Lake Mountain

Walk overview

Length: 20.5km
Time: 7 hours
Grade: Medium - Hard
Ascent: 560m
Maximum height: 1476m
Region: Yarra Ranges, Victoria
Map: VICMAP 1:30,000 Marysville - Lake Mountain

"This somewhat longer walk provides an opportunity to see the best that Lake Mountain has to offer. Enchanting forests of alpine ash and myrtle beech, crystal clear streams, the headwaters of the Taggerty River, a bush hut and alpine snow gum forests are some of the delights to be found. Suited to most seasons except winter, the region is at its best in late spring and early summer when the wildflowers bloom."

Source: Day Walks Victoria

My comments

This is a really lovely walk. The forests are beautiful and the vegetation and track style changes throughout--from 4-wheel drive tracks to begin with, to slim and often overgrown walking tracks in the middle, to wide, green cross-country skiing tracks at the end of the walk--making the walk interesting and varied.

We managed to get lost, or rather, we could not find the Gould No. 2 track leading to Keppel Hut. We weren't the only ones who were meticulously scouring the right-hand side of Taggerty's Track looking for it. In the end, we approached the hut from the north (instead of south) via Keppel Hut track, probably having tacked on a few extra kilometres to an already quite long walk (and consequently we finished in 8.5 hours, rather than 7).

Fortunately another walking group spotted the track from Keppel Hut that we should have walked in on, and were scheduled to walk back out out on. This led us to the second and eastern stage of the walk via Boundary Track and Echo Flat.

We had a further problem with the map (or perhaps the signage on the walk) after completing the Hut Track loop where we were supposed to be walking out on Boundary Trail East to the left of Panorama Track, but ended up walking on Panorama Track to find the Crossroads.

The ligaments on the sides of my right knee starting getting sore just past the halfway mark. I was quite frustrated by this, since it has mainly been my left knee causing problems until recently. It held up until the last kilometre, when my left knee joined in on the conspiracy to make the last stage of the walk agonising. Again, I found myself having to walk down a slope backwards! It was the only way of dealing with the excrutiating pain. Argh!

The best part of the walk were the gorgeous alpine snow gums. Tall, colourful, and shapely, they were the ultimate tree-hug-inducing trunks. So beautiful! Other highlights were the lookouts and huge fallen trees that we had to scramble over (it's even nice hugging fallen giants).

My rating

A great walk that I'll definitely repeat again some time.

Photos from this walk

For more, see: Lake Mountain photo slideshow

Sherbrooke Forest revisited

Walk overview

Length: 11.5km
Time: 4 hours
Grade: Medium
Ascent: 480m
Maximum height: 490m
Region: Dandenong Ranges, Victoria
Map: Melway 75, 124

"One of the most popular forests in the range is Sherbrooke Forest. From the 1850s until 1930 this forest was used for logging. In 1958 Sherbrooke Forest was declared a park and in 1987 was merged with other areas to form the Dandenong Ranges Natonal Park."

"Sherbrooke Forest contains some of the finest examples of towering Mountain Ash in this region. These are the world's tallest flowering plants growing to more than 100m in height. Many of the trees in Sherbrooke sprouted after a severe fire in 1926. Below the tall trees in an understorey of treeferns, wattles and shrubs. Birds are proflific with many treecreepers and parrots. The first is also home to the superb lyrebird which searches the forest floor for insects and grubs. This large bird is able to mimic most sounds and is commonly heard imitating other birds and man-made noises. It is sometimes seen crossing the tracks."

Source: Day Walks Melbourne

My comments

It had been 7 or 8 months since I last did this walk. Last time was mid-winter, so it was nice to see it at a different time of year. There wasn't much fungi about, and we were too late for spring flowers, but it was still a pretty walk.

The Day Walks book mentions that lyrebirds can sometimes be spotted along Neumann track and this time we were lucky enough to see one. Unfortunately the lighting was quite poor and we couldn't get close enough to get a great shot, but we were all delighted to have gotten as close as we did.

One disturbing thing we noticed was a section of bridge railing and a couple of signs that had had huge chunks sawn out of them. They must have been pretty determined vandals to be carrying saws (probably chainsaws given the thickness and amount they cut through) with them. It is really disappointing to see people treating parks this way.

My rating

I still think this is a very pretty walk, and I'm sure I'll do it again some time.

Photos from this walk

For more, see: Sherbrooke Forest photo slideshow