You can read about my bushwalking trip to the summit of Mt. Bogong here.

As I ascended up the Staircase Spur of Victoria’s highest peak, Mt. Bogong I was beginning to actually get pretty tired because I had now been walking straight up for about three hours on this trail plus I was even beginning to feel the altitude a little bit due to my shortness of breath:

Anyway as I broke through the tree line and was rewarded with views of the surrounding Victorian Alps:

I may have had my first views of the walk, but I now had no trees to block the cool wind that was blowing over the treeless top of Mt. Bogong:

As I walked up the trail I couldn’t help, but imagine the Aborigines long ago walking up here in the summer time to scavenge among the rocks of this large mountain to find the bogong moths they loved to eat:

These moths have a high fat content and thus were very healthy for the Aboriginals to eat who did not have much fat in their diet.  The word bogong comes from the Aboriginal term “bogong” that is used to describe the rocky granite outcrops in the Victorian Alps and is thus this mountain’s namesake:

As I continued up the mountain I could see the summit of Mt. Bogong looming ahead of me, but this final stretch would be the most tiring of the entire hike due to the steep ascent and the continuing effects of the altitude.  Trust me, this is much steeper then it looks, but I do have to say that I liked the red color from the surrounding grasslands as I trudged up this ridgeline:

Often times when walking through the Australian bush like this I see plenty of wildlife and on this walk I had so far only seen birds.  It is not unusual for me to spot a wallabies or kangaroos while walking in the bush, but unfortunately on this trip I didn’t see any.  However, something I hadn’t seen before so high up above the tree line in the Australian Alps was a lizard:

I have no idea what kind of lizard this is, but it was living high up in the cool region of the high country.  I figured a lizard would want to live somewhere warmer, but I guess he has some how adapted to living at such a harsh climate.

Here is the view looking back down the ridgeline of the Staircase Spur that I had just hiked up:

Directly in front me at this point was a monument constructed in memory of the three skiers, George Gadsden, Edward Welch, and John McRae who got trapped in a blizzard on this mountain and died back in 1943:

Here is a closer up picture of the plaque on this memorial:

This wasn’t the first time people have perished in the freezing cold blizzards that hit the Victorian high country every year.  The most well known person to die on these mountains is probably a fella by the name of Cleve Cole who died on this mountain back in August 1936 and a hut on the mountain was constructed in his honor to assist any other skiers that get trapped in the area because of a blizzard.

Cleve Cole

There was no possibility of a blizzard happening on the summer day I hiked up Mt. Bogong, but there was plenty of dark clouds hanging around and the weather was quite cool.  It is not uncommon for snow storms to happen in the Australian high country even in the warmer months.

As I got towards the top of the mountain I actually walked right by a number of springs that had water bubbling up out of the mountain.  That crystal clear water I saw in the creeks further down the mountain all start up here in these springs:

With such springs and a vast grassland it is no wonder why the stockmen used to drive their cattle up here to graze during the summer months.  The stockmen can no longer graze in the high country any longer, which continues to be a point of contention in Australia due to many people thinking the stockmen are part of Australia’s natural heritage and that the grazing reduces the risk of fire danger.  The environmentalists on the other hand say the grazing harms the environment and so far the environmentalists have won out on this debate.

Just ahead of me I could see the cairn that represented the summit of this 1,986 meter (6,520 feet) mountain:

As I trudged up the last stretch of the trail I couldn’t help but be impressed by the rugged scenery around me:

And then finally I was on the top of the mountain and was rewarded with great views all around me.  For example I could see off in the distance to the south the most impressive peak of the Victorian Alps, Mt. Feathertop:

It had taken me about four hours to reach the summit of the mountain and this was actually the most tiring of all my hikes I have done in Australia.

Looking westward I could see the end of the ridgeline that composes Mt. Bogong.  If you look closely in the picture below in the distance on the far right of the photograph is Mt. Buffalo:

As can be seen in the above photograph as well is the fact that the weather was turning colder, windier, and cloudier which was my cue to get off the mountain before some nasty weather struck, but now before taking in one last view of the valley where the city of Mt. Beauty lies that I had saw earlier in the day when crossing over the Bright-Tawonga Road:

Finally something I found of interest on the summit of Mt. Bogong was these unusual yellow flowers I had never seen before on any of my hikes up in the high country:

I have no idea what type of flower this is or even if it is a native Australian species but it was an unusual plant I had never seen before except on the summit of Mt. Bogong.  So if anyone knows what plant this is feel free to leave a comment because I would like to know.

With the poor weather moving I hurried back down the mountain.  It had taken me four hours to get up the mountain and it only took me about 2.5 hours to get back down.  Counting the half hour I spent on the summit it was about a 7-8 hour day on the mountain and incredibly I had saw only one hiker, an older gentleman who had stayed at Cleve Cole Hut the prior night before hiking down today.  He thought I was nuts hiking up to the top of Mt. Bogong and back in one day, but I did it.  I have done tougher hikes before in Colorado so this wasn’t as bad, but I was still quite tired and I still had a four hour drive to get back home.  It was worth it though and I highly recommend everyone into bushwalking to take the time to hike the mountain, but I think next time I do it I will bring my sleeping bag.

Reaching Mt. Bogong takes about a four hour drive from Melbourne up the Hume Highway before getting off on the Great Alpine Road.  About an hour drive up the Great Alpine Road is a turn off to Mt. Bogong via the Bright-Tawonga Road.  This road twists and turns up the mountains where a lookout on the summit of this road provides spectacular views of Mt. Bogong:

From here it was just a short drive back down the mountain and across the valley the valley to the campground that the trail head is located at:

The campground like many areas in the Australian Alps was just extremely scenic and would just be a lovely place to spend a weekend camping.  However, on this trip camping wasn’t on my agenda, just getting to the top of Mt. Bogong was.  The trailhead at the campground is actually the beginning of a four wheel drive road known as Mountain Creek Road that takes bushwalkers to the actual trailhead to the top of Mt. Bogong, which was 2 kilometers away:

Due to the amount of rain that had fallen recently I wasn’t about to try and drive to the trail head on this muddy road:

Once I started walking further up the road, it actually began to dry out pretty well:

There was also a river crossing along the road where fortunately Parks Victoria was kind enough to build a bridge for hikers to walk across:

There are a number of streams that flow from the slopes of Mt. Bogong that need to be crossed along the trail and it is just incredible how clean this water is:

I usually drink some of the clean water while hiking around Australia and the water at Mt. Bogong is about as refreshing as it gets.  After trudging through mud and water along the four wheel drive trail, I finally came upon the trailhead to Mt. Bogong, which is known as Staircase Spur:

Six kilometers to the top of the mountain doesn’t seem that far, but as I would find out this was a long six kilometers because Staircase Spur did live up to its name because it was literally all up hill from here.

The first part of the trail took me through a very dense forest of gum trees:

I just love the smell of eucalyptus and it was especially strong in this forest.  These trees were no where near as big as the monsterous mountain ash trees in southern Victoria, but they were still scenic none the less.  There was also a lot of wildflowers that carpeted the side of the mountain as well to add a splash of color to the surrounding scenery:

Besides the incredibly lush foliage there was also a number of birds I could see and here in the bush around me such as this kookabura:

As I continued my steady ascent up the mountain I eventually came to a large section of the forest that had been scorched by a bushfire two years prior:

The forest was actually recovering really well from the fires as the Australian bush typically does.  About two hours into the hike I came to one of the cabins on Mt. Bogong that is free of charge for hikers to use:

These huts that are spread around Australia’s Alps are really one of the great features of hiking in Australia due to the safety and convenience they provide for bushwalkers.  I wasn’t staying at the hut but I sure was going to use it to take a break at because  I was actually pretty tired by the time I reached this hut due to the fact I had literally been walking for two hours straight up.

I stayed at the hut for about 30 minutes eating my lunch before heading back up the trail again.  Past the hut the trail becomes quickly engulfed with these scenic snow gums:

The further up the mountain I hiked the more the snow gums began to thin out thus providing with my first views of the hike:

As I broke through the tree line I could see I still had a long ways to go as the high ridgeline of Mt. Bogong loomed in front me:

Next Posting: Mt. Bongong, Victoria – Part 2