Mount Charles from Lachlan

Monday 19th October 2015

Mount Charles

I have been to Mount Charles before, but using the usual route up from the East West Trail. This time I decided to tackle it on the northern side from the Lachlan area. I drove up Hydelhurst Road from Lachlan and then on to the Jefferys Track, which I followed for a couple of kilometres before parking in a large area beside the road.
I set off up an old track which climbed steadily. The walking was easy and I soon reached the gate on the Wellington Park boundary. As so often happens, the gate had received some attention from someone and was no longer keeping anyone out.

Wellington Park Gate

The track continued on uphill and shortly I turned left into a more overgrown track. I had an idea where I wanted to go but was pretty much making it up as I went. The track had lots of trees down across it and became more overgrown the further I went, but was still passable. Eventually the track started heading down which was not where I wanted to go, so I left it and scambled uphill to find another track which was heading in the right direction. This I followed for some distance before it petered out and then I had a steep scramble uphill again before locating another track which was marked on the map. This too ran out and I walked through some scrub to a point where I turned and walked in a more or less southerly direction towards Mount Charles. The scrub across this area was the worst on the walk. It varied from open areas to quite thick scrub which required some bashing to get through. Eventually I caught my first glimpse of Mount Charles.

Mount Charles

Mount Charles Ridge with Mount Charles on the left

I did think about turning back a couple of times, but persevered, and eventually I reached the boulder field which lead up to the top of the ridge. The climb up was okay until I almost reached the top, where I had to pick my way up through some quite large boulders. I thought I might have to go back down a bit and try another tack, but eventually I managed to reach the top. The walk along the ridge was quite okay with some light scrub and I soon reached the summit. It took me four hours and forty five minutes to finally get here. I had a well deserved lunch break. There was some haze in the distance but it was generally quite clear.

From Summit

From Summit

From Summit

From Summit

I had decided on my way through the scrub, that if I made it to the summit, I was not coming back through the scrub again but would instead head down to the East West Trail and return to the car that way. It was going to be longer in distance but much shorter in time. This is exactly what I did and I walked back via the Trail and the Jefferys Track.

On Mount Charles

On Mount Charles

Mount Charles from East West Trail

I had not been on this section of the Jefferys Track before and found it quite pleasant walking in the shade of the trees. The only thing that marred it was the deep ruts carved by 4WD vehicles, and I means deep. Some were about one and a half metres deep!!

Jefferys Track

Jefferys Track

This was a very interesting walk and quite tiring and I was certainly glad to finally reach the car.
Distance: 17.4 kms.
Time: 7'53"
Ascent: 760 metres
Click here to download GPX file.