22nd September 2017

Metcalf Rock Car park = 424km
Beaver Valley

Another warm night with yet another warm dry day forecast. This meant the trail was once again in almost prisctine condition and fabulous for hiking. We set off and dropped our vehicle at our end point for the day. Just love having our own vehicle as it means there is no pressure to make a rendezvous by a given time.

Start off where we finished yesterday with fabulous walk along the Escarpment passing through some beautiful woodlands before coming to the Hydro electric system with it’s huge suede towers, ugly looking things, there is some serious descents and subsequent ascent of the scarp beside yet another stream with waterfall. Emerging from this onto some roadwork for the next 4km. While walking up the latter half of the road there were mud wallows and we saw some pug marks from a Black Bear and her Cub, they were obviously very fresh but we saw no further evidence of them around. 

The trail left the gravel road into some fabulous mixed forest leading to Old Baldy. Some confusion set in as the trail markers changed indicating the main trail descended the hill before getting to old ably itself yet the map and App both indicated straight on, as we wanted to see the views from Old Baldy we pushed on what was now marked as a side trail. The views from the blufff face at Old Baldy were absolutely amazing and we had obviously got there early enough before the haze ate in. The rock face along the entire escarpment is amazing with it’s huge crevasses and standing pillars. We continued on what we were sure was the path along the top of the scarp and sure enough we rejoined the main trail at the gravel road ascending the hill. At this point we saw a new map posted at the trail indicating that the trail has been rerouted down the hill and back up again, adding 3.5km to the trail. 

We continued along the scarp along more fabulous trail along the top of the scarp until it descended through another Wide Crevasse in the face of the scarp. We now had a stretch along the rocky rubble below the main bluff of the scarp, damn we hate that ankle breaking terrain. Thankfully this was a reasonably short lived before we came out onto yet another section of gravel road. Unfortunately there was not much tree cover and we were exposed the the full might of the Sun with only an occasion puff of a breeze to cool u down. After about 4km we left thr road and were back into the trees. We took a brief lunch break for sustenance and to cool down before tackling the last 6km of the day.

We were now headed into “Duncan Crevice Caves Nature Reserve” the trail started out easy enough bordering then entering some paddocks with cattle grazing. Then the track was off up a hill and once again tracking along beside the bluff in mostly coniferous forest. Just to keep us on our toes the trail took yet another plunge over the scarp and down through another crevasse past Pinacle Rock and meandered down then along to bring us to a magical wee no name stream with a low boardwalk bridge over it. We were so hot at this point that it was time to get the shoes off and cool down. The water was so cold that our feet were numb within 5 minutes but we just left them to soak and then doused our heads and arms etc. in this glorious cold water. Time to move on so shoes on and it was bliss, our feet had lost all the swelling from our earlier 5 hours + of hiking and felt fabulous. Only 3km left of more beautiful hiking trail before descending once again to a huge stream with a long bridge crossing. The streams and river along these sections of the scarp a just fabulous.

Now for the final part of the day it was time to climb back up along the scarp then beside a couple of paddocks before reaching our car and the short journey back to our digs. On our way we passed through Ravenna, which has the oldest shop / cafe / bakery in the valley. It was a really quirky Aladdins cave of a place selling all sorts. We grabbed an Icecream and cold drink and just sat and cooled down. It was another 30C day, who would believe it.

We got back to our digs, got cleaned up, washed out our gear and just crashed for a couple of hours. 

That has been 2 amazing days the Beaver Valley has given us.