Millers Bluff
Posted: Thu 07 Oct, 2010 4:00 pm
So I had a trip up to Millers Bluff on Tuesday. The plan was to go with a buddy, but at 630pm I got a msg saying he had to pull out due to work commitments. Seeing as how I had permission from the landowner, I figured I’d make the most of the access across private property and go ahead and do it solo.
Leaving home at 430am, I did the 2.5 hr drive into THE DEN. I decided while in the area, to bag my last (providing Millers was a success) peak in the area, Stevenson’s LO. This was relatively straight forward, with the help of my Mountain Bike I made short work of the forestry roads until I was 950m underneath the peak. It was pretty straight forward up and back, a nice little warm up of a 500m elevation climb........
Back at the car by 10, I set off to park at the landowner’s gate, which provides access to Millers Peak. The key CAN be obtained, but I was in the mood for a challenge and as a road went fairly close, thought an 8k ride might be a bit of fun....... Miller’s peak ended up measuring 1220m according to my GPS, and at one point the road dropped to 200m so it was a further 1000m to climb. After my previous walk of 500m, it was proving to be a very exhausting day, especially as temperatures were in the mid 20’s with no breeze.
Riding the road was good fun, with lots of deer and a couple of wombats spotted. Soon enough though, the road started to go up.. and up, and up. I ended up pushing my bike most of the way up.
At this stage I had come 4k’s from the car, so I was starting to feel pretty confident of bagging this huge mountain. A very long and tiring walk pushing my bike, soon had me passing several road junctions, a quick check of the map and GPS at everyone saw me on the right roads, and soon I came to a small overgrowing sidetrack which seemed to be the one I was looking for. I decided this road was a bit rough, so I left my bike leaning against a tree and continued the rest of the way on foot. I had been 2 hrs to this point.
30 minutes later, the road stopped at a small hut. I had a quick browse, and missed the blaze in the tree off to the left. Not seeing anything obvious, and knowing the summit was only around 800m away, I just went up off track. BAD MOVE. Another 30minutes later had seen me travel around 200m through some of the worst terrain I had ever encountered. VERY scrubby Hakea, Scorparia, Dwarf Myrtle, and Tea tree was thickly growing in amongst some HUGE boulders and awkward cliffs. Progress was as slow as I had ever encountered.
I had actually stopped to contemplate my situation, and had decided that the going was too slow and difficult to go any further, at this point I was REALLY missing my walking companions, as we usually spur each other on in such situations. But I was really worried I wasn’t going to make it back by dark. So I sat down to study the maps taking in the AMAZING view of Ben Lomond.
After deciding I was in fact defeated, I started to head back, but thought I’d swing more to the East to see if progress was any easier. Once back in view of the hut, I spied a cairn.... Sure enough there was a rough track zigzagging through the maze of rock and scrub. Absolutely exhausted and overheating, I now decided I HAD to go for the summit. 30 minutes later, I started to see the towers and solar panels that littered the summit.
Stopping on top for only 10minutes, I took a few photos, and then headed back. 30 minutes later I was passing the hut and on my way back to the bike. It was now 3pm. After taking nearly 5 hrs to get to the top and back to my bike, I was back at the car at 330. The ride down was AMAZING fun. Going so fast at some points a fall would have been very very nasty.
A few more deer were spotted on the way back along with some surprised forestry workers, who all in all were quite friendly, especially when they realised I had the landowner’s very kind permission to be on his land.
All in all it was a fantastic day in very warm, but clear conditions. A great peak, but would be MUCH easier if the key to the gate was obtained, but would still be a worthy 2 point peak on the peakbagging list.
Still I am very proud of the way I did it. and surprisingly didnt feel too sore the next day.
Leaving home at 430am, I did the 2.5 hr drive into THE DEN. I decided while in the area, to bag my last (providing Millers was a success) peak in the area, Stevenson’s LO. This was relatively straight forward, with the help of my Mountain Bike I made short work of the forestry roads until I was 950m underneath the peak. It was pretty straight forward up and back, a nice little warm up of a 500m elevation climb........
Back at the car by 10, I set off to park at the landowner’s gate, which provides access to Millers Peak. The key CAN be obtained, but I was in the mood for a challenge and as a road went fairly close, thought an 8k ride might be a bit of fun....... Miller’s peak ended up measuring 1220m according to my GPS, and at one point the road dropped to 200m so it was a further 1000m to climb. After my previous walk of 500m, it was proving to be a very exhausting day, especially as temperatures were in the mid 20’s with no breeze.
Riding the road was good fun, with lots of deer and a couple of wombats spotted. Soon enough though, the road started to go up.. and up, and up. I ended up pushing my bike most of the way up.
At this stage I had come 4k’s from the car, so I was starting to feel pretty confident of bagging this huge mountain. A very long and tiring walk pushing my bike, soon had me passing several road junctions, a quick check of the map and GPS at everyone saw me on the right roads, and soon I came to a small overgrowing sidetrack which seemed to be the one I was looking for. I decided this road was a bit rough, so I left my bike leaning against a tree and continued the rest of the way on foot. I had been 2 hrs to this point.
30 minutes later, the road stopped at a small hut. I had a quick browse, and missed the blaze in the tree off to the left. Not seeing anything obvious, and knowing the summit was only around 800m away, I just went up off track. BAD MOVE. Another 30minutes later had seen me travel around 200m through some of the worst terrain I had ever encountered. VERY scrubby Hakea, Scorparia, Dwarf Myrtle, and Tea tree was thickly growing in amongst some HUGE boulders and awkward cliffs. Progress was as slow as I had ever encountered.
I had actually stopped to contemplate my situation, and had decided that the going was too slow and difficult to go any further, at this point I was REALLY missing my walking companions, as we usually spur each other on in such situations. But I was really worried I wasn’t going to make it back by dark. So I sat down to study the maps taking in the AMAZING view of Ben Lomond.
After deciding I was in fact defeated, I started to head back, but thought I’d swing more to the East to see if progress was any easier. Once back in view of the hut, I spied a cairn.... Sure enough there was a rough track zigzagging through the maze of rock and scrub. Absolutely exhausted and overheating, I now decided I HAD to go for the summit. 30 minutes later, I started to see the towers and solar panels that littered the summit.
Stopping on top for only 10minutes, I took a few photos, and then headed back. 30 minutes later I was passing the hut and on my way back to the bike. It was now 3pm. After taking nearly 5 hrs to get to the top and back to my bike, I was back at the car at 330. The ride down was AMAZING fun. Going so fast at some points a fall would have been very very nasty.
A few more deer were spotted on the way back along with some surprised forestry workers, who all in all were quite friendly, especially when they realised I had the landowner’s very kind permission to be on his land.
All in all it was a fantastic day in very warm, but clear conditions. A great peak, but would be MUCH easier if the key to the gate was obtained, but would still be a worthy 2 point peak on the peakbagging list.
Still I am very proud of the way I did it. and surprisingly didnt feel too sore the next day.
