Trip report - Mt Useful 24/08/08

Nickj

5th Annual Victorian Gathering member
After a few great weekends driving in the snow, we had to get some more in. A good week preceding weather wise gave the promise of white stuff....
Some friends (GU Patrol) and us (Pathfinder) headed off for Walhalla area nice and early Sunday morning.
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We arrived at the Thompson Dam wall for a widdle and air down and the progress photo of the dam filling up, with the looks of a great sunny day ahead . We set off via Merringtons Tk, Junction Tk, Donnelleys Creek Tk and White Star Tk crossing a couple of rivers on the way. The ascent of some sections of White Star Tk were a bit slippery, but we got up with no problems, only to be greeted with a light dusting of snow not much further up on White Star Tk. We stopped at the White Star Mine and endured the easy 200m walk down the hill but the hard as 200m walk back up the steep hill. The map says "last 170m very steep. Best to walk". Take the advice unless you have a winch and a long cable!
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There are a few old relics down there.
We dug a small hole and lit a fire to put the bbq plate on, which helped take the chill out of the air too and sat around and had a bbq lunch. After finding our friends son who had wandered off, we headed off up the rest of the now covered White Star Tk, McEvoys Tk to the top of Mt Useful.
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There obviously hadn't been much traffic on this track today, apart from a few bikes.
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We also had to do a bit of track clearing on the way. "jump over this side Dave before you fall off the edge!" [Memo to Nick: Don't leave the snatch strap bag on the bonnet.]
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Donna took some interesting shots out of the sunroof
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Snow cover was marginal from what we have been in this year, but still fun!
There was a GU Patrol and a X-Trail at the top, the GU was having difficulty getting back on to the track, but finally did it. We parked the cars off the road and took the easy 300m walk up to the fire tower as the track has a locked gate across it. This seems strange as the little bit of vehiclular traffic would keep the track clear, the ruts were about 40cm deep.
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We walked around and took a few photos of the great scenery and could see across to Lake Glenmaggie and down to the power station. Could just make out Grumpy at work!
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The track is not quite steep enough to toboggan down but we did try very hard!

Back in the cars, we headed down McEvoys Tk, turning into Binns Tk, the snow had all but dissappeared. This took us down into the top of Walhalla where we pulled over in town for a widdle. The Patrol and X-Trail people were there and came over for a chat about Diesel Gas conversions (our friends in the GU owns Pakenham Exhaust and Brake where they do diesel gas conversions 03 5941 2344). Plug Plug Plug.

We left Walhalla for home stopping in Moe for some air and ice-creams from Aldi.

Nick and Donna
 

GippsSurfer

Member
That gate was OPEN last weekend.... I didnt venture up there as I didnt know where it went and didnt want to get stuck!
 

BEK

4x4 Earth Contributer
Good Report Nick

Looking forward to doing the track around Otooles in November
 

Nickj

5th Annual Victorian Gathering member
No probs, thanks all

GS. The track is about 300m, quite an easy walk, or drive if the gate was open and the ruts were not so deep (45cm). It's a dead end track and goes up to this flat area (motorbike ripped it up) and the firetower.
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Nice views across the valley and beyond.
It's still quite ok driving around Aberfeldy area, considering the amount of rain we have had, although we didn't do any of the steep tracks. The 2 river crossings we did were slightly deeper and wider than usual but no prob for std vehicle to cross.
Nick
 
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