Australian Alps Walking Track - Rumpff Saddle to West Peak Mt McDonald

Day: 06
Date: Monday, 22 April 2019
Start:  Rumpff Saddle
Finish:  2km short of West Peak Mt McDonald
Daily Kilometres:  21.7
Total AAWT Kilometres:  132.2
Weather:  Foggy all day and cool
Accommodation:  Tent
Nutrition:
  Breakfast:  Muesli
  Lunch:  Trail Mix
  Dinner:  Trail Mix and ANZAC biscuits
Aches:  Both very tired

Highlight:  Getting into our tent after a wet, cold, foggy, windswept and increasingly gloomy traverse of the rocky spine of the Great Dividing Range south of Mt McDonald.  It had been hard to find somewhere to pitch the tent and we finally settled on a rocky patch literally on the trail where we had to use rocks instead of pegs to secure it .  It was dark and we were both shivering violently when we finally got it erected and crawled inside.  Heaven!

Lowlight:  Taking three hours to walk 3.5km downhill on a barely distinct trail overgrown with sopping wet vegetation and criss-crossed with large and slippery fallen logs.  There were enchanting fern forests and tree-fern glades along the way, which were magic, but we frequently lost the trail in the thick vegetation, each had a few falls, and collected plenty of leeches as a bonus.

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

It was a stormy night with persistent and occasionally heavy rain from 6pm to 10pm, but our tent held up well.  We were a little slow leaving camp as I wasted time trying to find out why my blog posts weren't being distributed as intended, but were on the trail soon after 7:30, having secreted our drums which now contained unused food and trash and will be collected in a month's time. It was a clear cool morning and there were some impressive views of rolling forested mountains with valley fog pouring through gaps like cloud glaciers.  The trail was a very rough 4WD track with some very steep ascents and descents that made for slow going.  We also were soon in fog and that persisted for the rest of the day, marring what would have been some impressive views.

We encountered a couple of hardcore 4WD groups along the very challenging trail, but otherwise had the misty and quiet forest to ourselves.  As has often been the case on the AAWT, very hard work was interspersed with exquisite wilderness experiences.

We eventually reached Mt Sunday (1407m) having averaged a slow 3kph, and hoping we would be able to pick up the pace on the next downhill section but, alas, it turned out to be anything but easy (see above).  The only water source for the day was supposedly a 300m steep downhill bush-bash from this trail,  but we couldn't face the thought of doing that (since we thought we were already bush-bashing), so decided to forgo evening washes and cooked meals and continue on with what water we had left, about 1.5 litres between us until our first water mid-morning tomorrow.  We were already behind our day's schedule and didn't want to slip further behind.  Eventually we reached a maintained firetrail and had our first break for three hours, eating trail mix while picking leeches off our legs.

The balance of the day was spent working our way along a narrow ridge through sopping wet vegetation trying to follow the faint trail.  It was obvious we would have had great views to the east and west if not for the fog.  It was hard to find somewhere to pitch our tent as the sun set (see above), but eventually we did and enjoyed our cold dinner rugged up in our sleeping bags.  Hopefully it will be clear tomorrow and we can enjoy the views.