Trip Report - Neerim to O'Tooles - Labour Day

Davidman · 09-03-2010, 11:18 AM

Another successful trip undertaken. This one had a great turnout and I would like to thank everyone who came along to make it such a great time.

I went up to the Hawthorn Bridge camping area on the Latrobe River to secure a place and set up on the Friday afternoon / evening. Even on the Friday, the camping area was very busy, a couple of caravans set up near the river, several tents set up and a lot of people around. Ended up cooking dinner and meeting up with a group of trail bike riders and had a few beers with them. The next morning it felt like a few beers too many.

Anyway, up early on Saturday morning to meet up with everyone at the BP in Longwarry. After a quick drive into there, I ended up meeting with ;

- Elbie 84 ( Scott )
- Outrage ( Matt )
- D4x4 ( Paul and Darren.............or should we call him Russell

)
- Bushhogg4x4 ( Hoggy )
- Joel ( Hoggy's Mate )
- Tennismark ( Mark )
- Mooser77 ( Mick )

Back into the camping area and set up tents, swags, tarps and so on. From there, we all headed to Hell Track. It was decided that we would attempt this one from the Whitelaws Track end as there had been a bit of water around and coming up Hell Track could have been difficult, and costly. In all, 8 vehicles headed out and 8 came back with only minor damage. From memory, there were three tail light assemblies, some bent side steps and a few other nicks and scratches. There were one of two close calls that could have resulted in some panel damage, but not this time.

All parked at the bottom of Hell Track

Bushhogg4x4 on Hell Track

Elbie84 in a bit of trouble on Hell Track..........very lucky

D4x4 entering Hell Track

D4x4 trying to get out of Hell Track

Elbie84 entering Dead Horse Creek at the bottom of Hell Track

Lined up to enter Hell Track

Still lined up to enter Hell Track

Tennismark entering Hell Track

Mooser77 getting snatched out of Hell Track boghole

Mooser77 coming down Hell Track

Elbie84 not in a happy place while entering Hell Track

After Hell Track, we headed back to the camping area for some lunch. Upon arrival back at the camp, we had a few more forum members and friends waiting for us. We ended up with another 4 vehicles, being ;

- XQZME ( Aaron and his wife )
- XQZME's mates ( 2 guys in their new black Jeep )
- Dale in his white Sierra ( friend of Outrage - Matt )
- James in his red Sierra ( friend of Outrage - Matt )

Some pictures of the camp at Latrobe River

Not ever having had much to do with the Sierra's, I wasn't sure about their abilities. A couple of hours down the track put this doubt out of my mind. I have never seen a vehicle climb a track that was as rutted and steep as the top part of Youngs Track, but both Sierra's did it easy, one of them with the front off the ground for most of the ascent.

Anyway, after the further introductions, we headed off to do some smaller tracks on the way to Hard Up Haul Track and Youngs Track. The only real excitement on the way to Hard Up Haul was Paul ( D4x4 ) who blew a tyre of a rim. No great dramas with the repairs to that one, it was possilbe to jack the car up, reposition the tyre on the rim, hook up the compressor and hope that it reseated itself, which it did. Anyway, while Paul and one or two others did the repairs, the rest of us sat on the embankment and watched. Obviously there were a few comments going backwards and forwards while the fun was happening, which was all in good fun. The thing that stopped that was when the tyre did reseat itself and popped back onto the rim. Never seen so many people jump all at the same time, should have got that one on video.

D4x4's tyre rolled off the rim

After the repairs, we continued on our merry way to Hard Up Haul Track. Hard Up Haul Track itself was not overly difficult, but once you reach the top, there are two ways you can go, continue straight and up the main part of the track, or turn right and head up a more heavily rutted and steeper section. About half, myself included, went straight ahead, while the other half took the ' fun ' track. I was taking pictures here when James came up in his red Sierra, thought he was going to flip it, so switched to video and started filming.

James coming up Hard Up Haul Track

D4x4 coming up Hard Up Haul Track

After everyone had made it up Hard Up Haul Track and wound our way around via Beards Track to Youngs Track, we had a bit of an explore to try and find the previously untried ( by us anyway ) Youngs Rock. A bit of looking around we found a couple of tracks off to the right of Youngs Track. After some discussion about the best way to get down there, some lines were decided upon and we all went down to the bottom. Once there, we noticed a couple of steep looking tracks heading back up the hill in another direction. Upon closer inspection, the left hand track turned out to be the fabled ' Youngs Rock '. Needless to say, not one of attempted this or even tried to get up the track. The other track, which I suppose was the chicken track, was only attempted by a handful of people.

Various Pictures on Youngs Track

It was starting to get on a little bit in the afternoon, and about this time the thunder and lightining started to roll in. Not sure if the thunder echos off the surrounding hills or not, but it was some of the loudest thunder I have heard in a long time. We headed back to camp to make sure everything was waterproof and think about a beer or three. On the way back we bumped into another forum member ;

- Bainsy ( and La Toya )

From about this time on for a good while, the rain bucketed down. Got back to camp, sat around for a bit and then decided that with all the rain, Reference Track could be good. A short drive ( about 10 minutes ) up Hawhtorn Creek Road, a quick left into Suckling Track and we were at the base of Reference Track. Yes, the recent, very heavy, rain had done it's job, Reference Track was a slippery, muddy steep slide. Several tried to make it up, only some succeeded.

Those that could not make it up, including myself, ducked back out onto Suckling and around the back way to meet uop with the other guys at the top of Reference Track. This group included myself, Mark (tennismark), Aaron (XQZME) and his friends in the new Jeep. Anyway, met up at the top and did the trip down Reference Track, some did is forwards, some made it over the lip at the bottom, some did it sideways and some got down, not sure how, but they got down none the less. Everyone had a great time and mimimal damage, if any at this track. A couple of the guys in the more capable, lifted, 35 + inch tyres had a bit more of a play here and went back up again. The Sierra's continued to surprise and showed no signs of anything stopping them. Hate to say it, but they made most things look easy.

The rest of us headed back to camp, cooked our meals, had a beer or three and stood around in the rain for a while before going to bed. A good eveing night and it was a great chance for a lot of people from the forum to meet over a drink and catch up.

The rain perstisted through most of the Saturday night and into the Sunday morning. Once everyone was up, packed up and breakfast dishes were put away, some decided due to wet tents and other previous committments that they were heading back the way they came. The rest of us left the Latrobe River camping area about 10:15 ish and headed for O'Tooles. There were five vehicles that headed off, these were

- Davidman ( David )
- Elbie84 ( Scott )
- Outrage ( Matt )
- Tennismark ( Mark )
- D4x4 ( Paul and Darren )

We travelled out of the camping area via Kings Road and out onto WillowGrove Road. Headed south along here for a while until we got to the turnoff for the Moe / Rawson road, hung a left here and travelled towards the dam wall via Erica. Beautiful country. Got to Beardmores Track before the dam wall, stopped for a bit to air down, and made our way along Beardmores with some spectacular views of the dam wall and spillway over to our left. It was rather wet here as well, and Beardmores track, although not difficult, proved a bit tricky in some areas.

View of the Dam Wall from Beardmores Track

The Mighty Pajero on Beardmores

Got to the end of Beardmores and worked our way bak onto Walhalla Road and to the start of Merringtons Track. A couple of hundred metres or so along here was the turn off fo Pheasant Track. Now that was some fun in the wet. Didn't get too many pictures of this one beacuse both hands were gripping the wheel, both feet were pushing the brake pedal through the firewall and the vehicles almost took on a mind of their own. No great dramas though, and we all made it along Pheasant Track and out onto Williamsons Spur Track. This was only a short track ( the bit we did anyway ) and we got to the top of Flats Track.

We decided to go down flats not using the chicken track and tackled the steps at the top. It was about this time that the clouds / fog really settled in and it was difficult seeing another vehicle 20 metres away. The video of D4x4 coming down these steps will show the cloud cover. Also plenty of other videos of us all coming down Flats Track.

D4x4 coming down Flats Track in the fog / cloud

Various Pictures of Flats Track

Got to the bottom of Flats, hung a right onto Donnelly Creek Track and drove into O'Tooles. It wasn't as busy as I thought, but there was still quite a number of people here.

Stayed here for a little while and had lunch and some refreshments. About this time, ShinySideUP and a friend of his ( Paul ) turned up to join us for an afternoon's driving. We were now up to 6 vehicles at O'Tooles.

Some pictures of the O'Tooles camping area

We headed off to do some of the local tracks. Started by heading left out of the campground, along Donnellys Creek Track for a little way and then turned onto S Track. Not sure what the S is meant to stand for, but Steep would be one good word. Anyway, followed S Track, joined up with North East Track and followed that around onto Dream Creek Track. This lead us out onto Walhalla Road again just before the intersection with Merringtons Track.

Some pictures of the scenery from around these tracks

At this time of the afternoon, unfortunately Elbie84 and ShinySideUP had other committments and headed off from there. It was easier than heading back into camp and leaving a bit later on anyway. So, goodbyes were said and that left 4 of us, Davidman, Outrage, D4x4 and Tennismark.

As we were here, this gave us the perfect opportunity to do Pheasant Track, Williamsons Spur Track and Flats Track again and head back into camp. It was just as much fun this time as it was the first time. I for one would be keen to do it in the other direction, might have to try Pheasants Track in the dry in that direction though. We did think about Trig Track, but decided to give that a miss due to the amount of rain in the area.

We got back to camp, set up, ate and had a few beers. Later in the evening, D4x4 decided it was time for him to head off home as well, as Darren had to work the following morning. That left the three of us. We enjoyed a few ales, some friendly chat, a great fire and ended up calling it a night. All 3 of us slept in the vehicles that night, still wet.

Next morning, breakfast and packup was all done by about 9:00 AM, so we set out again to do some tracks. We headed back along Donnellys Creek Track to have a look at some of the huts and sights around the place. Not surprisingly, all of the huts were taken over the weekend. We got to the hut on the corner of Donnellys Creek Track and Army Track, I think it is Junction Hut, where the guys asked us if we had a compressor. A bunch of young guys and their girlfriends out, tyres deflated but no compressor between them. Go figure

Helped them out, pumped their tyres up and continued on. On the way back we headed down to where the walk to the Water Wheel starts, and decided to give Morning Star Track a go. The maps showed that this continued for some way, joined back up with McEvoys, would around a bit, joined onto WhiteStar Track and then back to Donnellys and towards home.

Sounded good in theory anyway. Morning Star Track would have to be one of the steepest and rockiest tracks that I have ever done. Flats track is just that, flat, compared to it. The three of us made it up, we climbed from about 500 metres altitude to over 1100 metres altitude in not too much of a distance. I will put the track file up on the site in the next few days or so.

Coming up Morning Star Track pictures

More of Morning Star Track

Getting close to the end of the driving for the weekend, the 4x4 stuff anyway, we completed those tracks and headed back out to the dam wall where we stopped for a bit, aired up, Outrage (Matt) taped his tail light assembly back in and we headed off to Moe. Got to Moe, petrol and gassed up, said our goodbyes and headed off down the freeway.

All in all, I thought this was a great trip, met some great people, did some great tracks and had a great time. Little bit of a shame about the rain, and I forgot, those bloody large hailstones on the Saturday evening, they hurt, but we had sun, dust, rain, mud and everything in between. Could not have asked for more and looking forward to catching up with everyone again.

A very big thankyou to all who came along for making such a fantastic long weekend possible.