The Big Hound
In recent years I have come to realise how fortunate I am to have a sweetheart, a loving family and a great group of friends (plus two ratbag dogs). A few weekends ago, two individuals whom I am privileged to know – my sister L. and my mate Alex – accompanied me to Mt Barney to ascend the big hound by the most direct and aesthetic line on the mountain: Logan’s Ridge. The route is named after the first (European) ascentionist, Captain Patrick Logan, who thrashed his way up back in 1828. I had only been up once, in 2019(?) with Alex and a few of his pals, but L. had been intrigued by our stories and wished to have a crack herself. And so, pre-dawn on a Sunday moaning, L. picked me up in her nice new car and we headed down to Yellowpinch. Thankfully, it wasn’t as cold as I had feared and after meeting up with Alex (and visiting the best NP dunny in the state) we were off.
We crossed the Logan River and scrambled up into the paddock. The lower slopes of the hound were lit up by the early morning sun… the upper reaches lost in cloud. Beautiful stuff. What was not as beautiful was the heavy dew that attempted ingress into my shoes >:^( I’d just worn a pair of trail runners so no GTX protection for me, just frozen toes. We hit the fenceline in the forest and crept upwards through some fairly hideous regrowth before emerging onto the fire trail. For the first hour or so we steadily ascended through areas that had recently been trickle-burned to protect the montane veg above (and presumably the recently described Philoria knowelsi lurking higher still). We hit the first rocky slabs much sooner than I anticipated. We were making good time – only to be expected given who I was with!
The first squirrel catcher (‘scary’ section) failed to daunt L. and Alex and I relaxed a bit and exchanged a grin. The following couple of hours were pure alpine joy! Logan’s Ridge is one of the most interesting, exciting and beautiful bush ‘walks’ I have ever done. There is a constant dance along each edge of the ridge, with occasional retreats into the trees soothing the nerves of the exposure-sensitive. On the day we were there, a strong southerly wind was howling across the ridge and clouds were constantly swirling around us, before parting again to reveal the terrain to come. It was absolutely fantastic!
My favourite part of the climb is probably the approach to ‘the notch’. You come off a razorback section that is only a few meters wide, and then tuck in beside a small cliff, following a footpad across a narrow grassy ledge towards an imposing vertical face. A lone eucalypt in the cleft above you guides your way – to your right is the cliff and to your left lies the great void. In the notch we were out of the wind and (briefly) in the sun, so we stopped to fuel up and rehydrate for the summit push. Before too long (and without getting lost in the mallee) we were touching the trig point. We celebrated with a few choccies and then made the decision to check out Rum Jungle, which I’d been reading about but had never visited. An awesome descent through a really amazing alpine landscape led to the old hut site and the creek. We didn’t spend long in the rainforest this time – but I shall return to ascend West Peak soon!
In an hour or so we were back on East Peak to begin the descent of SE Ridge. L. had been holding up amazingly well but on the long, steep downhill crawl one of her knees started to hurt quite badly. She’s made of stern stuff though, and there were no complaints – just a gradual clenching of the jaw. About 2/3 of the way down the sun eventually won xir battle with the clouds and it warmed up a bit. The last little slog out along the fire trail to the carpark was as tiresome as I remembered, particularly given the huge bovine potholes in the track. L. finally got a look at the big mountain on our way out with the summit deigning to emerge briefly from the clouds. And that was all she wrote!
Thanks to Alex, our fearless leader (and path finder extraordinaire) and thanks to L. for being so tough and brave! The trip rekindled my partially dormant passion for peaks and I have been going fairly hard ever since 🙂
Until next time – stay safe out there!
