Cairn Creek Hut, Mt Bogong

[Thewaz]

Has anyone walked south along Granny Spur, Horse Ridge to Cairn Creek Hut, or even along the Big River from AAWT to the hut. If so how was it?

[mitch]

Returned today from the ropers, bogong,quartz ridge, timms spur circuit. Regret not taking a look at Cairn Creek Hut, would love to see a photo of it and will pay a visit next time. As for walking along Big River from AAWT, that would be a challenge, good luck with it mate!

[Thewaz]

Returned today from the ropers, bogong,quartz ridge, timms spur circuit. Regret not taking a look at Cairn Creek Hut, would love to see a photo of it and will pay a visit next time. As for walking along Big River from AAWT, that would be a challenge, good luck with it mate!

Thanks Mitch. How was Quartz Ridge, is there decent camp sites along it?

[north-north-west]

There's good camping near the trig, but that's fairly low on the ridge. I don't recall anything else further up until you're on the Hooker. Quartz Ridge tends to be a bit steep, narrow and rocky for decent campsites.

[mitch]

Yes correct. Trig point would make a memorable camp but need to carry all water up of course. Some great colours with flowers on Quartz at present, cheers

[Moondog55]

Last time I walked to Cairn Creek hut was about 13 years ago, at that time the track was heavily overgrown but the hut was in good repair, i do remember that the heat shield behind the potbelly was ASBESTOS and it still may be, if you walk in it may be worth your while taking a small can of HR paint to make the board safer, very small hut.
I have never walked down to the hut from up top, but it looked very overgrown and dense from the bottom, maybe the fires have cleaned it up tho

[Hutchie]

Thewaz

This thread focuses on access to Cairn Creek from the AAWT Big River crossing. Id be tempted by the idea, but it seems like a pretty big effort.

http://forums.ski.com.au/forums/ubbthre ... 535&page=1

Hutchie

[Thewaz]

Just wanted to refresh this post to see if anyone has walked up or down Granny spur horse ridge recently or even into Cairn Creek hut from quartz ridge and would love to know the condition of both routes as we are wanting to walk this way in a few weeks.

[Thewaz]

The idea was to find and camp in Cairn Creek hut. Bad idea. It was a great day walking over Bogong and down Quartz ridge, amazing views all round so we took it in and didnt get to the bottom of Quartz until 4.30. Our map indicated that Cairn creek hut was 2km away an a track believed to be very over grown. We headed off and soon lost the orange arrows nailed 8ft high up the trees, these were the only indication we were still on track. The under growth was now 10ft high so visibility was down 2ft. Pushing through was really tough. At 6.30 (2hrs in) we had travelled 800mt and decided not to continue. Found a clearing that dropped about 100mt down to big river as our water was running low. Camped down on the river, dodging snakes on the way down. Rain all night made our decision easy the next day, turn back, up Quartz ridge and camp at Michell Hut. The walk from big river back to the base of Quarz again took 2 hour, this time the four of us were burning leaches of each others necks legs and arms.
If we had more time, wernt tired and had more water we may have found Cairn Creek hut, but not this time. I think if Parks Vic dont do some clearing of the so called track it should be removed from the new maps as it is very misleading.
For those who may be interested I will update my hiking blog site soon with more detail of our trip and pics, will keep informed.

[Moondog55]

Thanx for updating
i'll cross it off my list of quick walks

[wander]

Many years ago I dropped down Granny Spur and across Big River to find Cairn Hut (only known to me as Survey Hut then). The wander down Granny Spur was luverly. Big River was Tea Tree and a bit awkward to get to and over. I ended up crossing down stream of the Hut so i only had to walk upstream to find it. At river level it was scrub but 50M up the slope was clear going and it was easy to wander along and look down to find the hut. The hut was in very good condition with the original surveyors 1st aid box still with contents in place. From the hut there was a poor trail to the fork in the river at which there was a log crossing. Once across the river the trail was excellent. I was told later that this section had been traditionally kept clear by fly fisher folk. There was a bit of camping space at the fork so they did not need to keep the trail clear for any further. So if the trail from the Big river Fire Track is no longer extent then those fisher folk may have ceased to travel that way.

[Thewaz]

The idea was to find and camp in Cairn Creek hut. Bad idea. It was a great day walking over Bogong and down Quartz ridge, amazing views all round so we took it in and didnt get to the bottom of Quartz until 4.30. Our map indicated that Cairn creek hut was 2km away an a track believed to be very over grown. We headed off and soon lost the orange arrows nailed 8ft high up the trees, these were the only indication we were still on track. The under growth was now 10ft high so visibility was down 2ft. Pushing through was really tough. At 6.30 (2hrs in) we had travelled 800mt and decided not to continue. Found a clearing that dropped about 100mt down to big river as our water was running low. Camped down on the river, dodging snakes on the way down. Rain all night made our decision easy the next day, turn back, up Quartz ridge and camp at Michell Hut. The walk from big river back to the base of Quarz again took 2 hour, this time the four of us were burning leaches of each others necks legs and arms.
If we had more time, wernt tired and had more water we may have found Cairn Creek hut, but not this time. I think if Parks Vic dont do some clearing of the so called track it should be removed from the new maps as it is very misleading.
For those who may be interested I will update my hiking blog site soon with more detail of our trip and pics, will keep informed.

For those who may be interested in our failed attempt to find Cairn Creek Hut I have updated my hiking blog with a detailed description of our walk and heaps of pics.Visit "thewaz19.blogspot.com"

[noodle07]

just to bump this thread .. Now that the trout season is over i begin my yearly routine of pouring of maps and reports trying to find new stretches of water to fish ..
An the stretch of river from the base of Duane spur upstream to cairn creek hut has caught my eye..Walking the river itself isnt really an issue , im just more interested in any updates on the state of the track out from the hut..
Also has anyone ever heard of anyone following the river from cairn creek hut upstream to where it crosses the big river fire trail ??
Thanks in advance for any help
Aaron

[HitchHiking]

This time last year I dropped down Granny an Horse and made this video.
viewtopic.php?f=46&t=10405&hilit=bogong+video

Granny is great walking and Horse is good for a while. Both are very beautiful... Then scrub. Not the worst I've seen though but its tough around there.

Once you get into the valley its pretty grown over but not impossible. The snow made getting back tough as the track from the hut to the bottom of quartz is still marked but impossible to follow from the over growth. Its open in some places but totally grown over in other. The hut was nice as well but I could get the flume to work right no matter how much percussive mechanics I attempted. We had the layer of smoke hanging at the 5 foot level in the hut.

[noodle07]

nice video .. Looks like an enjoyable trip .. Just out of interest , how visible is the hut from the river ..if walking upstream would it be easy to walk straight past it ?

[HitchHiking]

nice video .. Looks like an enjoyable trip .. Just out of interest , how visible is the hut from the river ..if walking upstream would it be easy to walk straight past it ?

I spotted the roof (solid shape) through the trees as we descended Grandma Spur from memory. If you were wandering aimless there's a chance you could miss it. The junctions of the Cairn Creek and Big River is pretty noticeable and you would be pretty much on it if you past that.

[andrewp]

Vistited this hut over Easter. The route down via Horse Ridge and Granny Spur was quite straight forward. The last couple of hundred metres was a bit scrubby and quite steep, but the rest was quite OK. The hut is small. There is a bit of room for tents around the hut. We had 5 and you could squeeze in a few more. Surprisingly there was a brand new saw in the hut. The hut is easy to find. It's opposite the confluence of Big River and Cairn Creek i.e. on the true right of Big River. My map has the hut marked about 100m further upstream.

The next day the climb up to the ridge going towards Quartz Ridge was very scrubby. Once on the ridge we found the old track. Followed it for a few hundred metres and found the track has been tagged. Sections further on had been cleared with a brushcutter. Parks had been in clearing the track the week before. Was certainly a bonus and saved us a couple of hours of bushbashing.