17^th July 2005

Blimey, what an early start. Today folks it's another Hooly Dooly What A Woopty Doo day trip. We are heading for Mt Terrible, now listen up before you think this trip will be beyond you. In fact any standard reasonable 4WD will be able to do this trip.

This trip was chosen for the great possibility of snow. Earlier in the week the weather reports promised a dumping of now on the Saturday, so preparations were made for a Saturday trip. However, later in the week the darn weather people had changed once again and Saturday was to be fine with a cols front passing through on Saturday night, so we canned the Saturday idea and decided for a Sunday trip.

Our starting point for the trip was Cumberland Junction. This is where the Marysville/Lake Mountain Road meets the Warburton Road and continues towards Woods Point. We decided to come up through Warburton as there would probably be less traffic. Three quarters of the way up the twisty section we ran into a mild snow shower, boy this was promising.

Again at Cumberland Junction we had another little snow shower. We set off towards Woods Point making a left turn at the Warburton/Eildon road. This is the start of the gravel section, so it's wise to lower tyre pressures. I normally run 34lbs all round in the Prado and drop to 28lbs allround. This road is exceptionally good resulting in a fast section to the Big River Road intersection where we turned right.

TIP:
Consider dropping tyre pressures when the gravel is reached. This will make for a more comfortable ride, but more importantly, you'll have more traction in the difficult stuff.

At this intersection, it is quite open with a lot of European type trees. This whole area used to be the main logging camp many moons ago. Today it seems the rev heads just want to do doughnuts and spoil the environment.

Continue along Big River Road, passing a number of side tracks on each side of the road and eventually you come to a little camp area called Stockmans Reward. Not a bad place for a stop if there aren't too many campers, as it is on a creek, so gives the kids a decent place for a break.

We were early so kept on the Big River Road until we reached Twenty Five Mile Camp, a turnoff on our left just before Twenty Five Mile Creek. We went down this track, just to see what was there. A few metres down it opened up to a small camp area, and the track then seemed to drop down the side of the hill. At first it looked steep and slippery, and not wanting to push my luck so early in the day thought it best to avoid, but then things got the better of me, so pointed the Prado down and away we went. It was steep overgrown and not too slippery as there was plenty of rock in the track.

It wasn't long though before we reached a particularly steep and ledgey section of track. I thought it advisable to get out and have a look. Lucky I did, as the track faded away to nothing and it would have been very hard to reverse back up.

A quick morning tea here and then back to the Big River road, across the Twenty Five Mile Creek and then on to Hope track which veers to our right. If you look closely at this intersection, you will see the old original Hope Track going straight up the side of the mountain. This was closed some twenty five years ago as it was deemed too dangerous as there had been a number of end overs (roll overs end to end).

The new hope track is a quite reasonable track with a couple of steepish sections with rock ledges. It's OK to get up these, even in the wet as the rock gives reasonable traction, but you may want to select first gear low range so your vehicle isn't going too fast and bouncing everywhere.

At the top of Hope Track you reach a T intersection with Track. Here you turn left and then just a few meters on you hit a Y intersection. Take the right fork and you are now on nthe Terrible track. The Terrible track is great as it has so many variations. It runs along the ridge tops all the way to Mt Terrible. Quite often after a steepish climb you are traveling in snow gum territory with the altitude being around 1200 metres. At was along here we hit our first snow, not very thick, but enough to get us excited.

The Terrible track is quite long, but after a while you reach the base of Mt Terrible and here you will notice a very rough and steep track off to your right. For those wanting something a bit harder, this is a good little track, joining the Terrible track a bit further up. However, if you feel this track is a little difficult you can continue to your left around the side of the mountain until you reach the intersection with Donald Tack where you turn right. This was all completely covered with snow and what's more we were the first vehicle through.

The final climb up to the summit is normally punctuated with a number of rock ledges, but today these could not be seen through the snow, so we took it slow and easy. We first reached the helipad and then the summit. Boy, it was busier than Bourke Street at peak hour. We pulled up and walked to the hut, still some warmth from an overnight fire. The weather had set in on top of Mt Terrible with fog and a very cold wind.

A quick lunch, as it was too cold to hang around outside, and we were off again, this time down the other side of Mt Terrible. The snow disappeared very quickly and it wasn't very long before we reached Newmans Track off to our left. Newmans winds its way down Mt Terrible and eventually brings you out onto the Alexandra/Jamieson Road.

A recent fire along Newmans meant the track had been upgraded for fire fighting equipment, so it was quite easy. Only one section looked like it may give us a problem. A short, steep wet clay section caught us by surprise. However a little more momentum than usual had us up the first go.

We then wound our way to the Alexandra/Jamieson road where we headed for Alexandra and home via the Black Spur.

All in all a nice day out. This trip could have been done in any proper 4WD, that is, one with average clearance and a proper low range ratio in their transfer case. Don't sit around home wondering what to do, jump in your 4WD and head to Mt Terrible for the day.

Trip Standard

The whole trip is pretty easy (even when there is some snow about) with just enough tougher sections to keep everyones interests. This trip is for proper Four Wheel Drives with a good low range ratio and reasonable clearance.

Maps

Mt Terrible Adventurer

Vicmap Gaffneys Creek 1:25000

This is a great day trip covering around 400Km from Melbourne and back. It offers some mildly challenging sections of track and beautiful scenery. There are plenty of nice areas to stop for morning tea and lunch or to just let the kids run off a bit of steam. DVD's of this trip and others are now available.

Trip Notes

The starting point for this trip is the Cumberland Junction where the Warburton Road meets the Marysville/Woods Point Road.