Mount Patrick

Thursday 18th October 2013

Mount Patrick from ascent track

The weather had been rather bleak all week with showers most of the time, so I was very keen to get out for a walk. Today I was going rain, hail or shine.
There are many ways to approach Mount Patrick - from Lachlan via Jefferys Track, from Myrtle Forest via East West Trail, from near White Timber Mountain access track via White Timber Trail, even from Big Bend or the way I chose which was from Crabtree. Of course if one did not want to walk too far, one could drive up the Jefferys Track(in a good 4WD), and along the East West Trail to the summit access track. I think a permit would be required for the east West Trail.
Why drive when it is so much fun to huff and puff when slogging up the steep Jefferys Track!!
I arrived at the start at about 0740 in drizzling rain and set off straightaway. The climb up the Jefferys Track had not become any easier since I last walked it a couple of months ago when I walked to White Timber Mountain.

Upper Jefferys Track

After about an hour of uphill the track came to an intersection, where left goes to White Timber Mountain and right to the East West Trail. I went right and soon the track became quite wet, but nowhere near as bad as the section to White Timber Mountain. The wet section did not last too long and by the time I reached the east West Trail it was quite good. It was about here that the misty rain stopped, which was an added bonus. At the intersection with the East West Trail is where the track comes from Lachlan, but I believe it is not in real good condition, so, if coming from that direction, it might be necessary to park a few kilometres back down the road and walk. From here there were more uphill sections although it was quite pleasant walking through reasonable forest for about 3 kms. to the cairned turnoff to Mount Patrick.

East West Fire Trail

From here the access track was very overgrown for the first section and was quite difficult to locate it at times, even though it was taped. My pants were instantly wet from the foliage as I battled my way through and after a time came to a somewhat open area called Georges Flagland which was rather pleasant. All along the track it was wet but not muddy. The water was not deep but fairly soon my feet were sloshing around inside saturated boots. I continued on and eventually the track headed uphill to some large rocks which had to be clambered over to arrive at a false summit where there were ruins of a shelter. It was blowing a gale and freezing cold and I quickly walked the few metres to the proper summit, had a quick look around and retreated back to the shelter for a rushed lunch.

Summit Cairn!!

There is a rather unimpressive cairn at the summit, but that is fitting as the summit is not too impressive in itself. The views were not spectacular and probably the most outstanding feature was Mount Charles, which I hope to visit in the future.
While I was eating lunch my fingers were going numb so I did not hang around for too long before commencing the descent. It took about an hour to get back to the East West Fire Trail and I suppose it was about the same up to the summit.
I then began the downhill run to the car. When I say "run" I really mean fast walk as my running days are over. After a bit less than 2 hours I finally reached the car. As I was just crossing the bridge over the Crabtree Rivulet a guy(one of the locals I assume) turned into the road, and stopped and had all these questions for me about what I had been doing and where I had come from. He must have though I was the local cat burglar!! When I told him, I think he thought I was an idiot and his final quote was " Gee mate you will deserve a beer when you get home."
Note: If walking to Mount Patrick some navigational experience is necessary as the summit track is easy to lose and might be hard to find again.
Distance: 18.1 kms.
Time: 6'10"
Ascent: 960 metres
Click here to download GPX track.

From Summit

Ruins near summit

Mount Charles

White Timber Mountain from E/W Trail

Crabtree Rivulet