Trip Report (Walked: 02/01/2017 / Written: 16/01/2017). For planning, we have been using Robert Green’s book „Exploring the Jagungal Wilderness“ and the waypoints given by him for this route. – Coming from Porcupine Ridge and walking towards the descent, all is fine, the route leading mostly through open grassland with some wooded sections easy to navigate.
Due to regrowth on the slopes, the situation starts to change past the rock monument, mentioned by Robert as a landmark (633795.92/5984478.78 // S36 16 31.3 E148 29 22.8). The route is sill navigable until 633972.75/5984941.47 // S36 16 16.2 E148 29 29.6, close to Robert’s waypoint „the track clear with rocks on either side of it“.
Passing this, it turned out to be impossible for us to follow the route directly to the next waypoint („second creek crossing“, 633880.71/5984961.38 // S36 16 15.6 E148 29 25.9). Instead, we had to walk downwards through a natural corridor, heading NNE for app. 50 meters and then NNW for app. 150 meters, to finally bushbash an alternative crossing over the creek at about 633957.51/5985086.56 // S36 16 11.5 E148 29 28.9. After climbing a grassy slope past the creek, we were able to rejoin the route at about 633815.11/5985239.78 // S36 16 06.6 E148 29 23.1.
The „small cutting“ and „clearing“ described by Robert, located past this crossing (between 633713.4/5985605.04 // S36 15 54.8 E148 29 18.8 and 633774.95/633774.95 // S36 15 51.3 E148 29 21.2), are now densely covered with young snowgums. Vegetation becomes even more obstructive after this and lessens only close towards Reids Hut Site, say about 150 meters before reaching it.
Using a GPS to follow this route is strongly recommended. We also wonder if it might be too demanding to walk this route uphill at the current stage, taking into account that even less orientation and the additional physical challenge of ascending is involved. Walking downhill from the rock monument to Reids Hut Site, it took us 3 hours and 9 minutes, including a single break of 20 minutes, to complete this section of 1.9 kilometers, carrying backpacks of app. 20 kg.
Grid reference: Eastings and Northings: GDA 94, Degrees, minutes, seconds: WGS 84.