Lake Mountain-Marysville 13/9

[Matthew]

Thanks Andrew, got your message. See you Saturday.

Matt

[Matthew]

Bruce is out.

Looks like it's going to be a small group.

[christover1]

Bruce is out.

Looks like it's going to be a small group.

That can make for a great trip.
We still coming

[mightymouse]

The OJ magic eightball says... "fair to good" - only the drivers side suspension, and brakes to reinstall and driveshaft to rebuild.
Oh and the skid pan to either replace or sledge hammer straight and... and.... you get the picture.

Should actually get some sleep, but have been wrong before

[andrew_wale]

It was a great trip.

I have uploaded some photos to the gallery.
Pity some of the tracks were closed though...

http://vic.suzuki4wd.com/gallery2/v/Marysville+Trip/

[mightymouse]

Was a picture perfect day.....its very scenic country up that way.

Had a good social drive with a bit of "exploring" thrown in and a very pleasant little spot by a river for a relaxed lunch.
Even found a little bit of snow which seemed very out of place on a sunny day.

Matt's first trip as trip leader worked out very well - it all sounds a bit overwhelming at first but it all works out on the day.
And...... he even had a trip attendance sheet, full points !

Lots of seasonal road closures as expected but sort of added to the experience as we ended up trying lots of alternative tracks.

But - repeat after me - "I will not leave the chainsaw on the garage floor", where's Paul Mac or Joey when you need them ?

[Matthew]

But - repeat after me - "I will not leave the chainsaw on the garage floor", where's Paul Mac or Joey when you need them ?

Yes the chainsaw thing, I thought this was going to be kept a trip secret, no fines if no one knows. I'm just glad I'm not the only one who forgot a saw.

I was happy with how the day went, despite all the closed tracks and not finding Keppel Hut.
Plus I did find out the benefit of being the trip leader instead of my usual position as tail end, actually getting to see the road and wildlife instead of dust.

Hmm, I guess I should write a bit of a trip report, though there is not really that much to say. I won't mention any road names so that it can be put in the public area, not that there were any roads worth mentioning. Feel free to edit it if it sounds no good.



Participants were:
Ross in the Feroza, Andrew in the G.V., Chris and Claire in Frog and Liv and myself in my S.W.B.

I arrived in Marysville a bit before 09:00 to find everyone on time, and in club tradition one bonnet was up and another had just been closed with last minute repairs being carried out. There was a short wait for the servo to open and we were underway.

We aired down (unnecessarily) at the Cambarville turnoff about 17km east-south-east of Marysville and then headed into Cambarville. We continued roughly north along a series of 2wd dirt roads. It wasn't long until we found some small random snow patches, it was looking promising for a few minutes until we started heading down hill and the snow subsided.
We headed along a road that is supposed to have a "play area", it was an interesting track and admittedly low range was needed for a short section, but I'd hardly call it a play area.

After a bit of a look at the Map it was decided that because we had plenty of time we would head to Keppel hut where we would have lunch. Due to a number of closed roads leading to the hut we had to retrace our steps for a short distance, but on the plus side we did find a very picturesque spot for lunch right on the edge of a river.

After lunch we tried some of the other tracks leading to the hut. The first track we tried was closed so we decided to have a bit of an explore on an open track on the opposite side of the road. This track was obviously not used very often as the trees grew extremely thick in a number of sections and added a number of new scratches to the vehicles. Unfortunately a tree across the track saw us having to turn around and head back through the trees. We even managed to do some snow driving on this track, well about 15 metres worth.

Four more tracks were tried in our attempts to find the hut but all of these had road closure signs or gates across them so it was decided that we would head back to Marysville and air up.



Overall I enjoyed myself and hope the others did too. I will probably try to run this trip again next year but about 6 weeks earlier, if we have a similar snow season to this year I think there would be a bit of snow around and make for a fun easy snow trip less than 2 hours from Melbourne.
With a bit of exploration it may also be a good area to run a newbies trip.

Matt

[cj!]

Sounds like an enjoyable, if slightly frustrating day out. Feel free to post your report in the public area.

Seems like the secret's out about the benefit of leading a trip too. It's even better in the summer when you don't have to eat dust either

[mightymouse]

Yes chainsaws...... wasn't the sort of trip I'd expected to need it - but there you go

Dragged the thing out of hiding and found the spare chain ( both blunt of course so a bit more work to do )

Have to fix the "automatic" bar lube system all it did was leak when it was supposedly operating and then
suddenly clog up. Somethings are best done the old fashioned way

Well actually we did have equipment... we both had manual saws and I had the axe, but obviously we weren't
that desperate to get to the hut.

Next time we'll probably have them by the dozens.

[christover1]

My fone kam pix at the scenic and relaxing lunch stop