9 March 2010 Ridge SE of Gudgenby Saddle
Map: Yaouk 1:25000
Getting There
This walk was organised and led by me as an irregular CBC Tuesday walk:
Tuesday 9 March - Ridge SE of Gudgenby Saddle - L/R,ptX. Head SW from the Yankee Hat car park on fire trail and footpad to the saddle SE of Mt Gudgenby. Turn SE and wander along the 6 knolls down to Breakfast Creek and the Old Boboyan Road. Return via Hospital Creek Hut, some nearby granite tors and an indigenous rock shelter. Around 21km and 550m climb. Map: Yaouk. Leader: John Evans - jevans@pcug.org.au, (h) 6288 7235. Transport: ~$50 per car.
7 of us met and drove to the Yankee Hat car park. After recent rain, the Murrumbidgee and Gudgenby Rivers was flowing swiftly and the two fords over Hospital Creek were also flowing.
Photographs
Access all primary pics here. All thumbnails in the walk report are active - click for a larger picture.
Walk
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| Track overview | Track a | Track b |
A mild morning. Muggy after all the rain. The drive down and the Gudgenby grasslands are looking a wonderful green picture. Away along the Old Boboyan Road, with wild dogs howling somewhere across the grasslands, and then fire trails towards the top of Bogong Creek. A grand wedge-tailed eagle took flight from quite near in front of us. The flanks of Mt Gudgenby are green (a few pole-like Mountain Ash can be seen) - a wonderful recovery from the burnt and black sparseness after the 2003 fires. I recorded the location of the tape at the top of the open area signifying the start of the footpad to the Gudgenby saddle (access the Track a photo) and also a photo of the cairn on the E end of the saddle area marking the top of the footpad. Even with all the new blue taping to augment the pinks, I managed to lose the footpad and I was grateful that more competent party members took over the lead. But we all managed to lose the footpad between around 500m to 300m shy of the saddle. Morning tea at the top.
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| Mt Gudgenby from the fire trail SE of Yankee Hat South | Cairn on E end of Gudgenby Saddle showing top of footpad |
We headed up towards the first knoll on the ridge, gently at first, then steeply. Nice views back to Mt Gudgenby opened up and forward to knoll 1. The boulders and tors towards the top prevented us reaching the summit. Quite a contrast between the relatively open and dry W facing slopes and the wet and more densely vegetated E facing slopes. A slow leg SE down from knoll 1 to a saddle, then up towards knoll 2. Great views at times to green areas on both sides - the Gudgenby grasslands to the left and the Naas Creek valley to the right. Again, we couldn't reach the top of knoll 2, but had great views to Sentry Box Mountain and Sentry Box Rock and great fun crawling through a low tunnel to a vantage point.
The going became a little less rugged from here on, with gentler fall and rises and more open going. The ridge has not been badly burnt and there is a lot of wattle regrowth. The knoll 3 area had a nice large granite boulder, again providing views to the Scabby Range. We pushed on along the ridge to knoll 4 for lunch.
Knolls 5 and 6 were easy access. I'd planned to drop down into Breakfast Creek to have a look at it, but a gentle mutiny desiring to follow the ridge line gave a compromise which saw us trundle gently down and across the flank of the ridge to join the Old Boboyan Road.
N along it to the old vehicle track then footpad into Hospital Creek Hut. The turn off point another good waypoint to have (access the Track b photo). We lazed about, enjoying arvo tea.
With family and household responsibilities for many of us, we all agreed to return to the Old Boboyan Road and head for the cars. A quick detour for some of us to see an interesting feature.
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| Approaching knoll 1 | Top of Naas Creek valley from SE of knoll 1 | View to knoll 2 from SE of knoll 1 | View to knoll 2 |
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| View back to knoll 1 and Mt Gudgenby from knoll 2 | Negotiating a granite crawl on knoll 2 | Sentry Box Mountain and Sentry Box Rock from knoll 3 | Leaving knoll 3 |
A lyrebird streamed across the road just S of Glendale Crossing on the drive home.
Comment - GPS
I took my new Garmin Oregon 550 GPS for its first walk, along with the Magellan Meridian Platinum it is to replace. The Garmin is very easy to use. The only issue that needs some thought is that I had to replace the batteries at 8hrs and I'd set the best options to conserve battery life (low backlight and screen to turn off after 15secs of no touch screen activity). Thoughts - they were not the batteries that came with the unit, but some rechargables that I had (have I cycled them too many times?); I'd set the track point interval rate at 'More Often' (does this consume more power?).
Some interesting facts - The Magellan set 236 track points (its interval is not able to be changed) and recorded a walk distance of 19.47km. The Garmin set 1871 track points (interval set at 'More Often') and recorded a walk distance of 21.10km. It sure is a finely defined track, even recording where I lost the taped footpad to Gudgenby saddle for a few tens of metres and also a nature call off the side of the Old Boboyan Road. And thanks to a good mate, Stephen M, who confirmed on 2 recent trips with his Garmin and my Magellan, that the walk distance difference was around 5% on those walks, too. Certainly not saying anything against the Magellan - it's just that technology moves fast over 5 years.
Thanks for your company Sandy B, Rene D, Roger E, Henry H, Jenny H and Ian S.
Distance: 21.1km Climb: 700m. Time: 8am - 4.30pm (8hrs 30mins), with 50mins of stops.
Grading: L/R,ptX; H(13)
KMZ file for Google Earth/Maps: Ridge SE of Gudgenby Saddle
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This page last updated 15Aug22