Australian Alps Walking Track - Black River to Rumpff Saddle

Day: 05
Date: Sunday, 21 April 2019
Start:  Black River
Finish:  Rumpff Saddle
Daily Kilometres:  15.2 AAWT plus 1.5 detour
Total AAWT Kilometres:  110.7
Weather:  Cool early, then mild and overcast with thuderstorms and rain in the evening
Accommodation:  Tent
Nutrition:
  Breakfast:  Muesli
  Lunch:  Trail Mix
  Dinner:  Potato chips, rehydrated meal and chocolate
Aches:  Both tired
Highlight:  Getting to Rumpff Saddle in time to collect our food cache, do some chores, repack food for the next six days, and enjoy our treats while taking it easy.

Lowlight:  It took 3.5 hours to cover the 5.5km to the top of Mt Shillinglaw (1321m) to find a tree-covered summit preventing views.  It was exhausting and almost relentless slogging uphill on faint, or non-existent, trail, through prickly scrub and over fallen logs.  Having said that, it was kind of neat walking where few people go, and there were some very pleasant sections.

Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:

The day started with a ford of the Black River, which we managed without getting our boots too wet, followed by another crossing of the river, this time across a large log high above the river.  Then started the neverending slog up Mt Shillinglaw (see above), which although tough, was better than I remembered from my previous ascents.  We just kept plodding away, climbing over fallen trees, finding and losing the trail, and eventually reached the top.

From there, the day's walking became much easier, though it still seemed to take longer than we liked as we followed a forestry road, then a firetrail, to our destination, Rumpff Saddle.  I guess we were anticipating an early stop, and collecting 4 litres of water each from a stream (so that we could do some washing at the campsite) with 4.5km to go made that last hour or so, drag.

We again encountered a number of 4WD enthusiasts, and feared there might be some already camped at our destination, but we had it to ourselves until a couple in an SUV arrived in the evening.  We found our food cache and enjoyed the treats it contained.  Both of us have been eating less than the daily rations I packed, so we went through our next six days supplies reducing the size of the daily rations of muesli and trail mix to lessen our loads (we'll leave it in the drums to be collected later) which will be heavy for the next few days with all of the food, plus plenty of water for what is a dry stretch of trail.

Thunderstorms moved in around 6:30pm, and rain began falling, but we had achieved most of what we needed to do and retired to our tent to eat chocolate, drink Diet Coke, and plan tomorrow's hike.  We had a good day.