I decided to head up to Erica on the Friday arvo and stay at the Erica Caravan Park for the night rather than leave home at 'sparrows' on Saturday morning for our daytrip. Added bonus was having the 'hot rocks eye fillet' at the pub, which as usual was magnificent.

Saturday morning everyone arrived at the pub on time and after grabbing a coffee and a bite to eat, we made our way to the 1st track of the day, being Low Saddle. I reversed the direction of the trip as personally I prefer driving Deep Ck 1 & 4 in the opposite direction to drive up the steep sections of both tracks, rather than drive down them. Leaving Erica it was a 15 min drive to Narrows Rd where we all let our tyres down.

The trip leader then missed the turn off to Low Saddle, so we all had to make a U Turn. My excuse was I hadnt been there for over 8 years, and now being an 'old tosser', my memory was not that flash..

We then arrive at the river crossing, which in the past has been quite deep, but today was very low so no issues for anyone driving  the crossing.

The 1st section of Low Saddle after the river crossing was a nice climb, and we all agreed; "It would be interesting in the wet". We then made our way to the Beardsmore junction and then headed to what is still my favourite track in the HC; Fultons Creek Tk.

As we made our way down to the 1st river crossing, a few of us had a bit of chuckle as we remembered the 1st time we entered Fultons off Walhalla Rd as it is a steep drop off and you dont have any idea where the track is for a second or so. We then arrived at the river crossing and couldt believe what we saw.... The river was only a puddle and you could even cross it without getting your tyres wet. It was the same with a few others along this track. The track was fairly chewed up in places and it kept us on our toes; especially when got to the two narly sections. I pulled over to take some video footage which will be posted a bit later. Unfortunately footage or pics dont really show how steep some of the tracks are.....

We then made our way onto Deep Ck 4 where we dropped down into the valley where there was usually a nice little creek running, but this time it was only a couple of puddles. It was here we decided to have our lunch break before making the steep long climb up to the Deep Ck 1 junction.

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As usual, it was a great climb up Deep Ck 4 to the Deep Ck 1 junction. We then made our way down No.1 to the creek bed with the infamous rock ledge. Whilst it is still there, it is pretty tame compared to what it used to be. Also the creek bed is nowhere near as rocky but it is still a track I would not want to be taking a vehicle without some sort of lift and 32" tyres minimum; unless you like hearing your undercarriage 'bonding' with some of the rocks. The section that used to have the 'character building' side angle bit has been cleaned up also. We then had the other super climb up to Walhalla Rd. Rick did say Deep Ck 1 is now his favourite track. He did take some footage, so hopefully he can put it up.

Throughtout the trip, there was alot of smoke from the Licola fires which meant the views were fairly ordinary. Also we passed the small section on Deep Ck 1 that was burnt in the recent Walhalla fires.

Deep Creek 1 fire.

Was a great day with great company. We had planned to head to the 'car wash' at Coopers Ck but that and numerous other areas are still closed, so we aired up just out of Walhalla and made our way home. Of the 5 on our trip, 4 had been on previous trips of mine and it was great to catch up with them again. It has been about 5 yrs since I last went 4wding with Digger & Erin, over 3 with Julius and at least 18 months with Brenton. Was good to meet Scott for the 1st time and am sure we will catch up again with him. Great to see Rick again and a shame that both he and Brenton have had to pull out of the upcoming HC trip, but think I still might be able to talk Brenton into missing Auskick just once...

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Here is short video of a section of Fultons Ck & Deep Ck 4. Again, footage doesnt do justice to the steepness of the tracks.

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Fantastic footage and trip report Allan and thanks again for a great day with some good challenging tracks. As long as its not the first week I’m sure I can find someone to cover for me at Auskick if required. Look forward to the next one.

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Thanks for the trip report Allan and the top photos/vidios it was time well spent, see you next month. Regards

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Great pitures and footage. Well done Allan a fantastic trip report good to see some one going to all that effort to write up a trip report like old days, makes for a good read on what was a great trip with very good group of people. Thanks again for leading the trip Allan, hope to catch up with you all again soon. 

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