Aboriginal Name for Mt Baw Baw - In the Woiwurrung language it is thought to have been called bo-ye (ghost) or bo-bo
Mt Erica track
Whenever it’s winter, I’m always itching to get outside and to get amongst nature. I always feel at odds with the ‘synthetic’ way we live in winter and I often think that our winter blues are a direct result of being detached from the environment.
Mt Erica is the perfect little hike for winter. It’s in the Baw Baw National Park, only a couple of hours away from Melbourne, and stuck at the bottom of the Alpine region in the Latrobe Valley. When I went, my boyfriend and I decided to stay for a couple of days in a log cabin in the little town of Walhalla.
The Mt Erica walking track makes up part of the Australian Alps Walking track. If you continue for 650 kilometers, it will take you all the way to Canberra. But if you haven’t got as much time as that, you could just hike to the top of Mt Erica.
To start, you need to get to the Mt Erica car park. It’s clearly signposted off the Thompson Valley Road, so it’s not hard to find. The hike will probably take you half a day to a day. Although it’s not a long trek it’s quite a steep walk so it does take a while.
The foot track climbs steadily through mountain ash forest. It’s pretty amazing, because as you climb in altitude, the vegetation dramatically changes around you – from snow gum forest, to myrtle beach to the mountain ash forest and fern valleys. If you move slowly, you might even see a Baw Baw frog.
About one kilometer in, you begin to see the Mushroom Rocks – huge rounded granite boulders which have been shaped into mushrooms. These mushies were created by a past earthquake and then shaped by the weather over time. The Mushroom Rocks are like an adventure playground – so beautiful to look at, but also tactile for jumping and sitting on.
If you keep following the track, which is a really steep climb, snow will appear. The snow got heavier as we kept walking, but there were also patches on the track with no snow. If you’re going to do the hike in mid winter, make sure you have proper footwear; otherwise your feet will get wrecked.
The best thing about this hike is that there is no one else around. We didn’t see anyone else at all. It’s nice to know, in a world that’s never quiet; you can be completely without distractions.
The top of Mt Erica is pretty beautiful, particularly seeing the tops of trees and the farms below. When I got there, I couldn’t help but think how humans are meant to live in the world of nature, being part of something so much bigger than ourselves.
Coming down from Mt Erica was a rush. As the walk up was so steep, running down felt like you were flying. You should probably slow down when there is snow, though, so you don’t face plant into the earth. Humans aren’t supposed to be that close to nature.
Claire Feain
June 2015
LFRF acknowledges all the Traditional Owners of the land [or country] and pay our respects to the Elders, past and present of all of Victoria and urges you to please do the same.
