Mount Charles

Thursday 6th March 2014

Mount Charles

I chose to walk to Mount Charles from Myrtle Forest, which is probably the longest way to get there. Others routes are from Crabtree up the Jefferys Track, from Lachlan up the Jefferys Track and along the White Timber Trail.
It was a great day and a little cool when I headed off just after 0800. The initial part of the walk was up the road to the Myrtle Forest Picnic Ground and then up to The Collins Cap Fire Trail via the Myrtle Forest Creek Track. The forest is slowly recovering from the fires of last year, but not as much as I had expected. Many of the trees appear to have not survived the fire. I continued on heading south along the Collins Cap Trail to meet up with the East West Fire Trail and walked this down to the creek on the short cut where I had morning tea.

Collins Cap Trail

After the break I continued on along the short cut to meet up with the East West Trail once again and carried on. I wanted to check out the large Pineapple Grass field that exists at the base of Trestle Mountain, so after about 400 metres from the short cut junction I went into the scrub for a short distance and came to the field. It was a very pleasant spot and the field was very interesting. I spent a few minutes here before walking back out to the East West Trail. The East West Trail is quite easy walking with a few ups and downs, but nothing dramatic. I kept going along the trail, past the Ringwood Trail and Mount Marian Track and after 2'45" from the start I rounded the big bend in the trail and found the cairn indicating the start of the ascent track.

Pineapple Grass Field

The pad was okay in places and quite hard to find in others, so consequently I lost it a few times. It really didn't matter that much as I just headed in the general direction of the mountain and picked it up again before heading up. The scrub was not really thick so walking was quite easy. There was a final scramble up through the rocks and scrub to reach the summit which I attained at 1135, some 3"25" after starting out. There were great views from here and the bush on the top was rather nice. I had lunch and then retraced my steps back to the car, taking about 3'15" to reach it.
Overall this was a good walk with great views of all the mountains in the area.
Distance: 21.0 kms.
Time: 6'56"
Ascent: 950 metres
Click here to download GPX track.

Collins Bonnet

Trestle Mountain

Pineapple Grass Field

Mount Marian

First view of Mount Charles

From Summit

From Summit

From Summit

Mount Patrick from summit

Collins Cap