Mitchell River Hike Report

On the 20^th to 22^nd of August 2010 Dan, Aaron, Tom and I did my 30km hike which I had planned as part of my adventurer level badge work.

We met at the scout hall 4:30 and Dan took Aaron, Tom and me to Mitchell River National Park.

On the way, we stopped at Red Rooster in Sale for dinner.

At Bairnsdale, we stopped at the police station to let them know where we were hiking.

Dan was driving about 50 Km/ph around the corner and the trailer started snaking. Dan managed to stop the car before the trailer jack knifed.

 We left the car and the trailer at the car park at the Den of Nargon and started to hike; it was dark by then time unknown.  

It was tricky when we were trying to read the map in the dark to find out where we were exactly. The river gave us confidence that we were on the right track, as long as we heard it. We saw wombats, wallabies and deer footprints.

 Eventually we got to an intersection and a small walking track went down the river and a 4WD track up the hill.  We took the 4WD track thinking it was Billy Goat’s Bend track.

Tom was feeling sick by then and was struggling.  After walking further, we didn’t think we were on the right track.  Dan went ahead around the corner to check the track we just followed.  Tom was not feeling well so Aaron and Tom waited as Dan and I went further to check the track out.  We found a good camp place then we contacted the others and Tom went straight to sleep after putting up the tent. We got to the campsite about 10:30pm after hiking 3.25km.  Dan and I tried to find out where we were on the mobile tracking system, it wasn’t much help initially, but eventually showed where we were.  We should have brought the new GPS from the Scout hall. 

Next morning we got up, had breakfast, packed up and left for hiking at about 9:10am.  Dan showed us a good way to put our packs on.  After a short hike, at 9:30am we adjusted and swapped packs because Tom had problems with his pack and Aaron’s fitted him better and Tom’s fitter Aaron better, then kept on hiking until we got 10:50am to an intersection at 10:50am where the 4WD track enters the main road.  I was not sure where we were and Dan was positive we were on the main track, a sign was there and it said 2 km to Billy Goat Bend.  We followed the sign because we needed to get water.

We came to Billy Goats Bend at 11:55am and 5.25km hiking.  

We had lunch at Billy Goats Bend, filled our water bottles up, took some photos and at 12:55pm we followed the track further.  Down the track, some walkers  told us about the upcoming river crossing and where to go across.

We soon got down to the creek and found the crossing that they meant. I volunteered to go across first, so that I was able to help the others.  I went in and it was cold.  I brought my pack across.  Dan got in next and as soon as he got in he kept on swearing because the water was very cold. Even though Dan and I were in the water the most, the others still kept on complaining. Dan’s feet went numb!!!

After we dried our feet we put our shoes back on and started hiking again. We eventually got to an intersection with a campsite where we decided to stay the night. It took forever to go down to the camp site.  As we got down to the campsite near the river we set up camp at about 6:00pm. In the afternoon, we hiked 5.75km. We lit a fire while Dan went to the river to get water.  We got the fire lit in one go. We got warmer and had dinner.  Dan showed us how to make chocolate pudding. Tom went to bed before the pudding was finished, Dan had one pudding and Aaron and I shared one.  After that we all went to bed.

During the night Dan was sick.

We got up about 5:00am, packed up, had breakfast, burned all unneeded weight and started walking before the sun came out.  Dan still felt sick.  It felt like it took two seconds to get to the main track. We managed to walk at a fast speed to Angusvale where we had originally planned to sleep at the second night.

As we got to the campsite before Angusvale after 6.5km we rested about one hour, then we hiked for 1.75km to Angusvale and got there about 10am. Because of Dan’s sickness we decided to wait here for Sylvia to pick us up instead of hiking further out towards the highway. We were not able to get phone reception from here even as we walked a bit up the hill. Tom and Aaron lit a little fire and listened to music.

We tried to make a path across a little branch of the creek. Sylvia (Käfer) finally arrived at 2:30pm.  Käfer took us to the edge of the National park; we played around

with a ball while Käfer took Dan to pick up his car and trailer. Käfer came back, picked us up Tom and I went with Dan to McDonald’s where Dan bought for everyone a Chicken Nugget Happy Meal.

Then we went back to Yinnar Scout hall and then home by than it was nearly 6:00pm.

All together we did 23.5km hiking this means Aaron got his 100km, Tom got 150km and I (Angus) got 400km hiking as a Scout. Even though we did not hike as much as planed due to uncontrolled events (illness), I hope I can get my Adventurer hike signed off.

Thank you for the leader, Dan, parents and Scouts, Aaron and Tom, to make the hike possible.

By Angus 

Scouts owen by Angus

What is a scout own

·        Quote by BP:

"As a Scout, you are the guardian of the bush. A Scout never damages a tree by hacking it with his knife or axe. It does not take long to fell a tree, but it takes many years to grow one, so a Scout cuts down a tree for a good reason only – not just for the sake of using his axe. For every tree felled, two should be planted."

Reflection on What influence we have on the enviromen by camping here.

A poem written by an 11 year old who loves this world.

Look Outside

© Josie Greveling

Look Outside, see the trees
Watch the flowers in the breeze
Things won't be like this in a year or two
If polluting is all we do
Seize the night
Seize the day
Things won't always be this way
Thousands of people are dying
In the night you hear children crying
Let's stop the war
Our people are sore
The world can't help itself
Who cares about your wealth
Help me to help you
Show the world what you can do. *

Say thank you to the leaders who have spent their time to help us.

Bike Hike

We all arrived at the scout hall at 12:45pm on the 20^th of September 2008 and put the bikes in the trailer and organised the traveling arrangements. When we got to Cowwarr we unloaded and started the ride to Lake Glenmaggie.    

Some scouts had some small bike problems and had to adjust their bikes, we had some small rain showers and a bit of wind. About 5:30pm we arrived at the campsite at the lake after 22 km of riding.

In the evening we made more bike adjustments, and then rode around the campsite and in the water, some of the scouts were happy to have a warm shower.

We got up at 6:00am and had breakfast, packed up and left early at 7:30am heading off to Maffra.

At the start, there were some hills, then it was quite flat and easy to ride on, the weather was nice but it got a bit too warm in the afternoon.

 At 11:00am we arrived in Maffra after around 35 km of riding. We had lunch at 12:20pm before having a look at the car museum. Then we headed back towards Cowwarr.

 It was very hot so we had a few rests on the way and some scouts covered their head in water.

About 3:45 we were 4-5 km from Cowwarr and some scouts were exhausted the parents picked us up at the corner of Foxes Rd, as Käfer was too impatient to wait for 3 scouts with energy to finish.

There were 8 scouts and 2 supporting leaders. All together we did 91km we rounded this of to 25km in our books.

I’d like to thank Tom for helping organise the hike, the leaders, Andrew and Käfer, for making it possible and to all the parents who helped out with transporting scouts and their gear.

By Angu

Mitchell river National Park

FRIDAY

My Hike Started On Friday, the 3^rd April 2009 , at Mitchell river National Park, We started in quite wet and miserable conditions, at around 6:50, not too far from the den of Nargun. We planned to arrive at our camping spot, Billy Goat's bend at around 9:00,this time was post - poned (just a little) to 11:49pm. About 20 min before our arrival, Gareth slipped, and landed on his wrist, but it didn't seem too bad, and we thought it was sprained. After a lot of small rests and small walking parts we eventually got there, set up our tents, had some dinner and fell to sleep. The track was steeper than I thought, and went up and down hill more frequently than estimated. the whole patrol was whining that we'd gotten lost, Andrew was complaining the most ( too many Horror shows). We hadn't even got lost, and I had a lot of difficulty explaining that

SATURDAY

Not long after (only about 6 ½ hours later) we all had to wake up, Me and Gareth got a bit of wood to light the fire, to get warm and to dry some of gear that had gotten wet from the previous night. Everyone stood around the fire, and didn't want to get the rest of their tents packed up but we miraculously got everything packed up to leave at around 10:00 ( around 2 hours later than planned)The first part was fine, and we were making up a fair bit of time, Ramon was starting to struggle in the first half hour, so we had to slow down the pace. At around 12:00 we stopped at an unexpected intersection, it was a track, we weren't expecting to have gone so far in the time that we' gone for. Half an hour later we arrived at our lunch destination, the end of the 4X4 track. Mum was waiting there, and wile she caught up on the news we had from the hike, the others ate their lunch. Because it was Lilly's birthday Mum brought a cake, for everyone to enjoy. Nearly an hour ( 13:23) we started walking again. The track was the same as the rest of the hike was, it had a lot of up and a lot of down parts. We got to the top of Mitchell river National park ( augus vale) camping area at around 16:30, also earlier than expected. Ramon almost collapsed to the ground about 2 K before the end, and we pretty much dragged him to the Finnish. After we set up our tents we went to the river and tried to get down a rope that we found on a tree, we were unsuccessful. Everyone fell to sleep quite fast.

SUNDAY1

Ramon couldn't go further so he stayed with mum while the rest went Further , so at 8:45 we left to go back down the Mitchell river, this time we went on 4X4 tracks, and while Lilly insisted that they were roads, Mum still couldn't get down it so we met her at the Mitchell RD and augus Vale TK crossing. While Mum was talking to Ramon in the car we snuck up to the car and scared her Ramon was just about to go and meet us half way down the road, but we were earlier than expected 10:40 we walked down the road for 1.5kmand met mum again at the crossing, now we had to walk on a bigger road. After walking on the big road road for 50 min, mum met us again at another intersection We all finished the rest of the cake, because it was mum's birthday. We finally finished the 2^nd birthday for the weekend, at 12:10. the rest of the track was quite flat and we finished early at the sealed road. Mum and Gareth's mum was supposed to be picking us up at the sealed road intersection at 1:00, but they didn't see us as they passed, and kept on driving. About 20

min later they came back, and explained that they hadn't expected us to come so far.

Overall it was a fun hike, an I cant wait to hike again. Andrew should come hiking more often, as he did a very good job. Gareth's wrist that was supposed to be sprained turned out to be broken.

I'd rate this Hike 8/10 bit difficult terrain, nice scenery and cleared track. I recommend anyone thinking about going to give it a go!!

Amount walked:

1^st Day: 7 km

2^nd Day: 12.2km

3^rd day: 14 km

Unusual birthday candles

By Max

Tyers Regional Park Hike

 Friday 20^th February

5:51pm Tom, Angus, Max, Kyle, Lilly, Aaron Marriott and myself started hiking from the Wirilda pumping station heading back the way we came in, but turned off onto the Pipeline access track.

6:09pm Had a break at the Pipeline Access Road and Blairs Road intersection.  We looked at the great view of Tyers Gorge which the river lays in.

6:21pm We passed the first gate along the Pipeline Access Track where we saw a car parked but we saw no one along the track.

6:27pm We had a break to catch our breath after we reached the top of a large hill. By now most people had opened up their “scroggin” and had started eating.

6:42pm We had a short break to allow people to catch up. Tom’s leg had started to cause him some difficulties with hiking.

7:16pm We had a 10min break to find way at the second Pipeline Access Road and Blairs Road intersection. There was a track that wasn’t marked on my map which had a small slipway on the side of it. This tracked confused us but we found out it joins onto the Pipeline Access Track again.

8:20pm We arrived at Connon Park where we were camping the night. We saw that 1^st Morwell Scouts were having a camp there over the weekend.

8:50pm We started having tea and many people were feeling rather tired. Everyone just wanted to have tea and go to bed.

9:40pm Everyone was in their tents with lights out ready for a big day of hiking ahead.

Saturday 21^st February      

6:30am We were all awake. We started having breakfast and packed up.

8:07am We left the camp after a delayed start. Most of us had left our washing up for the morning because it was dark Friday night.

8:13am We passed the walking track back to the pumping station and continued along the track.

8:41am We reached the old limestone quarry where we looked around.  We were fascinated by a concrete structure.

8:47am We reached a walking track to the ford which was marked by a metal pole.

8:56am We stopped to catch our breath and have a drink.

9:13am We had a break so Tom could rest his leg which had started to hurt.

9:22am We stopped to strap Tom’s foot up whole while most people snacked.

9:50am We stopped to catch our breath and have a drink.

10:24am            We reached a ford where we met Colin and filled up our water supplies. Some patrol members looked around the river while we rested.

11:00am            We started walking again on the walking track to Moondarra Reservoir. The start to the track was hard to find but it was marked by an arrow on a big tree stump.

11:11    am        We had a rest at the top of a hill where Tom’s leg was hurting again.

12:23pm            We stopped to catch our breath and have a drink.

1:09pm We reached a point in the track where we where heading in the wrong direction. This was about 2km from where we thought the proper track was and we turned around to find the track again.

1:44pm We found the track again and started walking along the real track. The track started to go through some small hills which caused the track to go up and down a bit.

2:14pm We had a break get a bit of energy back. The track was very overgrown and the track was also uphill a bit.

2:48pm We stopped to catch our breath and have a drink.

3:49pm We finished the walking along the walking track. We all had scratches on our legs from sticks and blackberry bushes.

4:08pm We reached Moondarra Reservoir and had lunch. Tom pulled out because his foot was causing too much pain to continue walking. Tom went home with Colin.  At the Reservoir there was a big spillway which was a fascinating sight as well as the view of Tyers Gorge. 

4:41pm We started walking along the Pipeline access track back to Connon Park to set up camp. The sun had come out now and it had warmed up a bit.

5:49pm We stopped to catch our breath and have a drink just before a big hill which lead up to a main intersection.

6:06pm Came to a main intersection where Colin was waiting. He had only just got there because the track we walked 

along was for maintenance vehicles only so he had to go right round.  

6:43pm We arrived at Connon Park and started setting up. The camp looked slightly different because some branches had fallen down. Those of us who had towels used the showers that were there. We didn’t really look around the camp much because we were all tired.

9:43pm Everyone was in their tents with lights out.

Sunday 22^nd February

 6:15am Everyone was awake and we started having breakfast and packing up so we could leave as fast as possible.

8:30am Angus was sick so waited outside Connon Park for Sylvia to come and pick him up because he was unable to hike.

9:07am When Sylvia arrived Angus was picked up and the remaining patrol members started hiking to the walking track.

9:30am We started walking on the walking track to the pumping station. We could see the track was very narrow and that we had to cross the river. The temperature of the water was okay. It was warm but it was a bit cloudy.

10:00am            We stopped to catch our breath and have a drink. This was our only rest for the day aside from when we tighten our straps.

11:10am            We arrived at the pumping station and waited to be picked up where we ate the remainder of our food. I think that the hike was rather good but the track was very overgrown at points that you couldn’t even see the track. The hike is for experience hikers because of the distance and the terrain but it has great views along the way. The only thing bad was that the map wasn’t very accurate but the hike was still great.   

 

  Gareth