First chrissy function of the year and had a great time
camping at sheepyard flat with bunch of others from the club.
It was reasonably quiet for such a popular place and the weather was perfect.
A Dads and sons
camp about a hundred meters away had some 80 vehicles.
Good bunch, their. motor bikes were reasonably quiet, the kids at least had helmets.
Guys shooting rabbits didn't worry me as I was sitting around the fire from 6am.
Explosions from fire crackers added character as there wasn't that many, but not sure I was happy with a 4 wheel motorcycle towing a bunch of kids up and down the road in an attached trailer at about 40kmh.
Took a convoy of about 8 vehicles up and around local tracks.
Average age was about 60 and several were in their seventies. Some tracks, like that to Michells hut are reasonably steep but conditions were dry and we arrived back in
camp 1 minute before the appointed time with no one even taking a wrong turn. Although at one point we meet
a convoy coming downhill and there was mayhem for a little while
on the narrow track. A GU tray coming down folded his rear view
mirror on
mine and I returned the favour by folding
mine with a little hit on his tray in passing.
1 year ago today, we camped at same the place when the big fires started which lead to so much access closure in the following months.
Said goodbye to the group about lunch time sunday and headed off but on way the back to
Mansfield from Sheepyard I thought we would take in 3 chain track which is a spectacular little used track the runs around the
forrest to the Howqua river at the beautiful
Running creek camp area.
Wasn't paying a lot of attention as I had looked at the Rooftop adventure map and knew that I just had to keep bearing left and I would get the turns right and avoid the little dead ends tracks that run off to private properties abutting the main track.
The first few km of 3 chain is a ridge line track which runs right to the edge of huge drops off with great
views of Mt Buller and beyond. Has some rocky sections and I would recommend it to those in the
Mansfield area as a real 4wd track without being silly hard and suitable for standard Patrols and cruisers.
The track is marked on my Garmin 276c gps running City Navigator 7 and I just followed the track lines at the two or three junctions.
I tried using Shonky maps for the usefulness of the contours which can forewarn you of steep sections but where I was the map was displayed in green and the light blue plot I had set for CN7 couldn't be seen clearly in the
bright sunshine and so I turned off Shonky maps and went back to using CN7 (a mistake).
After a while we began having to remove fallen branches and things and wheel marks became less and the single track of bikes became more prominent. I.E. We were the first 4wd vehicle here in a while.
The bypasses in the 1/2 burnf
forrest became harder.
We had just begun a step downhill section and I thought it might
be time to take some real position readings and check the map when 3 heavily worked Patrols appeared in front of us with there claws and thornbirds working hard.
So we had a quick chat and they said it was steep ahead and to watch out for the big drop off also.
On
well, If they came up then I can go down especially as its dry
and also I must be on the right track.
Moved off down the steep
hill and before I had finished chucking the map to the back
seat the car lurched and dropped a rear wheel over a meter deep drop off and the
suspension made one of those - I've bottomed out, and I don't like it noises.
The drop off was on only one side of the track and by now my wife was almost sitting in my lap.
I said "not now dear" and got the meanest stare I have had in a while.
We stopped and checked a few things during which I slipped and drew blood on the back on my hand. With a flick of the hand I got rid of the blood leaving a little trail of blood spots on my shorts.
I really appreciated the little lecture I then got about washing
the blood off in the next little
creek we came upon.
The guys we had meet were right about the drop off and I began to wonder about being on this track alone.
The track began to get steeper but being dry and flat it was ok.
At one point an off camber bypass appeared and it was so tight
between the trees that I again had the rear view mirror fold back
as I collected some bark.
Then the track began to develop one of those things I dread
as a 4wder. The ruts began to deepen where
water had run
and you have to start making choices about which path is right
knowing that sometimes the ruts run deep and then run off to the side giving nowhere to place your
wheels without falling into a rut.
Already very steep, we inched down as the rut widened and the
sweat built up. We went thru 3 separate section of this but each time the ruts were such that we could cross with out slipping in and risking a roll over. Despite low pressures in our Maxxis MT's
the loose dust and gravel made us slip just a little on the steep
sections but we kept rolling ever so slightly to ensure any little
slippage didn't develop to allow a wheel lockup and consequent slide into a rut.
At times like this I am thankful for the cars low centre of gravity
and that I choose to accept more underbody hits over raising the
suspension.
The track abruptly changed to near flat and lush green.
In less than 2 seconds I was displaying one of those "Its cool looks" before my wife could recover and comment now that we were safe, but I'm not entirely sure it was a convincing expression.
Into the lush valley floor we speed up as we were now almost to
late to pick up the dog at the Kennels 139km away in
Melbourne.
Rounded a corner to face wall to wall Nissans literally entirely covering the tracks at a
junction.
Turns out it was the Shepparton Nissan-Holden dealers on a customer day out.
They had found a big mud-hole and some twenty cars were practicing in it.
We were in for a wait as it would be impossible to sort out this confusion in a hurry.
Carefully looked over the area. It appeared to be old farmland but was now covered along the track edge in thistle's about 2 meter high.
Locked the diffs and took a chance driving thru the thistles and slush whilst weaving across the 4wds and bypassing the big mud hole.
From here we passed thru one of those things you just love in the bush.
A succession of six river crossings with low green banks containing
camping spots right on the rivers edge, amidst lush grass.
The river depth of about 1/2 meter was just right - not to high to threaten the car but deep enough to know you have crossed a real river.
It began to dawn on me that this place had a lot less trees than our destination "Running creek".
We were in fact at the back end of Tobacco flat, a lovely 4wd
camping area only a few km from our
overnight camp at Sheepyard flat that we had left hours ago.
We were 25 4wding kilometers east of where we should have been.
We had come down a track not even shown on the Rooftop adventure series map we relied upon.
Later investigation shows that this track is called
RED HILL track and is marked on the Rooftop
forrest activities map of 2004.
It is marked as "very steep" and tagged as a "possible future closure due to steepness".
A lot of people think that many of the hard tracks close to civilization have been sanitized.
Friends think I'm a half reasonable navigator - so be warned, overconfidence poor information and just following your GPS can lead you down some wild tracks not suitable for standard vehicles.
Oh! with no lunch, afternoon tea, cappicino or
toilet stops
we got to the dog just on closing time.
She was so happy she slobbered all over us.
I don't think I will be allowed out again for a few weeks !
Robin Miller