Mt Barney 10 Peaks - Lower Portals to Double Peak, return via Mt May
Ibilbideko argazkiak
Egilea
Ibilbidearen estatistikak
- Distantzia
- 35,66 km
- Desnibel positiboa
- 2.284 m
- Zailtasun maila
- Zaila
- Desnibel negatiboa
- 2.284 m
- Gehieneko garaiera
- 1.201 m
- TrailRank
-
77
5
- Gutxieneko garaiera
- 195 m
- Ibilbide mota
- Zirkularrak
- Iraupena
- 2 egun 2 ordu 31 minutu
- Koordenatuak
- 5495
- Noiz igoa
- 21 de agosto de 2013
- Noiz egina
- agosto 2013
Nondik gertu: Bigriggan, Queensland (Australia)
Ikusita 11658 aldiz, jaitsita 232 aldiz
Ibilbideko argazkiak
Bidearen deskribapena
An arduous 3-day through walk with best mate Paul (Shatkins) following Barney Creek from Lower Portals up to Double Peak in the Ballow Range and returning via Mt May by the Paddy's Peak ridge.
Day1. Leaving the Lower Portals car park it is 45 minutes until reaching Barney creek. Take the normal route over and up the ridge to Barney Gorge campsite. We then rock hopped from this point up to the Upper Portals passing numerous cascades and waterfalls that will become a fun-park in summer time. To pass the Upper Portals pass on the left side of the first large water fall then cross right behind it. A well worn trail bypasses over the Upper Portals Gorge and down to the other side. From this point you can look down the Upper Portals many cascades. A short rock hop up creek comes of the Junction of Ballow Ck and Yamahara CK. The ridge that connects these creeks is the ascent to Montserrat Lookout. We camped at Yamahara for the night a further 300m up the right hand branch of the creek.
Day2. As described earlier the ridge between Ballow and Yamahra Ck is your ascent to Montserrat Peak. This is a steep grassy eucalypti covered ridge with a well worn trail. Upon reaching the open slabs of Montserrat you are rewarded with unobstructed views of Mt Barney. A trail head then heads WSW down the slope passing the false summit of Mini Montserrat then up to Focal Peak. Focal Peak is the actual center of the ancient volcano responsible for creating the surrounding rocky peaks of Barney, Maroon, May and Lindesay. There is no view from Focal Peak. Its lush tropical rainforest appears to grow a maximum 6-8m high due to jet stream winds and vulnerability to storms coming through the peaks shearing the tops of the canopy inhibiting its growth. A bearing North down the moss covered slope pass's through cedar pass. A soak can be found west down the gully from Cedar pass. It was 250m for us. Once returned to the trail it was up the dense covered ridge to Durramlee Peak. There were faint trails through the sharp alpine bushes and old man bearded vines whilst heading south west down to the Durrumlee-Double Peak Saddle with a reasonable possible campsite. Continue along the ridge SW to our desitantion of Double Peak's summits. Double Peak South Summit has been considered the best lookout in the Barney region. True 360 degree views of Barney to the the Main Range on opposite sides of the 45 degree slopping rock sides. With a full moon rising and the sun setting with crystal clear skies its impossible to pass this spot up for the night. We made the most of this opportunity.
Day 3. Leaving the dual summits of Double Peak follow the faint foot-pad back to Durramlee Peak. From this point you follow the main north easterly ridge down to Mowburra Peak. Mowburra poses mediocre views but not outstanding compared surrounding summits. Upon coming out of the densely overgrown rainforest high on the ridge you walk through grass clearing that gives you a easy 200m of quick going before entering the ridge for more bashing through palms and vines before coming out onto a long 2.5km 400m descent on the grass covered steep slope to Grace's hut. After a short rest you continue down grass road to the junction road that veers left uphill to Cleared Ridge and the entry into the National Park. This ridge allows good ground coverage and once the elevation has been gained you can appreciate the dual Peak's of Mt May that is in the North direction. A steep 260m climb is then made up the northern trail of Mt May North Peak. Near the top there is one fun scramble up the jagged face, this must be done. Just upon reaching the summit the trail head veers left towards the south peak and East to the viewpoint to look South. Back to the trail head, a loose descent where care should be taken to reach the saddle a quick scramble up the south peak is made. A trail leads down in a SE direction where trailhead to Mt May campground can be followed. A resonibily well trail is then followed down this ridge that allows quick coverage. Descending from Mt May North down over the various rocky spurs to Paddy's Peak and onto Drynans hut takes approx 3 hours with a fit party. We had through packs on and still enabled good timing. From Drynans hut and the thoughts of knowing there was no more hill climbs to the car we followed the fence south on a 4x4 trail back to the Lower Portal car park.
The peak making up the ten is Mini Montserrat Peak Between Focal and Monserrat itself.
Relieved.
Day1. Leaving the Lower Portals car park it is 45 minutes until reaching Barney creek. Take the normal route over and up the ridge to Barney Gorge campsite. We then rock hopped from this point up to the Upper Portals passing numerous cascades and waterfalls that will become a fun-park in summer time. To pass the Upper Portals pass on the left side of the first large water fall then cross right behind it. A well worn trail bypasses over the Upper Portals Gorge and down to the other side. From this point you can look down the Upper Portals many cascades. A short rock hop up creek comes of the Junction of Ballow Ck and Yamahara CK. The ridge that connects these creeks is the ascent to Montserrat Lookout. We camped at Yamahara for the night a further 300m up the right hand branch of the creek.
Day2. As described earlier the ridge between Ballow and Yamahra Ck is your ascent to Montserrat Peak. This is a steep grassy eucalypti covered ridge with a well worn trail. Upon reaching the open slabs of Montserrat you are rewarded with unobstructed views of Mt Barney. A trail head then heads WSW down the slope passing the false summit of Mini Montserrat then up to Focal Peak. Focal Peak is the actual center of the ancient volcano responsible for creating the surrounding rocky peaks of Barney, Maroon, May and Lindesay. There is no view from Focal Peak. Its lush tropical rainforest appears to grow a maximum 6-8m high due to jet stream winds and vulnerability to storms coming through the peaks shearing the tops of the canopy inhibiting its growth. A bearing North down the moss covered slope pass's through cedar pass. A soak can be found west down the gully from Cedar pass. It was 250m for us. Once returned to the trail it was up the dense covered ridge to Durramlee Peak. There were faint trails through the sharp alpine bushes and old man bearded vines whilst heading south west down to the Durrumlee-Double Peak Saddle with a reasonable possible campsite. Continue along the ridge SW to our desitantion of Double Peak's summits. Double Peak South Summit has been considered the best lookout in the Barney region. True 360 degree views of Barney to the the Main Range on opposite sides of the 45 degree slopping rock sides. With a full moon rising and the sun setting with crystal clear skies its impossible to pass this spot up for the night. We made the most of this opportunity.
Day 3. Leaving the dual summits of Double Peak follow the faint foot-pad back to Durramlee Peak. From this point you follow the main north easterly ridge down to Mowburra Peak. Mowburra poses mediocre views but not outstanding compared surrounding summits. Upon coming out of the densely overgrown rainforest high on the ridge you walk through grass clearing that gives you a easy 200m of quick going before entering the ridge for more bashing through palms and vines before coming out onto a long 2.5km 400m descent on the grass covered steep slope to Grace's hut. After a short rest you continue down grass road to the junction road that veers left uphill to Cleared Ridge and the entry into the National Park. This ridge allows good ground coverage and once the elevation has been gained you can appreciate the dual Peak's of Mt May that is in the North direction. A steep 260m climb is then made up the northern trail of Mt May North Peak. Near the top there is one fun scramble up the jagged face, this must be done. Just upon reaching the summit the trail head veers left towards the south peak and East to the viewpoint to look South. Back to the trail head, a loose descent where care should be taken to reach the saddle a quick scramble up the south peak is made. A trail leads down in a SE direction where trailhead to Mt May campground can be followed. A resonibily well trail is then followed down this ridge that allows quick coverage. Descending from Mt May North down over the various rocky spurs to Paddy's Peak and onto Drynans hut takes approx 3 hours with a fit party. We had through packs on and still enabled good timing. From Drynans hut and the thoughts of knowing there was no more hill climbs to the car we followed the fence south on a 4x4 trail back to the Lower Portal car park.
The peak making up the ten is Mini Montserrat Peak Between Focal and Monserrat itself.
Relieved.
Bideguneak
Gailurra
963 m
Montserrat Lookout
Gailurra
1.007 m
Focal Peak
Iturria
867 m
Focal Mowburra saddle soak
Gailurra
1.149 m
Durramlee Peak
Gailurra
1.199 m
Double Peak North
Bidegunea
1.126 m
Mowburra Peak
Aterpe irekia
Bidegunea
709 m
Cleared Ridge Trailhead
Bidegunea
558 m
Mt May South Trailhead
Gailurra
750 m
Mt May South Peak
Bidegunea
740 m
Summit Traverse Trailhead
Gailurra
724 m
Mt May North Peak
Gailurra
517 m
Paddy Peak
Kokapenaren inguruko iritzi eta galderak (11)
Nahi izanez gero iruzkin bat utzi edo baloratu ibilbide hau
Awesome
Great work! Great description of your adventure. Considering following your trail 😀.
Thanks, heading out to do this with some friends this weekend coming.
I was doing another circuit with my son that incorporated Montserrat and have a couple of updated observations that might interest walkers considering this route...
1) On the bottom-side of the Upper Portals, topos show a track on the west side of Barney Creek that connects to the 'Upper Portals bypass track' to reach the top of the Upper Portals. This track (or pad) does not exist - it is just a case of rock hopping down the middle of the creek assuming flow is low enough. High flow would make this very tricky/dangerous.
2) Once descended off the Upper Portals bypass track, you can cross over to the south bank of Barney Ck where two parallel track/pads take you the couple of hundred metres to the junction of Yamahra Cr. Crossing back to the west side of the Barney Cr picks up the centre Yamahra Cr trail which was like a highway with mown grass all the way back to Grace's Hut (and only a 30min walk).
3) From the Barney & Yamahra Cr junction, if climbing to Montserrat, continue a few hundred metres up the Yamahra Cr centre trail to a small ridge to the left. A noticeable pad off to the left is marked by a couple of small cairns and some pink ribbon on small saplings. This pad will climb slightly, hold the contour to the south of the small ridge, drop a couple of metres, cross a small (dry when we came through) a tributary to Yamahra Cr and then climb in earnest to Montserrat.
4) Yamahra was not running in early August - just a couple of stagnant ponds.
5) We considered doing an extra bit using Montserrat as our base - out to Focal Point and Double Peak on our day 2. Arriving at Montserrat early on our day 1 we scouted out the first 1/2 hour from Montserrat and the going was slow. We found a pad in a few spots and while the ridge is not hard to navigate, the dense bush had us turning around before we descended to the base of Focal Point. An adventure for another day but this section is definitely 'off-track' at the moment.
Just wondering what the water availability is like at the Double Peak south summit area where you camped
Sorry, no water. The closest water is in the saddle between Focal Peak and Durrumlee Peak. Usually a good supply. I have used it multiple times and it has never been dry. It is indicated by the detour to the south from the saddle and back.
Great commentary 👍
Can't be more descriptive, good work and words guys!
Hi there - I was just wondering if there is room to pitch a small tent at Double Peak? I seen in the photos you spent the night without one, was that due to there not being room or were you just not bother with tents?
Hey Heath. There is not much of a pad up there for a tent. I cannot remember but there may have been a pad before walking out onto the exposed ridge of Double Peak. Paul and I had a great forecast resulting in a clear night, therefore decided bivy'ing was the best option for that location - it is tight. Still to this day, one of the best nights I've experienced in the wild. Luke
Hey this trail looks excellent. Thanks for doing it. Grace's Hut looks like the property is kept maintained? Is it privately owned? I plan to do a little day hike from Dryans to Grace's hut as I quite like huts. Any information would be great to know thanks
God bless you mate