i have a lot of history with the mountain as well having gone to timbertop. but really there arent many around / above the treeline 4wd tracks in victoria? i can think of stirling, blue rag, and maybe mt wellington track off the top of my head? everyone needs a fair go including 4wders. I understand why you don’t like the 4wd track. I feel endlessly blessed to have this place as my backyard and I feel better and just a bit clearer everytime I walk down off the mountain and out of those trees and return to ‘normal’ life. But I would hope we could acknowledge the power and beauty and quiet dignity of a place like this old mountain. Australians are so restrained, we don’t wear our hearts on our sleeves, and maybe thats a good thing. It’s a bit embarrassing to admit to how much I love this place, how I feel drawn to walk into the misty trees, how I love those nights sleeping by the stove in the GGS hut, how my knees hurt from skiing those basins, how pissed off I feel as I watch people drive over the mountain in their 4WDs, and how I can’t help thinking they would get so much more if they would just get out of their trucks for a little while and walk amongst the silence and the bare branches of those fire-killed trees. Strange rocks weave out of the mist, you sense Mt Buller over that deep valley, the trees are quiet, but everywhere is the mark of lyrebird and wombat. So much appreciation for the pleasure of a quiet place admidst a busy and noisy world. You drop back down the spur, to the Delatite, and back out to the wider world.
I think i needed something more ‘alpine’ and I get that as I emerge from the trees on Stirling and get that first and wonderful glimpse of the long arc of mountains from Cobbler to Howitt and through to the Bluff.
After that was all over, I shifted my allegience north of the divide. That is a long and complicated story, revolving around a seven year affair with a community and a gorgeous bit of land on the slopes of Mt Toorongo, up above Icy Creek. This trip, mid June, a long walk to snow line, it was the wonderful ash forests on Bluff Spur, and that interface between the burn line and the unburnt forest higher up the mountain.įor many years, Baw Baw was my alpine escape on the weekend. I love that slow transition from the Circuit road, up through alpine ash into snow gum, and finally that rounded peak above the treeline.Īnd in spite of all my journeys, it constantly amazes me that something new always presents itself. But, in my experience, more than anything else, this is a misty place. In rain and fresh snow, summer drouth, bushfire haze, spring blaze of wattle, in thunderstorms and hail.
I have lost track of the number of times i have walked up Mt Stirling.