"Send it!"
That was the call of the trip. That, and "The Curse of Mt Cole continues..."
I managed to score a leave pass from the heavily preggers wife and ducked away as navi/winch bitch with George to my nemesis - Mt Cole State Forest. Goerge had told me "Show me the hardest tracks at Mt Cole mate".
I'll let you decide whether I succeeded.
We loaded up the GU and headed off to meet up with the other guys at the Calder Park servo. There was Richard - aka Bobby - and passenger Daniel in the newly purchased GU, Michael - aka Belvo in his tough-as GQ ute, and Nick in the very capable and well set up Triton. After a brief chat we booted off in the direction of Raglan towards our entry to the southern end of the park and air down point.
From there we wasted no time in heading to the first track of the day - Manly Point Track. Steep with granitic sand, deep ruts and a few rocky sections, it was a great warm up for the day.
Heading on from there I guided the convoy to the infamous Powerlines Track where we entered off Fiery Creek Track up a steep ramp up section of loose soil that you'd miss if you blinked. This took us onto a slippery clay and mud surface snaking up the wide cutting through the forest. This then crossed over Tunbridges Track and red clay made way for granitic sand once again, with deep ruts with sharp edges - like Cobaw - that threatens to give way all too easily under the weight of a 4wd. We climbed up, a couple of winches being pulled out on tricky sections and came to a clearing at the base of the insanely steep section where we stopped and had a walk up ahead.
Now I cannot reiterate this enough - this is an EXTREMELY dangerous section of track. Its a loose surface, very steep - the cars are pictured on a 25 degree incline, the rock ledge past George in his hi vis jumper pushes past 50 degrees! And there is NOTHING to winch off! One wrong move and you are at a very high risk of rolling with nothing to stop your vehicle for hundreds of metres.
We made the decision that with the damp surface that this was not the day to attempt it. Personally, I don't think I'd ever want to try it.
So it was a turnaround to take the easy option of Garrett Track a few hundred metres to the east.
Did I say easy? My bad...
Its pretty much just as steep with a big rock garden maybe halfway up. George got hung up on a rock with his slider and diff and was facing slipping onto a nasty angle if he tried doing anything to move. Winch came out and swiftly died... I'd like to know more about the story of why the winch was hooked up to the 2nd battery - a 55AH AGM...
With an engine bay you could cook a spit roast in, we stopped for a drink break while it cooled down and decided that as it was nearly 3pm we would just winch back down and turn around and take the easiest route to camp. Drinks and a fire were beckoning.
And we had only actually driven one real track for the day... the Curse of Mt Cole... though there was speculation that I was the common theme with this curse, especially when I lost my phone out of my pocket on the track, not realising till we were driving down the road. Lucky we doubled back and I found it, intact.
Mugwamps camp - my first choice - was already taken, so we headed back up the road and dropped anchors at Dawson Rock - just a large clearing on top of the hill, about 1000m altitude. The fire was started up, swags and chairs out and we sat down for a cracking - and bloody funny - night of many drinks and laughs. A song made from a fart and George having something to do with pegs... can't really remember...
Next morning we got moving reasonably early, heading off into a misty and cold forest.
Straight to Green Range Track, where we entered the eastern arm from the north, having a nice little rocky section to get us going for the day. Then we looped back around and did the western arm - the entry not much further along than the first. This took us into a great muddy section with a couple of steep climb and ruts, onto the great rock garden where Al in the Big Pig had a great wheel lift a few weeks ago.
George came through first and took the same line Al did with an even bigger wheel lift. Top notch driving he didnt let up and just trusted he'd picked the right line and eventually the nose came down as he climbed out of the hole. Brilliant drive!
Bobby was next. The Curse struck again...
Swapped out the wheel for the spare and he got cracking up the rock garden, just not quite happy to take the hardest line without lockers but still took the hard enough line up the guts. Solid drive!
Next up Belvo, the GQ and driving ability making it look easy.
Finally Nick crawling the Triton with ease on the same line George took.
From there, big grins on everyones faces, we headed up Mt Cole Rd, onto Chinaman Link Track to Chinamans Camp and up Telephone Track. Awesome bit of fun straight up the mountain, some good rocky sections, and a decent challenge with the damp surface.
At the top Nick noticed a bit of an issue with the front end of the Triton and decided not to push things as the next track was to be Eversley-Sugarloaf where I'd broken the FJ's steering a few weeks ago. So we went down Cowan track to the bottom and parted ways as we turned and headed back up the mountain.
Once again this track has me in awe. You reach the top 1/4 and it just turns nasty. When we got to the big ledge that stuffed me up, Bobby was a bit nervous but George did an excellent job in front and showed how good line judgement can be all you need. However, in this case twin lockers was also needed for Bobby and despite nearly making it the safe decision was made to winch up the ledge and the continue on. I again measured the incline and it's a staggering 60 degrees up that step.
At the top, we headed across for our exit and end of trip track, Collier Gap Track. It starts of easily enough but then as you descend it gets steeper, rockier, slipperier and all in all more nasty. Coming down to the valley floor, passing the old wrecked Disco, on track to air up at 2.30 - we'd all agreed that was a good time to finish - things were looking good. Until I somehow got us off Collier Gap and onto an unnamed, unmarked track that narrowed to basically a motorbike track. Not sure how it happened but as far as mistakes go, this was the best kind to make!
We have named this track COAT Track. Its an anagram, you work it out.
It gets very narrow, has big rock sections, huge ruts and snakes up and down off the valley floor with some very tricky and technical sections. Massive challenge. Took us an extra 2 hours before finally spitting us out onto the road down near the bottom of Eversley Sugarloaf.
George getting crossed up nicely:
Rocky climb on COAT:
Same climb that had Bobby jammed up on a rock and a long way from a decent tree to winch off:
Another amazing visit to mine - and several others who have now been - favourite destination in Victoria.
Cheers George for taking me along, I can't wait to fix the FJ up and go back for the challenge. Well done to Nick, Belvo and Bobby for great driving, and was awesome hanging out with you guys and Daniel - cheers for all the laughs and good times!