morale was low. Spira’s tent had also had a leak he too was up all night. I had thought it was just me having a bad night, but after exchanging stories of the night’s challenges, we walked an hour down to the Saddle stocking up on water before started the ascent on the Grey Hills to Mt Arthur. It was 11:30am by this stage and our moods had lifted and smiles returned following the previous night’s excitement.
Terrain on this part of the route is very rough under foot, the first 3km up to Mt Arthur 5 years ago we lost the trail and had to bash our way through thick scrub, luckily this time it was clear! This stretch is also riddled with angry ants which like to bite if they have a chance and bite they did!
Once you pass Mt Arthur it’s all undulating with the odd steep pinch along the way. Spira was match fit having just walked the Larapinta trail, he stormed ahead like a Nepalese porter, I was certainly feeling it as am not used to carrying 19kg of gourmet food including cans of coconut cream, tuna, sweet potatoes.etc….LOL. My left shoulder had a sharp needle pain and my lower back was suffering…slowing me right down. The last push off the Grey Hills involves climbing up Crows Nest - a proper lung buster! Then onto the fire trail Spion Kopje.
My energy reserves were zapped as we hit the fire trail around 5:30pm. We headed for Ropers Hut, my slow pace had Spira offering to take a couple of kilos off me hopefully relieving the weight and pain on my shoulders which felt I was carrying a bus, I had a headache also and I dragged my feet at snail pace the 5 kms on Spion Kopje to the junction. My mind wanted to walk but my legs didn’t want to cooperate so it was mentally grinding.
Spira was well ahead out of sight and with fading light and temperature dropping I had a vision that he was already at the Hut and when I arrive the fire would be lit and a green curry ready for when I limped through the door. It was just a pipedream, Spira was feeling it too after 11 hours on our feet.
Finally making it to the junction we walked the final 3 km into camp by headlamp arriving around 8:30 pm, and by this stage I gave myself a 10% chance of continuing on tomorrow and started to think of escape plan to abort the hike. I was toasted and was also feeling unusually cold and shivering. We collapsed and after another yummy dinner of vegetable green curry we retreated to bed, I was too lazy to setup a tent and having the place to ourselves I decide to sleep in the hut, had a good night’s sleep apart from the mice making a racket but they soon too went to sleep.
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| Stiff climb up Staircase Spur |
Day 3- Ropers Hut to Michell Hut 14 kms
Surprisingly waking up refreshed and free of painful shoulders and lower back I was good to push on!
We headed down Duane Spur to Big River, the sun was out, the sky was blue and it was warming up. We spent an hour down at the river having a refreshing dip and snacks with coffee. We made the stiff climb up the T Spur, our aim for today was to reach Michell Hut on Eskdale Spur giving us a shorter walk back to the car the next day.
The last time we attempted this, we bailed somewhere near the Rock Saddle on the exposed plains towards Bogong summit. That time, we got caught out in a storm and drenched with cold wind and rain, we huddled behind the rocks yelling at each other as it was so loud. Scary thoughts of 3 walkers who perished in a blizzard in 1943 in the area come to mind, there is a memorial plaque high up on Staircase Spur, so we retreated back to Cleve Cole Hut, we certainly felt alive in those moments (it was early March 2019)
This time with clear blues skies and a gentle breeze we stopped at the Rock Saddle for tea and a snack, today’s walking was relaxed and having no rush we were excited to be arriving to camp well before sundown and plenty of time to relax, arriving at the hut around 6pm arriving at the hut.
Dinner was spaghetti al la puttanesca, all meals cooked from scratch – cheers ‘Masterchef Spira!’! It was a nice evening with a nice sunset, was in bed by sundown and drifted off by 9:30pm.
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| Spira admiring the views |
Day 4- Michell Hut to Mountain Creek 12 kms
Having slept a good and needed 9 hours we had a lazy morning over breakfast and Macedonian style coffee and headed down Eskdale Spur in another stunning day of sunshine and blue skies. The walk back to the car involved 7 km of road bash from the bottom of Eskdale Spur. Not much to report really as it’s a rather tedious boring walk compared to the stunning scenery on other parts of the trail. Last time we managed to hitch a ride back to the car, but having the whole mountain range to ourselves there was not a soul in sight – which I suppose made having to endure this last part worth it.
A dip in the river was amazing and refreshing, our 4 days of adventure (and sometimes torture!) were finished. and lunch was enjoyed before heading back to Melbourne. We decided it was a better ending than our previous time walking this loop and the trip far more of an epic. Next time we will attempt it reverse - in another 4 to 5 years I’d say!
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| Cheers mate |
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