(Apologies in advance for the lack of photos from me - as you read on you'll see I was a little preoccupied. I've poached a few from the other guys)
This was a weekend I had been planning for months. Excited was an understatement. None of the group had been to Mt Cole before and we were really looking forward to finding some good tracks. Originally it was planned that we'd head over to the Pyrenees but given none of us had been to Mt Cole we decided to dedicate the entire weekend to exploring the unknown.
A warning came to me on friday when I'd had the FJ in at the mechanics for a new driveshaft and alignment and whilst at the alignment place the left steering rack end somehow come off the thread. We got it sorted and I got the FJ packed and ready to go.
Saturday morning presented another warning - "Red sky morning, shepherd's warning"... maybe I should've been a little more superstitious instead of just admiring the view on the way out to Avoca to our meeting point.
Corey (my passenger and later saviour) pulled into Avoca and we met with Al and Kelvin, Julius not far behind us. Waited a while for Ben only to realise on calling him that I'd written Avoca Hotel instead of Motel in the meetup point. Not going so well...
Anyway, we grabbed breakfast at the bakery - who have an amazing list of gourmet pies including crocodile and venison - and made our way down through Eversley to our air down point. As we drove along we had a great view of the rock face of Ben Nevis towering above the surrounding land and excitement was building knowing that we would be climbing up to the top of the range in short time. Well, that was the plan...
The climb began on Eversley Sugarloaf Track which for the first few km was easy, a gentle climb on granitic sand as we rose above the basin. Then with around 1km to go the track turns serious with big ledges, loose broken rock surface and very steep in places.
And it was not far into this section that all hell broke loose. Climbing over one of the ledges that had some logs laid at the bottom, the FJ crested the top just as one of the logs slid out from the rear and put the front at an odd angle. I was up, but at the expense of a steering rack end that resembled a boomerang and a front end looking like it was cross eyed.
Video of it happening
https://youtu.be/12f8eXou-XY
The next 4 1/2 hours were a nightmare. With a wheel that had no steering at all I had to winch up while Corey walked alongside me kicking the wheel straight every couple of feet. We finally found a spot that wasnt quite so steep and Corey and Julius managed to bed the rack end straight enough that we could hook it back up and have some steering.
Only problem was the tie rod ball joint kept popping out. While we were busy with that, Al had managed to get onto his mate Terry - aka Mr Mods - who sourced a rack assembly from a wreckers and started making his way out to us to deliver it.
Long story short, the part got delivered - so grateful and lucky - and we got it installed at our impromptu camp at the top of the mountain in darkness. Many drinks were sunk that night by a blazing camp fire, I felt pretty average for ruining everyone's day and just hoped I could resurrect things the following day.
The morning came with a blanket of fog across the plains several hundred metres below and, feeling a bit nervous about the day ahead, we packed up and got ready to roll.
The route I'd planned was obviously shot to pieces, so we improvised. With Kelvin at the front in the event that anything else broke on the FJ and I could be towed to a safe place, we headed off down the mountain, first track being Telephone Track which I'd heard good things about. It was a fairly steep and in sections rutted track with a couple of rocky spots to negotiate, nothing difficult in the dry but in the wet it would be a real challenge. From there we headed up Blue Gum Tk onto Ridge Track, both easy, crossing over Mt Cole Rd onto a section of track that looked like it had been freshly made. Red dirt surface, still with grader marks and trees pushed over to the sides. It rose over a crest and then wound down into the valley, a fun descent but would be almost impassable if wet. Think Andersons Tk at Bunyip. From there we came back up Hell Hole track, identical conditions to the one we'd just driven but even steeper at the beginning of the climb.
Crossing back over Mt Cole Rd we entered the longer branch of Green Range Tk. Its a ripper. It had mud, ruts, rocks - everything. One rocky section saw me taking the chicken line, the others took the hard line which had an intense off camber section that threatened a rollover if you got it wrong.
Al took the Bigpig line. The man loves a challenge. It ended up with him nearly leaning over onto the side embankment with his front left wheel a fair way in the air. And if you know anything of that Jeep it takes a lot for it to lift a wheel. After a bit of spotting he crawled through successfully.
A few of shots from Green Range:
And of the rock garden a little further along:
At the end of that track Al had to part ways due to unforeseen circumstances back home, the rest of us went on to stop at Mugwamp Hut camping area for lunch. Great little spot with a nice old hut enclosing an open fireplace.
Everyone was pretty stuffed by this stage so we decided to make a line straight to check out the infamous Powerlines Track. We pulled up to it near The Glut, and on checking it out realised why the reputation is so wild. Very steep and a wide clearing of 50m or so each side, so nothing to winch off. Not for us this day. We then managed to find our way out amongst a heap of tracks that are closed or don't exist anymore and finally pulled out at Fiery Creek to air up and bid our tired farewells.
All in all an interesting trip. Not my greatest success, and I'm sorry to all involved for the waste of the day on Saturday. Big thanks to you all for the help in getting my vehicle to the top and for getting me mobile again.
Verdict on Mt Cole is it's an amazing location, beautiful forest with lots of diversity and some incredible views. I will definitely be back.
