Mt Tarn walking track (Budawangs)

[emydura]

I was just wondering whether it is still easy to walk the Mt Tarn track in the Budawangs since the fires or has it become completely overgrown?

Thanks

David

[sandym]

Do you mean from Bibbenluke? We went just after the fires and the section that travels along the west side of Angel Creek was completely gone but the track through the pass and across the plateau was good. So, not easy but not all that bad.

Coming from the north and west (Styles Creek way or over from Fosters) was very overgrown last time we were in the area (about a year ago).

[emydura]

Do you mean from Bibbenluke? We went just after the fires and the section that travels along the west side of Angel Creek was completely gone but the track through the pass and across the plateau was good. So, not easy but not all that bad.

Coming from the north and west (Styles Creek way or over from Fosters) was very overgrown last time we were in the area (about a year ago).

Thanks for your response. Yes, from Bibbenluke. So if you wanted to walk from Wog Wog to the Nerriga entrance, it is not too difficult until you get to the Styles Creek area from where it will be hard going until you reach the Endrick fire trail?

[sandym]

Your summary sounds pretty sensible. We could not find the track going off Mount Tarn to Mount Haughton. YMMV. Check out RWildman's report here: https://bushwalk.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... gs#p441581 which describes the section through Styles Creek and Kilpatrick Creek on the way to Quilty's Clearing. That section sounds a little worse since we did it a year or so ago.

[emydura]

Your summary sounds pretty sensible. We could not find the track going off Mount Tarn to Mount Haughton. YMMV. Check out RWildman's report here: https://bushwalk.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... gs#p441581 which describes the section through Styles Creek and Kilpatrick Creek on the way to Quilty's Clearing. That section sounds a little worse since we did it a year or so ago.

Thanks for the link. I just happened to read it not long before you posted it. I am happy the track out to Folly Point is back to normal. Might include that as well.

[emydura]

I walked along the Red Ground track last weekend and then onto the Endrick River Firetrail. When we reached the junction with the Mt Tarn track we had planned to walk up to the Bora grounds and Hidden Valley, but the regrowth was just too thick. We walked for a while but it was just getting worse, so decided to give it a miss. We weren't helped by heavy fog which meant we couldn't see 10 metres in front of us, let alone the cliffs we were trying to walk too. I sort of wonder what the future will be for the Mt Tarn track. Maybe with all this money the National Parks will be receiving in the next Federal budget, they can put resources to clearing these tracks. I won't hold my breathe.

The good news, as RWildman reported, is the track out to Folly Point is pretty good now. For the most part, it is quite easy to follow. The second half is slow going, but we rarely lost the path and when we did, we were able to quickly find it. A friend of mine told me it was horrendous a year or so back. Not so now. Not many campsites though.

[tom_brennan]

Maybe with all this money the National Parks will be receiving in the next Federal budget, they can put resources to clearing these tracks..

Given that Morton NP is a state park, there won't be anything in the Federal budget!

For longstanding tracks in more remote areas, it's probably up to bushwalkers to maintain them - obviously not legal, but in some areas, it will be that or lose them.

[sandym]

For longstanding tracks in more remote areas, it's probably up to bushwalkers to maintain them - obviously not legal, but in some areas, it will be that or lose them.

Virtually nothing is legal in Australia anymore. Knee jerk reaction is always, "let's make that illegal."

[bernieq]

put resources to clearing these tracks.

it's probably up to bushwalkers to maintain them

I'm solidly in the second camp (pun intended). I reckon remote (ish) tracks should wax & wain on usage.

If you read some of the old bushwalking mags, there are often references to tracks & routes that aren't used any more. In this immediate area, I remember reading a trip report (from the 1950s?) that went from the Vines, up onto Quilty, past the Bora, then to the southern end & down to Styles. Another one is Sluice Box Falls - this was a very popular target for groups back in the day and there was a track from Watson's Pass through to Styles Plain. Darri Pass was an easy route between Monolith Valley (via Shrouded Gods) and Holland's Creek. All of these routes would be very challenging now, I think.

These days we have both the technology (gps) to record a route & the means (internet) to communicate it to anyone interested. If the route works, it survives.
(apology for the thread hijack)

[Walk_fat boy_walk]

I reckon remote (ish) tracks should wax & wain on usage.

Agree with this. I think that more or less reflects the policy in declared wilderness areas anyway? Certainly nothing wrong with walkers re-establishing old routes through use though?

[emydura]

Maybe with all this money the National Parks will be receiving in the next Federal budget, they can put resources to clearing these tracks..

Given that Morton NP is a state park, there won't be anything in the Federal budget!

.

I thought the states were responsible for all the national parks. But you are right, the $263 million is restricted to Booderee National Park, Kakadu and Uluru national Parks, the Australian national Botanic Gardens and 60 marine parks.

[emydura]

I reckon remote (ish) tracks should wax & wain on usage.

Agree with this. I think that more or less reflects the policy in declared wilderness areas anyway? Certainly nothing wrong with walkers re-establishing old routes through use though?

The reality is a lot of those Budawang tracks just don't see enough walkers to maintain a track just through usage. Over 4 days on the ANZAC day weekend in mostly perfect weather, I saw no walkers on the Folly Point track and just two walkers who climbed up to the Bora grounds. That area seems to be primarily used by bike riders on the fire trails. Only hard core masochists are going to walk along that Mt Tarn track unless that track is cleared. But that would be a really tough task for a few volunteers to undertake. The vegetation is too thick. You really need chainsaws and other mechanical equipment which you can't carry from the car. This is a much tougher track to clear than the Folly Point track.

[Geoff 1958]

I guess I must be one of those ‘hard core masochists’.
I rode my mtb from Sassafras Gate to the Mt Tarn trailhead, and bashed through to Hidden Valley (5.5 kms in 3 hours) to camp in a cave just outside the valley.
Spent another three hours that afternoon circumnavigating Hidden Valley anti-clockwise, camped the night, and did the reverse trip out the next morning.
Unless you like navigation, bush bashing, making trail, getting yourself out of a fix, etc I would not recommend it.
I went in in 2021, for a day, and got it all done. Not now! Even though some clearing has been done on the first (Northern) km, and on the flatter section where you skirt the catchment and swing left to reach Hidden Valley, it is still very, very easy to get lost, especially in overcast conditions.
Yes, the trail needs users, and probably volunteer clearers, but make sure you are the right person for this before you venture out there.
You must have a navigational app, and plenty of battery life.

[Prospero]

Thanks all for this discussion. Always avidly interested in any Budawangs track condition reports. Being my extremely happy place, I did a Sassafras – Hidden valley and surrounds trip every year since about 1999.
In that time I saw the place change dramatically even without fires or floods. Any old timers remember the northern end inside HV? Used to be perfect for camping; open grassy area, good water source and an easy track to the south end to climb Sturgiss. Then camping was banned within HV (early 2000s?) which presumably decimated walker numbers into the valley. Also we had many good (wet) years and no fires. By about 2015 the camping area and the track to the North end of HV had completely disappeared under neck high scrub. Didn’t stop me – I took to camping up on Sturgiss but it made it a chore to get water. The 2019 megafire did stop me though. I can’t face the trauma of returning yet (Kangangra post 2019 was heartbreaking enough).
Mixed feelings: I kind of like the idea of HV becoming a forgotten secret place inaccessible to instagrammers. But agree with Geoff 1958 and WFBW. We need a few pioneer bushwalkers again.

[ribuck]

Any old timers remember the northern end inside HV? Used to be perfect for camping; open grassy area, good water source and an easy track to the south end to climb Sturgiss.

If you go back further, to 1982, Hidden Valley was almost completely open. Stunning camping, stunning rock formations visible all around, stunning setting.

Then camping was banned within HV (early 2000s?) which presumably decimated walker numbers into the valley.

I'm pretty sure the first camping ban was introduced in the 1990s, in response to "over usage" and visible toilet waste. We expected to continue to enjoy the same experience, just without the camping. But actions often have unintended consequences, and the camping ban ended up destroying what we valued so much.

I wonder what Hidden Valley was like before bushwalkers discovered it. I suspect the changing fire regimes affected the valley more than the camping did.