We started at the Mt. Owen carpark, the same place where Phil and I started our hike in June. The intention was to follow the same route. In order to get an early start Friday morning, we opted to drive down Thursday night and camp at the carpark. To save packing in the morning, we just folded the back seats down in the station wagon and slept in the car.
The morning began with a nice breakfast of soft tacos with eggs and cheese. At about 7:30 a.m., we were off. The initial trail was reasonably easy to find, and got us to the base of the Mt. Owen ridge by about 10. We found a spot to climb up, and ended up needing the rope to drag the packs up. Once on the ridge, we had a nice view of the valley, and I could see the chimney where we intended to climb up the mountain. The hike had been relatively easy to this point.
After a short break, we began the trek toward the mountain. I could not find the trail, so we had no choice but to bush bash. This area had some of the worst scrub to bash through, particularly shoulder-height trees that had clusters of dried thorns all over. These shrubs don't budge easily, so we both got pretty scratched up in no time. It didn't take long before we started getting more impatient, and we began moving more forcefully in hopes of exiting sooner. During that time is when I nearly stepped on a brown snake. I happened to see the shimmery brown coil just before I put all my weight down, and I quickly shifted to my other foot and took an additional couple of long strides afterwards. I warned Keith about the snake, but fortunately it was gone. This would have been one of the worst locations to get bitten, as it is very infrequently traveled. Getting help would have taken over 24 hours.
We were more alert the rest of the way to the mountain. The scenery along the side looked different than from a distance, so I wasn't sure of the location of the chimney. We walked along the side for awhile, and passed what I think in retrospect was the chimney, but since the bush bashing wore us out a bit, I thought walking along the ridge to the campsite would be easier. It ended up being more bush bashing, though not quite as bad. It took us another 3 hours to get to the campsite -- far longer than I expected. This was more due to me not properly comprehending the distance rather than navigation errors. The bush bashing slowed us down considerably, too. At any rate, we made it to the campsite around 4:30. Just 30 minutes later, some other people came by hoping to get the same site, but it's first come first serve. The other nearby caves were packed, so we agreed to let the visitors stay at our site. But we got the prime spots for our tents. This particular cave is probably one of the nicest in the area, and it's very close to a reliable water supply.
The next day, we planned to go on a westward trail for what should have been an easy trek. Ha! We lost the trail early on, just a short ways down the ridge, but we thought we should be able to find it again fairly easily. We ended up spending another 3 hours bush bashing through salt grass (the edges are like razors and cut), waist-high piles of ferns, rotting logs, and the occasional leech. Fortunately, we cut our losses and decided to head back to camp rather than press on for a whole day of what would surely have been more torture. It's much easier to make really bad navigation errors when one is tired. We managed to get back to the camp around 1:30, and the rest of the day was spent relaxing. I had a cold shower at the nearby waterfall, and read a book for awhile. Keith carved a spoon.
The next day, we packed up camp, as we were going through Monolith Valley and on to The Castle. The plan was to spend the next night camping at The Castle. We followed the trail around the ridge, expecting it to lead straight into the valley. When it didn't, we debated a bit against the map, but neither of us managed to work it out in a satisfactory way. We were lucky enough to meet another couple of hikers, who were looking for the trail we came from, and knew the trail where we wanted to go. So we hiked back up to a creek junction we passed a few times, which turned out to be our route into Monolith Valley. We gave the other hikers the directions they needed and parted ways.
Monolith Valley was a nice change of pace. Being recessed and more of a rain forest meant it was pleasantly cool. Since I had the waterproof camera with me, I was able to get many more pictures here this time. The trail was easy to follow most of the way through, but there were a couple of junctions where we had to think carefully. We stopped for a snack at the Seven Gods Pinnacles. The Green Room was impressive, as always, but we missed the Natural Arch. I'm sure we just walked right past it without noticing it. We continued on and made our way out of Monolith Valley to the saddle of The Castle. We hiked a short way further, ditched our heavy packs, and climbed to the top of The Castle. Rather than just turn right around and go back down, we walked all the way to the end of the mountain this time -- where the log book was supposed to be. The scenery all around was breathtaking, and a nice finale to the day and the trip overall. We found the metal box that was supposed to house the log book, but someone had taken the book. There was a stack of post-it notes for visitors to write their names on, so we at least did that.
We got back to the packs, wormed our way through a short cave to save some time, then as we were hiking, we both agreed we should just finish the trip and get back to the car instead of camping another night. Water in this area was a bit more scarce, and we were both really tired. The rest of the trail was easy as far as navigation was concerned, and since it was only about 3:30, we were confident we could make it back to the carpark by dark.
We hiked as fast as we could on the final stretch, and made it to the carpark for The Castle around 5:45. There was a short cut that would have taken us directly back to the Mt. Owen carpark, but it would have involved more bush bashing and navigation, neither of which we wanted to do at this point. So we had to walk about another 40 minutes on the road, a good portion uphill, to the Mt. Owen carpark. We were glad to get back to the car, and looked forward to a stop at McDonald's on the way home.
Despite all the bush bashing and navigation blunders, it was still a rewarding experience. Having the chance to do that route a second time means that it will be more familiar to me next time. I still consider this area one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen, and the ruggedness is certainly a part of the experience.
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