Burrowa Pine Mountain Car Camp

I have driven past this Park many times, so when searching for a late spring walk I felt it was time for a visit. There are a few walking tracks in the park, I selected walks to do both Black Mountain and Mt Burrowa. 

Rock Table

Studying the maps I decided to access the Hinces Saddle camping area via the Burrowa 4wd track. This would place me as close as I could get to Mt Burrowa and an easy walk back to Black Mountain. Black Mountain can be access by 2wd quite close to the summit via Black Mountain Track. For those without a suitable four wheel drive parking near Black Mountain and hiking into Hinces saddle would be an option. 

Hinces Saddle Camping area

I arrived at the camping area around midday, popped lunch in the pack and headed of to Black Mountain, I was glad I had taken the time to research this track also, as the track was often hard to find in the scrub and the orange triangles were very internment. 

Black Mountain Track is in there

The 2.5km took around 90 minutes, the summit is treed and offers little views. The return trip took a similar amount of time albeit it a little easier with the gps track to refer to when the direction to walk was not obvious. 

Some track markers

There was a warning notice on the PV web site (and at the start of the Mt Burrowa track) indicating the track was not well marked and over grown and only suitable equipped hikers should attempt the Mt Burrowa track
 .

PV warning sign

Armed with the experiences of the Black Mountain trip I head off early, (0730) the section of track between Hinces Saddle and the turn off to Mt Burrowa whilst also poorly marked and hard to see an obvious foot pad on, with the relatively narrow ridge line did make navigation reasonably simple.

Track Junction

About 2.5km from Hinces Saddle the track to Mt Burrowa heads off to the North West, from here it is a steep decent to the saddle and long slow climb up to the ridge that Mt Burrowa sits on. There are also big gaps between the orange triangle track markers through out this section and often no clear sign of a well-used foot pad. 

Looking North West on Burrowa ridge

After around 2km from the sign post you arrive at a large rock clearing this spot offers good views to the North. According to the topo maps this is not the highest point on the ridge, it is still another good 1Km past this point. Whilst I did head out to the actual highest point it is 2.5km return scrub bash to a rock cairn taking around 2 hours for the return trip. With the exception of the surprised goat, on the way, the summit offers no real views. I would suggest saving you time and energy and enjoy a long lunch here. 

Burrowa Local

The return trip, like the day before was a constant search for orange triangles, some sort of foot pad and referring to the GPS track from the trip out.
Conclusion, the round trip (walking time) was almost 9 hours; the GPS showed I walked just over 12km. So I believe that Parks Vic consider the spot with the good views to be the “summit” from a walkers perspective. 
Also somewhere after leaving this spot I lost my watch, not a good watch, but not one I had planned to replace in a hurry.

Long Walk Short Days Mt McLeod

Mt McLeod provides a commanding view across the Northern Buffalo Plateau and the Ovens Valley.

Mt McLeod trig and view accros the Ovens Valley

With the seasonal road closure adding 3.5km to the one way trip and the expected great weather I decided to make this trip a long walk over the two short days of the winter solstice.

Which way?

I was very happy with my gear, the sub zero temperatures did not bother me, although it was a long night in the sleeping bag, lucky I had packed an audio book to listen to.

Ice Crystals pushing out of the ground

A visit to the AAWT

I had been looking at the section of the AAWT that runs between Mt Speculation and The Viking for a while.

Too make this work we would need to treat this trip as an out and back, whilst this means we would be walking over the same country twice it makes the logistics of the walk easier.

The Mt Speculation track was much easier too drive down than expected this meant we drove to Camp Creek and walked the short distance to the summit of Mt Speculation, shame about the weather, clouded in so little chance for taking in the view.

Mt Cobbler and The Razor. On the way up The Viking

The next day we headed of to Viking Saddle via The Razor, there is no track out the The Razor, but if the weather is good I would recommend it.
There had been a few comments on the local bushwalking forum about the lack of water at Viking Saddle, they were right..... Water was a 3 hour return trip to the West Buffalo River.

The Chulte on The Viking

The next day had us heading up The Viking to take in the view before returning to Viking Saddle collecting our packs and head back to Camp Creek. This is a big day, but well worth the effort.

View South from Mt Cobbler (Mt Buller in right of shot)

The next day we did a short walk in the morning to Mt Cobbler; this summit provides a great look back at where we had just been and a commanding view over the Alps generally.