Hotham - Planning 3 day circuit

[chops38]

Hi all,
Planning a 3 day walk and was wondering on people's thoughts on the following for a Summer Hike..

Day 1 - Hotham to Young Hut: Approx 16km
Day 2 - Young Hut to Federation Hut: Approx 18km
Day 3 - Federation to Hotham: Approx 10km (Keen to keep the last day short for the drive back to Melb)

Questions:
- What are your thoughts on the route?
- Any suggested changes?
- Is Young Hut on the river? Any trout there?

Thanks in advance

[icefest]

Are you driving from MEL on day 1?
1)Day 2 is a huge day. How experienced/fit are you? Dimantina spur can be tough (see image).
2)Consider staying at tawonga huts instead. It's a but shorter middle day.
3)Young hut is at 1720m elevation. It's a long way down to any medium sized creeks.

January might not be the best time for this, it'd be hot and have a high fire risk.

This is diamantina Spur:

http://mickdonges.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/do-re-mi.html

[chops38]

Thanks for your feedback.

We're all quite fit and 2 of us (of3) with a decent amount of experience. We were planning on testing ourselves as a bit of offseason football training, however I do take on board what you're saying.

We had considered stopping night 1 at Blairs hut, however we were thinking this may not be a long enough of a walk on day 1 and 2 to really give ourselves a 'blow out'. I guess we can play it by ear looking at the weather as we get closer.

Btw - we would be staying at Hotham the night prior to the hike in order to get an early start day 1

Cheers

[andrewp]

Hi chops38

I think Youngs - Federation is quite a reasonable day. We did top of Diamantina - Youngs last weekend. Finished by 3:30. The extra bit to fed hut shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Youngs hut is not on a river, but there is reliable water just outside. As Icefest says, long way down to rivers of any size.

I think Jan is a good time for the Alpine NP, but you do need to be aware of fire danger.

Cheers

[chops38]

OK great, thanks for that.

[icefest]

Have fun and post a nice trip report when you get back