Walk into History- Yarra State Park

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Walk into History- Yarra State Park

Postby aarob » Sun 16 Oct, 2016 9:38 pm

Hey, so I did a section of the Walk into History in the Yarra State Forest recently. Starling Gap - New Federal Mill - Starling Gap. For the most, I found the experience positive, always do, even if it sucks there is always a positive to take from spending time in the bush/mountains.
The camping at the New Federal Mill was quite cool, a most definite sense of remoteness, in my opinion the vibe here was better than that of the Ada No. 2 camp site. A short walk (1.5 k's) from the camp site is the Ada Tree, a 400 year old Mountain Ash with nearly 17 meters of girth at chest height. A *&%$#! monster which is well worth the extra trot.
I did find the 10 odd k hike from Starling Gap relatively monotonous however. Fairly dence, many fallen trees which I quickly got over in more ways than one. There was also a distinct lack of open vista type views, it became claustrophobic, ironic considering the geography. Now these are just my thoughts, I love alpine climbing but have this a crack just for fun, so don't let my not picking rambling put you off!! There are some really sweet bits, like the boardwalks and the river crossing of the Little Ada River. Nothing massive, but a deep bush feel and amazingly beautiful things to see. Just some ripper spots.
So that's about it really, hope this helps the never ending decision making in where to go next. A nice area for a quick jaunt. Tighten ya straps, Andy
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Re: Walk into History- Yarra State Park

Postby bigkev » Sun 05 Feb, 2017 4:26 pm

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Big Pats Creek early on day 1.


On the Australia Day Thursday and Friday I headed up to Warburton to do the Walk into History. I've walked sections of this walk over the years but never linked the whole thing up. The good news is that the tramways, with a couple of notable exceptions, are pretty clear of encroaching scrub at the moment. It looks like the Big Pats Creek to the turn off to Ada No.2 camp has been cleared very recently. The only section that I had any trouble with was picking up the continuation as I crossed Yarra Junction - Noojee Road at the bottom of The Bump on day 2. It didn't really matter much as I just wandered a couple of hundred metres up the main road to the top of The Bump and picked up the WIH there.
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Ada No.2 Mill camp.

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Nature is slowly reclaiming her own.

I camped at the Ada No.2 Mill site and was surprised by how much the campsite has been developed, benches, tent platforms, food boxes and even a table! Last time I was up here (we're talking decades!) I thought that the official camping area was on the other side of the Ada River. Apart from the history this walk also features some great forest scenery if big trees and ferns are your thing. I'm struggling to come up with a lot of negatives for this walk, maybe the leeches might turn some people off, and the lack of views can sometimes make it all seem a bit familiar - but hey its only a two day walk so I didn't really have time to be bored.
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Lunch on day 2, I've had worse spots!

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The old tramway down to the Little Yarra River from The Bump was particularly good walking.

I used Glenn Tempest's notes out of his book 'Weekend Walks Around Melbourne' and they were pretty accurate except for the spot I mentioned in the first paragraph. As is usual my GPS had had the distance a fair bit more than the official distance at 44 kilometres. I've written this walk up on my blog http://goinferalonedayatatime.blogspot. ... -walk.html if anyone wants to check out some more photos. I've also done a journal if you prefer a magazine style format http://hiking.topicwise.com/doc/walkintohistory

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My last crossing of the Little Yarra River, late on day 2.
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Re: Walk into History- Yarra State Park

Postby neilmny » Mon 06 Feb, 2017 7:55 am

Another great goin' feral blog Kev well done.
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Re: Walk into History- Yarra State Park

Postby bigkev » Mon 06 Feb, 2017 4:33 pm

Cheers Neil.
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Re: Walk into History- Yarra State Park

Postby sim1oz » Mon 13 Mar, 2017 8:58 pm

It might be time I took this one on with my daughter. I promised to do the Walk into History with her years ago, and we started but pulled out (ha, that is a story and a half) at Starlings Gap because she couldn't handle the rain and leeches. Now that she is a tween and taller than me, and does aths training, we should be able to power through. Thanks, Big Kev, for the photos and write up!!!
Carpe diem!
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Re: Walk into History- Yarra State Park

Postby bigkev » Wed 22 Mar, 2017 6:44 pm

Thanks for checking out the post sim1oz. The WIH is a good walk for someone new to overnight walking, although it sounds like your daughter maybe dragging you along now:)
The leaches are pretty ferocious up there, I had bright, warm sunshine on the first day and still picked up my fair share.
Cheers Kevin
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