Pine Mountain, Burrowa-Pine Mountain National Park - February 2016

I have been eyeing off a trip up Pine Mountain for awhile now, in fact I'd even got as far as getting to the car park at the bottom of the climb one day, but I was defeated by the amount of time it took just to get to the start of the walk. After the 7 hour drive from home there wasn't enough daylight left to actually do the walk, oh well at least I knew how to get to the start of the walk now. I had a cunning new plan for this trip though, I was going to drive up after work on Friday morning and arrive at the summit for sunset, spend the night up there and then reverse the process on Saturday and head home, what could go wrong?

Day 1.      Pine Mountain Summit    6.3 kilometres.        717 metres ascent.
So as I mentioned above, after a few hours at work I set off on the long drive to Burrowa - Pine Mountain National Park last Friday. I had worked out the rough timings in my head and knew that to make the summit in time to catch the sun set would make for a fairly solid day so I didn't muck around much on my jaunt up the Hume Highway. Leaving the Hume I set off in the general direction of Corryong before cutting across the towards Pine Mountain along the quiet Cudgewa North Road, it was along this remote dirt road that my hopes of being on the summit for sunset hit a bit of a hurdle. Rounding a corner on the dusty road I was confronted by the hurdle, literally. There was a reasonable sized tree fallen across the road, to cut a long boring story short I had to man handle the tree sideways until it lay flat on the road, the weight of the tree meant that I could only edge it sideways about a fist width at a time. Eventually after much sweating and swearing I managed to drop one side of it off the bank, which was enough to (just) creep over it in 4wd. I was now wondering if that lost twenty minutes would cost me the sunset.

It took me about twenty minutes to drop this tree onto the road so I could get over it.

After negotiating the fallen tree the rough Pine Mountain Track didn't pose much of an issue and I was soon at the trail head, setting off on my climb at the somewhat late hour of 5:30pm. Pine Mountain is granite monolith that is 1.5 times larger than Uluru, but while Uluru is basically un vegetated Pine Mountain, as the name suggests has a good covering of trees. The walking alternates between open forested sections interspersed with large rocky slabs of granite. First up though I was heading to Rocky Knob, the first high point marked on my map, now I suppose I should mention that the ambient temperature when I left the ute was 38C, oh yeah, and I was lugging over 5 litres of water up to my high and dry bivy. So before I'd even made it twenty metres up the track to the trip intentions book I was sweating more than George Pell at a royal commission. The walk to Rocky Knob turned out to be a reasonably easy introduction to the climb though, with only the last bit being a bit grunty and the constantly changing flora helping to take my mind off the climb.

Rocky Knob.

Leaving Rocky Knob the easy walking continues for a little while, but all to soon the real climbing began. The track was now heading up on a fairly serious gradient (at least for this broken old man) towards a spot known as Murray View, which as you may have deduced had a great view of the Murray River in the valley far below. The walking was now either through dry eucalypt and Callitris Pine forest decorated with a smattering of huge boulders or across large rocky slabs, and while the track was well marked in the forested sections the slabs of granite were another matter all together and I had to keep a fairly good lookout for the sometimes sparse line of cairns.

There were quite a lot of these beautiful trees, are they Blue Gums?

After a final scramble I arrived on top of Murray View, sweating like a pig in the oppressive late afternoon heat. Glancing over my shoulder at the sun I could see that it was going to be touch and go whether I made the summit for sunset, there was no option to crank up the pace though as I was already red lining in the heat, and at the same time I was making good headway into my 5 litres of water. The low sun was not hurting my photos though, with the granite slabs starting to put out a red glow, not quite Uluru but still pretty sweet. Leaving Murray View behind the walking gets a fair bit rougher, requiring a bit of concentration to stay on the correct path.

The final rock scramble up to Murray View, the Murray River flows through the valley on the left of the photo.

Those granite slabs are the start of the final climb to the summit.

The granite was starting to give off a reddish glow as the sun set in the west.

With the sun slowly dipping below the horizon I started my final steep climb for the summit, the trees now also starting to give off an orange glow as the sun taunted me to walk faster. Yeah that's the story of the climb really, in the end I reached the summit cairn a couple of minutes after the last rays of the sun had sunk below the western horizon, oh well. With the sun now gone my thoughts turned to finding somewhere to bivy for the night, a rocky spur leading north east from the summit looked promising and, following a very sparsely marked track I headed towards those large rock slabs that I could see through the trees. Finding myself a flattish rock I dropped my pack and soon had my bivy bag and sleeping bag set up, this was a stunning spot to stop for the night as I had about a 300 degree field of view, with the country dropping away 100's of metres to the valleys around me. Eating my dinner and enjoying a long drink I sat and watched as the night sky slowly turned black and the stars started sparkling above, with a tepid breeze blowing strong enough to keep the temperature comfortable and at the same time keeping some of the bugs away. Life was good, and only got better when I eventually climbed into my bivy bag and settled back to watch the satellites flying through the starry sky with only the odd Bogong Moth to interrupt my view.

Approaching the summit with the sun slowly slipping below the horizon.

Sunset from my bivy.

Day 2. Pine Mountain Car Park   6.6 km,  12.9 km total.    211m ascent, 928m total ascent.   
A low glow on the eastern horizon signalled the start of what was going to be another stinking hot day, laying in my bivy bag for awhile I watched as the glow spread over the Main Range in the distance. Eventually I climbed out and grabbed the camera, the light was great but I really need to carry a tripod as most of my photos in this low light are slightly out of focus. Enjoying breakfast from my rocky perch I slowly eased my way into the new day, rousing my stiff body every so often to take what I was sure was going to be a stunning photo. Slowly, piece by piece, I got dressed and packed up camp, my foggy morning brain and the rising sun meaning this operation was a little slower and disorganised than my normal weekday routine, I'm normally up, showered and out the door within 15 minutes on a work day, this morning it took at least an hour and a half to get going, but gee the view was a lot better than a normal morning.

Sunrise slowly lightening the sky behind the Main Range in the distance.

Early morning Pine Mountain.

My bivy on Pine Mountain.

With over 3 litres of water gone I swung my somewhat lighter pack onto my shoulders and headed off on my return journey. My first objective was to revisit the summit cairn, the dodgy light last night had prevented me from getting a photo. With the summit cairn successfully photographed I set of back down the mountain to the ute. The good thing this morning was that as I was basically walking west I was more or less walking in the shade thrown by the mountain, now this was a good thing as it was already quite warm and as I lost altitude the temperature climbed rapidly. Now even though this walk is a retrace its not too bad, the rough pad meant that I was concentrating on staying on the route on the way up, so on the way down with the route a little more familiar now I was able to look around a little more and take in the scenery.

The summit shot.

The Pine Mountain summit cairn.

Descending the slabs off Pine Mountain, I was in the shade for a lot of the descent.

It looks like the cairns have been there for awhile.

It's not named Pine Mountain for no reason.

Reaching the huge rocky slabs below Murray View I startled a large brown snake (actually I'm not to sure who was more startled me or the snake!) sun baking in the middle of the track, the extra shot of adrenaline seeming to help me make the climb back up to the open slabs at the top of the imaginatively titled Murray View a bit quicker than I might have otherwise. Apart from the superb view down to the Murray River the rocky lookout also provided a grandstand view of the spur leading down to my ute, a good spot to have a little break and give Sam a call to tell her that I was still breathing. It's slightly surreal to be standing on a rocky perch high up in the sky, sweaty and smelly whilst talking to your partner who is 100's of kilometres away at home still tucked up in bed.

The view from Murray View towards Mt Burrowa on the other side of the valley.

The start and finish is on the edge of the paddock in the saddle.

The country opened up a bit as I descend from Murray View towards Rocky Knob, in between view points the diverse flora kept me interested, I've got a bit of a soft spot for native pines and there were a few very pretty white trunked eucalypt trees that looked sensational, I'm not sure what they were but the smooth white trunks reminded me of the Ghost Gums that I'd photographed up in Central Australia on my last visit. As I got closer to Rocky Knob I started to get that familiar euphoric feeling that I get when I'm out in the bush sometimes, a feeling that basically means that I'm totally chilled out, relaxed and at ease with the world around me. Rocky Knob provided the last big view from the walk and I soon plunged down into the dry forest again, with the gradient easing, farm land started to appear through the light forest to my right which signalled that I was fast closing in on the end of the walk. Sure enough after passing over one last gentle knoll the ute came into view below, all that was left to do now was to sign out, have a quick wash, and then jump in the ute for the 6.5 hour trip home.

Climbing up Rocky Knob on my way down Pine Mountain.

The open paddocks through the trees signalled to me that the walk was nearing its end.

Crossing over one last knoll the end was in sight.

Pine Mountain Track.

The Dirt.
This was a fairly hard walk for me, I walked 12.9 kilometres over the 2 days and climbed 928 metres. The walk is actually pretty rough in places and you have to be on the ball with regards to navigation, especially after passing Murray View. The forested sections are pretty well marked but the pad fades in and out in places, the long sections of rock slabs require more concentration as the cairn line is old and sparse. Some of the slabs of granite are quite steep as well and will require the use of hands in at least a couple of spots. I bivied on the slabs of rock near the summit, I'm not sure if this is 100% legal but the way I figure it what's the difference between laying in a bivy bag at night or having a nanna nap on a picnic rug during the day, so long as I leave no trace I don't think I'm harming the environment to much. It is possible to access this walk in a 2wd drive car but you may have to park before the last steep climb up Pine Mountain Track to the car park which would add a couple of kilometres and a fair bit of climbing to what is already a fairly solid walk. Every man and his dog seems to have written up this walk, including Mr Thomas, Mr & Mrs Daly, Mr Tempest, and Ms Ball. I think the best notes and maps are in Glen Tempest's book Daywalks Around Victoria and Melanie Ball's book Top Walks in Victoria. Telstra mobile reception is patchy down low but fairly good as you get higher.

A couple more sunrise photos from near my bivy.

That's the Murray River flowing in the valley far below, this was the view I had over breakfast, yeah I've had worse....