Journal: |
I got going about 8:45am. It had rained overnight and all my
stuff out "drying" was saturated. It continued drizzling through
breakfast and almost everything was either wet or damp, including my
sleeping bag. I rugged up in all my wet and cold weather gear and
started hiking for what should have been an easier day than
yesterday. The old firetrail was overgrown and I quickly got
saturated again, though it was still easier walking than yesterday.
However, sadly, in mid-morning on one of the more overgrown parts of
the firetrail, I missed a sharp left turn onto another overgrown old
firetrail and continued straight ahead down a very difficult and
dense wet scrubby descent. I reached a saddle and worked out I had
gone off course. After crashing around for probably two wasted
hours, I eventually made it back to the missed junction. I suspect
I'm not the first to miss this turn. There were signs of others
having crashed around in the same scrub - broken branches, scuffed
logs, etc.
It was extremely disheartening and tiring and I didn't reach the
Barry water tank (put out for hikers on this remote and usually dry
section of the AAWT) until 1pm when I should have been there by
11am. I was VERY unhappy, not to mention cold and wet. While having
a 15 minute break, I realized I could hear a chainsaw going in the
distance. Not long after, I was surprised by a worker who was the
lead man of a trail clearing crew from Mt Beauty Fire Station. He
was a very nice and knowledgeable young guy and we chatted for about
15 minutes during which time we were joined by a second chainsaw
guy. I had seen a chainsaw blade stuck in a partially-cut log a
kilometer back and they said they had to leave it there a week ago.
I continued on down the still very overgrown firetrail, though
with fallen trees now cut and making life a bit easier when,
about 15 minutes later, I could hear a loud brush-cutter getting
closer and closer from the other direction through the very dense
scrub as I muscled through. In the end, there was a brief pause in
the noise and I shouted I was coming through, much to the surprise
of the guy wielding the brushcutter. More chatting, and I thanked
them all for their work. A little later, I met a group of Australian
Conservation Volunteers - four backpackers, three girls and a guy,
three of them foreign, and a supervisor - clearing the cut brush off
the trail. They were very pleased to meet someone actually using
their cleared trail. I enjoyed their cleared trail for the next
kilometer or two until I joined the Selwyn Track which was much
easier walking.
Along here I encountered a guy driving a new-looking 4WD with a
baby strapped into a child seat in the front passenger seat looking
bemused by the whole thing. The weather began clearing a little and
I hung some things on the outside of my pack to dry, but it was soon
raining again. I left the nice, though hilly, firetrail to climb
Selwyn Mt South (1398m) which was a wet steep ascent into the
clouds. Pretty country, though, with long grass, open snow gum
woodlands and ghostly big boulders in the mist. After a short
descent, I made the (poor) decision to follow the official AAWT
route over Mt Selwyn (1424m) rather than taking a slightly longer
firetrail alternative I could see on the map. It was getting late
and I should have dodged the "faint trail" descent that followed Mt
Selwyn, especially since it was in cloud and not much higher than
Selwyn South.
Predictably, I lost the faint trail and had trouble orienting
myself because of the fog. I ended up crashing around on the steep
and difficult wet scrubby slope for 45-60 minutes. Eventually, I
climbed back to where I should have been and carefully made the
descent to a road. It was already 6:30pm and I covered the remaining
distance along a firetrail to Selwyn Creek Road, where my next food
dump was, by 8pm, just on dark. I found the drum easily and repacked
food and then ate dinner (and food dump treats) by headlamp. I
didn't wash for the second night in a row and wore damp clothes to
bed in the hope they would dry a little. I'm hoping to cover the
30km to Mt Hotham/Davenport Village without problems tomorrow and
then get a room for two nights and dry everything out. Everything is
damp and it's still drizzling a little outside.
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