Young’s Hut Walk
(otherwise known as the Bogong High Lakes Trip)
6/7 November 2004
The forecast wasn’t flash - rain and thunderstorms were predicted by the weather bureau, which encouraged some of our less enthusiastic members to cancel. Happily for us, the bureau got the weather totally wrong – we didn’t get rain, we got hail, sleet and snow and then a bit of sunshine!
We left Bendigo in light rain and camped at Mountain Creek in heavy rain. It bucketed down overnight, and we commenced walking in a torrential downpour which changed to a monsoon for the balance of Saturday. This then graduated to hail, sleet and finally snow, though the sun came out for a few minutes on Sunday.
We started walking at Pretty Valley and had to wade across the causeway which was one metre deep and flowing fast. We followed the Fainter Fire Trail (River) to (Port ) Tawonga Huts where we docked for lunch. Barry remarked that the track had enough water flowing down it to make a fine slalom course. From Port Tawonga we waded up the slalom course and followed the Wading Pole Lines out across the Bogong High Lakes, crossing numerous lakes, rivers and streams in the process, with Jane sounding the depths. None of the above mentioned lakes and rivers we dealt with were marked on any map we know of but they were there. Mid-afternoon found us splashing and sliding around on our way to Youngs Hut in hail and sleet.
We found the hut had been fitted with a slow combustion stove, which works a treat. (The old fireplace used to use the door and windows as its chimney, which served to keep the mosquitoes, and everyone else at bay).
In between hail and sleet patches we cut and stacked a pile of firewood from the store into manageable sized pieces before settling down in front of the cosy fire as the sleet turned to snow in the evening.
Sunday dawned cool and fresh and visibility improved to about 200 metres, so we could see a bit further than the next wading pole. Being a bit drier, we could swap our flippers and wetsuits for boots and walking gear. We headed upstream towards old Young’s Hut ruins, before cutting back across part of the High Lakes, (Barry remarked that we could go canoe touring up here), to pick up the aqueduct, which we followed around to Cope Saddle for lunch in the sun. After lunch the sun was replaced by snow as we followed Pretty Valley back around to the dam and the cars to complete a very soggy wade/walk.
However, despite the weather, we had a ball – joking and laughing and giggling across the High Lakes/Plains.
Thanks to “Dry Feet” Barry, “Depth Gauge” Jane, “Ideal Shorts Weather” Greg, and “New Raincoat” Robyn for sharing a wonderful weekend. “We must be mad!”, “We need our heads read!”, “No-one will believe us!”, “We can’t take the smiles off our faces!” were comments heard all weekend!
Robyn Doubleday.