Bushwalk Australia

The Ollester and I went into Mt Mueller yesterday for a bit of walk.
Being a bit disorgansed and having being told by a few people that the gate had been open in recent times we set off down the Styx Valley and figured if we found it shut we'd go for a walk else where.
We found the gate open so we continued without hesitation and had a lovely walk up Mt Mueller.

On our return drive we're having the hypothetical what if discussion about 'do you reckon forestry just show up and lock the gates without warning?'

Well we found out the answer about 30 seconds later when we rounded the last corner and found the gate had been locked behind us.
Very lucky for us, there was a truck on the other side having just gone through the gate.
So I jumped out of the car and ran off down the road arms waving hoping he didn't drive off..
Fortunately he saw us and kindly unlocked the gate so we could escape.. 30 seconds later and we'd have been in a real spot of bother.

We did get the so what were you doing down there questions? followed by how did you get in? This gate is meant to be locked all the time..
Apparently it was already locked when he arrived.

Makes me wonder what the real story is.. was the gate meant to be shut and accidentally left open? or did someone just decide arbitrarily that it should be shut..

That'll teach us for being a bit slack and just turning up.

Reminds me of a time I drove past Leven Canyon and just kept going...
There was a gate, but it was not locked, so through I go.
Some time and distance later, I passed Mt Valentine (assuming) and ended up at a locked gate at a manned office near a woodchipping mill or some such, at Highclere or Hampshire or somewhere out there.
They let me through, but were curious as to where I'd come from and were surprised the mentioned gate was unlocked.
I had visions of not being able to find an exit to this forestry mess (and I do mean MESS) that I was driving through, and returning to where I'd come to find a locked gate.
The mobile phone was in range so it wouldn't have been a disaster.

aljscott wrote:The Ollester

Get it right!

I was told by Forestry a few weeks back that I would need a key to access Mt Mueller, and a different key to access Mt Styx, so I guess you just got lucky because they think the gates are locked.
BTW was the Mt Mueller walk easy to follow and how long was the return trip
cheers
BW

Always best to call forestry before heading into a gated area just to be sure!!
Ollester and altscott, you guys could have continued along Mueller road to where we did Bowes if the gate was locked. Still it's a long way to backtrack just to get out!

Bluewombat- It's a pretty good track up to Mueller, once on the ridge it is easy off track walking along the mountain to the true summit at the southern end.

ollster wrote:

aljscott wrote:The Ollester

Get it right!

Olle, Ollster, Ollo-rhinoceros.. ;-P
Didn't see you charging towards the gate to save us...

bluewombat wrote:I was told by Forestry a few weeks back that I would need a key to access Mt Mueller, and a different key to access Mt Styx, so I guess you just got lucky because they think the gates are locked.
BTW was the Mt Mueller walk easy to follow and how long was the return trip
cheers
BW

yea.. thats what we thought... but we'd gotten the impression from SWTas (I think) that the gate had been open for the last few weeks. So we gave it a try.

Mueller was straight forward and easy walking the whole way, you follow an old 4wd track up most of the way to the lake.
Then there is a tagged route around the lake and up to the first summit, then its pretty much straight across the top all the way to the summit at the far end.
There are few pads and the odd cairn but its pretty much find your own way from there.

I think return 4-5 hrs return is reasonable.
The hardest bit was finding the start because the roads do not match the tasmap.
I took a GPS coordinate off the 1:25000 series map which shows the track and it ended up being approximately 400m from the actual start.
So paying too much attention to the map might lead you astray.
When you get close its down a left hand fork in the road (its more straight ahead, the main road turns sharply to the right) it'll lead almost immediately to a dead end, where you'll see some tracker marker tapes disappearing off into the forest.

Cheers

Aaron

When we went down the Clear Hill Road on the 21st it was locked (but we had a key), when we came out on the 27th it was open. The other issue on Forestry roads is coming round a bend and meeting a dirty great log truck, which we did but fortunately it was empty and we both manoeuvred a bit and somehow managed to miss each other.

aljscott wrote:


yea.. thats what we thought... but we'd gotten the impression from SWTas (I think) that the gate had been open for the last few weeks.

Dont blame me AJ. I had no idea you were even going there. A simple phone call to FT is always recommended before going into their work areas.

ILUVSWTAS wrote:Dont blame me AJ. I had no idea you were even going there. A simple phone call to FT is always recommended before going into their work areas.

settle.. no one's blaming you..
It was a last minute decision we went down there with the well if its open we'll go in, if not we had alternative plans.
I didn't consider the option that they'd decide to lock during the day on a saturday (not until we're driving out at any rate, but you get that.)