Round mountain to Snakey Plain circuit (Kosciuszko)

[stuart53]

A friend and I did a four day circuit from Round Mountain to the Snakey Plain track in mid-December. It was pouring rain all the first day so we bailed out of the Farmhouse Ridge leg and went straight to Derschko's. We spent the afternoon and night snug in the hut while it rained and the wind howled. The next day we walked to Grey Mare hut and as the weather had improved (a bit) we decided to do cross over to Pretty Plain.

The theory was that we would head west from the hut and pick up the old Strumbo firetrail, but this was a bit trickier than expected. We went up the hill at the back of the hut through snow gum forest and out onto more open country but couldn't see any sign of the old trail. We picked the gap between Bulls Head Rock and the unnamed peak to the south, and at the top of this gap found the first unequivocal sign of the old trail – I have attached a photo. When you look back (east) from here you can just see the old trail on the lower slopes of the Grey Mare Range as a line of thicker scrub, but this is only apparent with the benefit of distance - up close the course of the old track is invisible.

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The old trail is fairly easy to follow across the Strumbo Range (although we had reasonably clear weather by this stage - crossing the Grey Mare range in poor visibility would be a serious challenge as there are few distinct marks) until the steep descent to the head of Pretty Plain. The first few hundred metres of this descent are through snow gum forest and a bit overgrown but not too hard to follow. Then there's a section where the forest changes to taller trees that were killed in the 2003 fires and it's a horrible mess of fallen logs and dense head-high or taller regrowth scrub. We lost the track here and spent a nasty half hour struggling through very thick scrub before finding the correct route again a couple of hundred metres lower down. I think the trick is to make sure you stay on top of the spur – it's not readily apparent on the map but there is a distinct ridge that the old firetrail ran down and the foot track seems to follow this. If you descend off either side of this ridge it's a world of pain.

The trail down Pretty Plain is very easy to follow and the rebuilt hut is a joy. We stayed at the hut and the next day made our way down to the Tooma River and followed the Hellhole Creek firetrail to the junction with the Dargals firetrail. From here we decided to cut directly across to Wheeler's Hut rather than follow the longer route across the Tooma and round to the north. The notes I had said to cross over Broadway Plain to the hut but didn't explain that the “plain” is actually a series of low ridges covered in waist-high bossiaea scrub and separated by swampy streams. It's only two kilometers from the firetrail to the hut but you'll be thoroughly sick of wading through bossiaea and stumbling over boggy ground by the time you get there. We took the most direct route and there may be a slightly longer but easier path – the old (1960s?) Kosciusko 100,000 sheet shows a track running from the hut around the northern end of the Broadway Plain but there's no sign of this now.

We stayed at Wheeler's hut then walked out along the Snakey Plain track. This is generally a very pleasant walk, with a huge landslip at the top of the climb to Snakey Plain as added interest. It looks like the result of water erosion but it's hard to understand why this section of track would have collapsed like that – there doesn't seem to be a substantial catchment above the area the slipped.

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This was a great walk across some very beautiful country and the huts are extraordinary (I'll be sending a donation to the KHA). It's interesting how much the old firetrails have deteriorated – the Strumbo track is now just an intermittent foot track that is strangely aligned (at one point you enter a small plain, go all the way around the edge, then exit about fifty metres from where you arrived) and has only a few deep ruts and a couple of culverts to show that it was once a vehicle track. There are forested sections where the absence of tall trees shows where the old road went, but these are disappearing as well.

One interesting thing we found on the walk was a stinkhorn fungus down by the banks of the Tooma River – I have seen one of these before up on Farmhouse ridge but didn't know what it was then. If you get down close and sniff you'll know why they have the name they do.

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[kanangra]

Interesting trip there. I've never been into Wheelers. That is something I must put right before too long. I like the country around Dershkos. Small hut but the old pot belly pumps out some heat. Glad to see they rebuilt Pretty Plain Hut. The old was the only log hut in the mountains.

K.

[zac150]

Stuart

Sounds like a great walk.

I am planning a similar walk in April and am keen to get a bit more info on the section between Grey Mare and Pretty Plain. I worked on the hut rebuild so I know what the clearing looks like and the foot pad into Pretty Plain from the Strumbo (?) but I am more interested in the decent off the grey mare range. Do you have any other photos or info you can pass on on this section? In particular I am interested to know if there are any distinct markings where the track starts to descend.

Cheers Zac

[north-north-west]

The old Strumbo Fire Trail is still there, but largely covered by regrowth. When I last did it (two summers ago) a clear if narrow foot pad had formed, winding between the trees and scrub, following the line of the FT. It then joins the Dargalls FT, just before the first turnoff for the PP Hut.

There are a few sections where it's easier to follow beside the FT but for the most part it's pretty easy navigation.