It’s three years since I last walked into the Budawangs. Well, that’s not quite factual as in 2023 we day walked to the top of Currockbilly Mountain – a highly recommended trip – but the last time we walked into the Budawangs and camped with the intention of hiking to the top of one of the distinctive mesa type mountains was late 2021. The bushfire regrowth on that trip was so bad that I all but gave up for a while on Budawang trips. There’s type 2 fun and fun and there is very little fun about bashing through regrowth at a maximum speed of half a kilometre an hour and not getting a single view all day. Because that is the thing with Budawang mountains, the tops can be as thickly covered as the valleys holding entire multi-level ecosystems of vegetation and even dense swamps.
However, with some unexpected but welcome news of track clearing between The Vines area and the northern base of Mount Haughton, we decided to walk in again with hopes of getting up a peak or even two. Two would be be greedy and I’ve learnt not to expect to satisfy such rapacity in the Budawangs. Sometimes a successful trip is merely getting in and out without ripping your gear to shreds or being lost in scrub for hours.
Our plan was to walk in and camp at Styles Creek on the first day, take the second day for “peak bagging” and walk out again on the third day. If you look at the map, this sort of trip should be quite possible in a single overnight trip as neither the distance nor the elevation gain is great but that is where I have gone wrong a dozen times in the past. Distance and elevation gain mean nothing when you are pushing through dense scrub.
Multiple old tracks converge on Styles valley: from the north and west via Round Mountain Fire Trail (FT), from the south via Mount Tarn, and from the north via either the Endrick River FT or the Red Ground track. On this visit, we came in from the Endrick River FT and Sassafras, a straight forward but somewhat foot-sore walk as large rocks have been deposited on the FT and these make for weary and hard walking. It may be that some people prefer the Red Ground access which is slightly longer (a couple of kilometres) but the track softer underfoot.
In any event, apart from the hard rock of the Endrick River FT, the walk is straight forward enough and we stopped for a lunch break at Camp Rock. It was windy day and we had walked all this way in synthetic puff jackets! After lunch, we descended down to the rainforest near The Vines where it seems darker than ever under a dense canopy. A short distance further along, the track is well cleared as it heads southwest into Kilpatrick Creek. The next couple of kilometres is tedious walking as there is prolific blow down across the track necessitating scrambling up, over, and under large trees which have fallen across the track. There is little sign of any clearing and this section did not seem much better than our last trip along here.
Eventually, however, the track climbs out of the creek along a boggy section and a roughly cleared track leads south to the Hidden Valley track. Walking along this slashed passage way, you get a sense for the density of the regrowth as the vegetation beside the track is dense as a wall. In 2021, this is where we spent a couple of hours thrashing around trying to find any remnant track at all. Now, apart from a few odd jogs in the track, the way is clear, but the walking is not quick as the cleared brush is simply dropped onto the track. Hidden Valley track, however, is obvious and soon enough the cleared track sidled down easily to a wonderful campsite at Styles Creek. There are a number of flat tent sites, a sitting area with a few log bench seats and views to Mount Haugton and Hoddles Castle Hill, the south end of Quiltys Mountain and the looming bulk of Mount Sturgiss. Apart from the incessant wind, it was one of the nicest – if not the best – campsites I’ve had in the Budawangs.
It was long past time for a big mug of tea and boiling water to soak dinner. We wandered about a bit before dark and I even entertained the idea of trying to find Styles Cave but with the short days of mid-winter there was not sufficient time.
The next morning, after a very long time in the tent, I fetched water in a pot and crawled back into tent and sleeping bag to make a big jug of coffee for Doug and myself. Before 7:30 am, we were ready to set off following a defined track east towards the south end of Sturgiss Mountain. In a disappointingly short period of time, we came to what seemed to be the end of the track and I contemplated more bushwacking than originally intended, but, a little searching around and we located the track where it jogged east and passed close by Pagoda Rocks before crossing the head of the valley. I had seen reports of a very boggy track across the Styles Plains in years past, so Doug and I were carrying plastic “holey soles” to walk the track if it was sodden in order to keep our shoes dry. It turned out that we only needed to put these on for a short section where the track crossed a deeper channel and was sodden for perhaps 100 metres.
A mostly well slashed track climbed up to the base of Mount Haughton and a large camping cave. These always seems so dusty to me and I never realise the appeal, unless of course the rain is pitching down. We left our holey soles on a rock at the base of Mount Haughton and continued on a beaten pad around the east and then south side of the mesa. This is the standard Budawang track, up and down staying as close to the base of the cliffs as possible. At a couple of locations we were diverted upwards scrambling through small passes but these led only into thick scrub in passages between pagodas.
About half way along the south side of Mount Haughton, the cliffs break down and we found a pass between low cliffs up onto the plateau. Burnt and twisted low trees were still pretty thick but we were able to weave through them heading almost due west to where the map indicates the high point lies. Quickly we reached a band of swampy ground and extreme regrowth which we took turns pushing a path through – the kind of vegetation that you must fling your entire body at to make passage. Luckily, there was not too much of this and we exited to the left in more open bush below a second band of cliffs. Travelling north, we soon found a ledge system of ironstone plates which we quickly scrambled up to reach mostly open slabs and what I presume is the top of Mount Haughton.
I presume, but I’m not sure. The latest topographic map has a error with a dark contour (marked 900 metres) to the west of the 877 metre spot elevation. There is no such thing as from the spot elevation, the ground slopes down towards Mount Hoddle. It was very windy on top so we scuttled about until we found a sheltered location looking off into Hollands Gorge which is almost 700 metres below. From our location, there was a maze like system of pagodas to the north. It is possible that a higher point lies that way, but if that is true (the map is little help), the elevation difference would be a matter of a few metres at most. Thick scrub lies throughout this myriad of pagodas and finding a way through and up would be the work of many, many hours.
We had lunch and pondered the possibility of ascending either Mount Hoddle or Hoddles Castle Hill but were disabused of that notion when we noted the amount of scrub between us and either of those locations. Returning to camp was much quicker as we avoided all the detours up possible passes and only rested for a short time under a big roof at the last camping cave on Mount Haughton. Back at camp, I made big mugs of tea and then followed a westward trending branch of the track across into Styles plains. This was reasonably clear for a distance but I suspect that the northern end on the east side of Fosters Mountain could be a different story. We had intersected this track close to its junction with Round Mountain FT in 2021 and the track was buried deep in acacia regrowth.
We had another long night in the tent, although the wind did drop but clear skies brought frost overnight so next morning I repeated my winter camping ritual of getting up for a pot of water and then returning to bed for a mug of coffee. The walk out was slightly better than expected as we did the annoying rumba over and under the blow down along Kilpatrick Creek in the morning while fresh rather than in the afternoon. The rocky road out, however, was hard on the feet and it was nice to reach the car after about five hours walking.
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