When I was shuffling my way north on the AAWT last November I noticed that there had been what looked like a prescribed burn on the east side of Cowombat Flat Track. I didn't head up to the Cobberas on my AAWT walk though so I wasn't sure what the damage was. On Friday I decided to head up to bivy for the night at Cobberas No 1, to make the walk into a circuit I headed up the spur leading to Moscow Peak off Cowombat Track (I returned down the spur that comes in through the scrub almost at the carpark on Cowombat Track).
The earth works for the fire (I'm guessing its a firebreak) have left some big scars up to around the 1500 metre contour level on what use to be an untracked spur. So I just thought I'd give people a heads up as it's not the most pleasant walking and higher up the bulldozer more or less stuck to the crest of the spur which is normally the spot you'd want to walk. By the way, this isn't a criticism of Parks Vic, I understand the need for planned burns, it's just a heads up for walkers to maybe give that route a miss for a couple of years until it starts to revegetate a bit if you don't fancy climbing up a huge bulldozer scar.
It wasn't all bad news though, once above the fire earthworks the Cobberas are as good as ever. Sunset from my bivy last night up on Cobberas 1 was pretty sweet and dropping back down to the ute today along the spur the comes in near the car park from the south east was pretty good walking overall, only the last kilometres getting a bit scrubby.
For any AAWT walkers heading through soon there is only a tiny trickle of water dribbling down the two arms of Stony Creek under Cowombat Flat Track and the first crossing of Bulley Creek (just after the gate) is bone dry. Up on the range the headwaters of Moscow Creek is also dry (as you'd expect at this time of the year).