Day 21: Big River Saddle to Langford Gap 47.8kms, 13.5 hours, 2,026m ascent, 70k steps, 0 through hikers, 1 snake

Well, today was a big day!  I had all my gear ready to camp out overnight somewhere,  but also set myself the challenge of getting to Jubbie at Langford Gap some 40+km away.  I set off at 6:30am in the mist, and it took several hours for the mist and clouds to disappear.  I was walking above the clouds for all that time.  I headed up Long Spur Track, a 4WD track, which eventually came to an end. At that point, a walking track followed Long Spur towards Mt Bogong. It was really pretty and mostly nice to walk along, albeit a little slower than the vehicle track.

After Long Spur, the official route headed off in one direction,  and I in the other, towards Cleve Cole Hut and Mt Bogong. It’s so beautiful walking in those alpine areas – I think this is my favourite part of the walk. I love, love,  love the snow gums and the low vegetation that’s filled with wildflowers.  Cleve Cole Hut is a lovely stone hut full of amenities like stove,  basic kitchen,  etc. It would be a great hut to spend a stormy night in.

The track then took me to the summit of Mt Bogong with its big cairn. It’s a big,  round mountain that you just walk up rather than climbing up. I passed a couple of outdoor ed classes from Geelong, spending a few nights camping in the Bogong High Plains area.  The track was uneven underfoot and sometimes too narrow to comfortably walk in — I remember this about the walk from Langford Gap to Mount Hotham, which is coming up. Seems to be an alpine area thing.

The track followed Quartz Ridge down to little Big River.  That was very hard walking with lots of stones and uneven ground heading downhill. I love walking along ridgelines – it makes me feel like I’m on top of the world. This one was hard though.  The other thing that made it challenging was lots more uphill. When I’m heading downhill,  I just want to go down,  not keep climbing back up again!  I finally arrived at Big River and it was flowing very fast. Nico had said it was mid shins on him (he’s about my height).  Well, today, it was mid thighs on me, and very difficult to walk through because it was flowing so quickly.  I really had to use my strength to push each foot forward (I was walking diagonally across the river heading upstream) and make sure I had a firm footing before moving the next foot or my hiking pole which I dug in to the rocks before moving my feet to help give me balance. 

Once across the river,  I had some hydralite, refilled my water, and got myself ready for the next round of uphill.  It was 3pm, and I wasn’t sure if I’d make my challenge of reaching Jubbie because I still had 22km to go.  This uphill was great. It was on Big River Fire Trail, a grassy vehicle track with a very kind gradient. It switch-backed up the spur for 7km. Even though it was great to walk on,  I was definitely over the uphill by the end. The fire trail continued for kilometres, and it was a very fast track.  I saw a baby brown snake,  but it hid too quickly to get a photo.  It was also a very wet track. Lots of the time, the track was basically a little stream from all the rain yesterday. There was nothing to do but embrace wet feet and walk through it, again and again.    I was pretty much walking in water all afternoon.  It was also very slippery at points, and I couldn’t stop myself from ending up on my bum with full mud all the way down my leg!

From fire trail, the track went on to a foot pad cut into the low vegetation. At times, the track was so narrow that I had to put my feet literally in front of each other and, like the other, was often a little stream or super muddy.  But it’s so beautiful!  After a few kms, that track joined a vehicle track running alongside an aqueduct and from there straight to Langford Gap and Jubbie. Several hours earlier, I had estimated I’d arrive around 8pm, and I arrived bang on time!  We had to try a couple of campgrounds before we found a place to stay. The first was filled with kids on a school trip.   We had a lovely chat with a neighbour camper who came to say hi while we eating our dinner and then put ourselves to bed.  What a huge day!