We walked the Viking Circuit over Cup Weekend 2021. Some notes ands pics below
Pics
https://www.flickr.com/gp/62993514@N06/F85018 Notes:
1. Trail Head to Mt Speculation
We arrived Friday night. Howitt Rd was already cut up by 4WDs. A bit of snow. Only a couple of cars at the trailhead. Set off around 8:30 am Saturday, more snow, but the breeze had died down. Track out along The Crosscut was in good condition. We made the side trip to Howitt. Arrived around 4:30 pm at Mt Spec
2. Mt Spec to Viking Saddle
Departed around 8:30 am. Track down from Spec to Catherine Saddle was a lot less trafficked. A few trees down, which meant a departure from the “track”. A few trail markers visible on trees helped. Track is well formed up to Mt Despair and through to The Razor. We made the side trip out to the Razor. No distinguishable track and bit of bush bashing was required. On the way back, we kept higher, which made the return a little faster.
The track immediately after the Razor turn-off caught us out. The track hooks off the left but there is a well-worn path straight down that looks like it has caught many a hiker out. We left a couple of extra cairns to make it a bit more obvious. The final section into Viking Saddle was like a commando course with many trees across the track. We got in around 6:30 pm. There was plenty of water at Viking Saddle due to the rain. To get to the water, a faint track descends through the open area to the SE (to the right-descent) of the gully. The water was most easily attainable above the waterfall about 500m from the saddle campsite. We used a piece of bark, as a tube, to aid in filling the water filter bags.
3. Viking Saddle to Wonnnangatta River
Departed at 8:00 am. An excellent track up to the Viking. Good ropes at the “Hole in the Rock”. As there was another party using them, we also pack hauled up the chute to the left. The chute is a squeeze but is the preferred route when travelling down from the Viking and has an AAWT marker showing the way. We dropped our packs at the cairn at the turn off to South Viking, then climbed up the rocks up to The Viking. Great views as it was a bluebird day. Not much of a track to South Viking, but a few cairns guided us along with the GPS. We had lunch on South Viking, then followed the cairns along the ridge to start the descent down the spur. There was no real track for the first 1 km or so that we could see, so we bush bashed a little. The trail then became more evident as the ridge narrowed. It was a lot faster than we expected and nothing like the horror stories that we had read. We arrived at the Wonnangatta campsite around 4:00 pm.
4. Wonnangatta to Howitt Trailhead
We were on our way at 8:00 am. We used a couple of handy gum trees to cross the river 200m downstream of the campsite. We followed the GPX track but missed the turnoff to cross the minor tributary. The trail runs alongside a log and is well-formed, which again means it has caught a few hikers out. We backtracked to the log and headed down towards the tributary following the GPX track, crossed the small creek and the trail up the other side was very obvious. From there, it was a well-formed track up to the Zeka Spur 4WD track. We choked on dust for the next few hours until the turn off back into the bush after the switchbacks. What followed was probably the most challenging part of the walk. Lots of bush bashing and tracks that just petered out due to a lot of fallen trees. There are faint remnants of a vehicle track at times, but it is tough to follow. We were pretty delighted to reach the main track back to the carpark. We finished the hike at 4:00pm. Take plenty of water for the climb up Zeka it is thirsty work.
Stats
Distance: 40 km
Elevation +/- 3200m
Link to the GPX and topos. The GPX is modified from Trailhiking so that it starts and stops at the car park. Was roughly right, the actual track tends to favour the ridge of South Viking a bit more and there are a few cairns to this effect.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/cfvcpu9t3d3hzc4/Viking%20Circuit.rar?dl=0