A few of the bushwalkers from the club missed my walk up Mount May so at the last club outing I offered to take them up there on Saturday. There were only 4 of us to do the walk, Julie, Paul, Colin (who had done the walk with me previously) and myself.
Being an off club walk, I knew I could get them to go a little quicker and a lot further so I decided to climb both peaks this time. Although I had previously climbed both peaks on separate occasions, I had never done both of them on the one day nor had I walked the saddle between the peaks.
We managed to start the climb a bit earlier than before so we were at the top of the first peak in time for a late smoko at around 10.40am. We needed the rest as we had really pushed it, this is the steepest and hardest part and I wanted it over and done with so as to give us more time in case we had difficulty finding the track across the saddle between the two peaks.
Refreshed after a break and a snack washed down with a cup of black tea from my flask we headed off the top of the first peak and down along the saddle heading towards Mount Maroon. After a bit of searching around at the bottom of that saddle we found the track on our right heading down to the dry bed of a creek. There were a few fallen trees on this track but it was easy enough to find the track again after detouring around them.
We crossed the creek and found a piece of pink flagging tied to a tree so gathered that this was the marker to head up a rock slab towards the top of the next peak. Towards the top of the slab Paul noticed a faint track going up a spur on our left so we followed that and it soon became obvious that we were on the right track. This track was fairly easy compared to the slog up the first peak and without much effort we were soon at the top of the higher of the two peaks of Mount May. It was only 12.30 pm, well before I had anticipated.
The highest part of this peak is on the southern side of the mountain where we had commanding views over the Mount Barney ranges all the way into southern NSW. A great view but we decided to cross over to the northern side and have lunch overlooking the first peak and Lake Maroon with views out to Main Range and Cunningham’s Gap. It was a perfect winter’s day and Lake Maroon looked like a sparkling jewel in the sunshine surrounded by the many peaks of the western rangers. Lunch is always a special meal in such surroundings even though it may only be a bit of dried out bread with stale cheese with a piece of wilted lettuce on it washed down with a cup of luke warm black tea from my flask.
We were not keen to leave an we had a long way home so on with our packs an we headed off the peak. The descent down from this peak is very steep and requires a lot of hands on climbing down rocky outcrops. The only joy of being so steep is that it takes but a short time before we were back down on the fire trail/road that leads up to the Upper Portals of Mount Barney. This is the worst part of the entire walk. According to my pedometer it is a 4.45 km slog down this road to the car park. It is a real shame to finish such a fine walk up one of the South East’s nicest peaks with a boring walk back down a dirt road.
For those that are interested the first peak is 787 mts high and the second peak is 836 mts high. The reading’s on my pedometer showed we had walked 18440 steps to cover a distance of 13.45 km. I know the kilometre reading would not be accurate walking on such track up and down a mountain but it still gives me a rough idea of how far we had walked.
After a detour up Waterfall Gorge we were back at the car about 3 pm. Replaced the walking boots with a pair of sandals, packs in the back of the car and we were soon heading to the Rathdowney Pub. You remember I told you before that it is a great pub so what better place to go for a beer on the way home today. It had started to cool down so they had the fire going in the bar area. A very pleasant way to finish such a great day, sitting in front of a fire with an icy cold stubby of XXXX Gold.
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