We planned on staying at Keppels Hut on Saturday night but there are two direct ways to get there - either up Mt Margaret Road (28km) or Lady Talbot Drive + Upper Taggerty Road (25km). We took LTD and in hindsight it was probably the best decision as MMR has quite sharp descents/ascents as opposed to LTR which is a gradual ascent/descent. We started at 8am and arrived at Keppels hut just past 1:30. Unfortunately, it rained most of the time we were on the trail so our packs got soaked as did some of our gear inside packs. Lesson learnt: bring a pack cover haha.
When we arrived at the hut there were three other cars there and I thought we were going to have to stay in our tents outside the hut. Luckily, the people who were inside were just staying for some lunch but were good enough to get a fire going, which we took full advantage to dry our gear once they had left. The rain disappeared at about 2:30 and we even got some sunshine. The hut was really good, simple, but really good. It only allows for four people to sleep in there but if there weather is good there is plenty of room outside for tents.
We got going the next day at 8am and continued on down the Keppel Hut Track to Upper Taggerty Road to the Tintersection at Lady Talbot Drive. We continued right and headed for Mount Margaret. By the time we hit 17kms we had made it to Keppels Camping Ground, which is about a 10 minute drive out of Marysville. Most of that 17kms was downhill and once we made it out Marysville-Buxton road it was pretty much flat road all the way back into town. Walking a flat road can seem easy but the last 11kms was a little tough. I don't know whether that was because it was a tough road or because I knew the end was in sight. Anyway, we made it back to Marysville in a little over 7 hours, with 5 hrs 45 mins of actually walking time. So a reasonably solid day.
Overall, it was a great weekend away. I love the whole Marysville area and despite the fact you can see still remnants of the 2009 Black Saturday fires, it still is a really nice place to visit and camp/hike.
