The plan for this walk was an overnight trip to Teddys Hut at the top of the Thredbo River via the Brindle Bull Hill. 5 of us set out from Dead Horse Gap along the Cascade walking track for a kilometre before heading offtrack, uphill heading for the ridge. However, it soon became apparent that a previous injury of one of the party was being aggravated by the uneven, tussocky going. We decided on plan B, to go to Teddys Hut via the river. It didn’t take long to realise this was also unrealistic. So plan C was hatched, changing our destination to Cascade Hut. This had the advantage of being fire trail all the way.
The firetrail to Cascade Hut is basically a long, gradual uphill climb to the top of Bob’s Ridge, then a long gradual descent to Cascade Creek – taking care to avoid bikes whizzing past. It seems that the Dead Hose Gap to Pinch River trip is quite popular for bikes – a 57km day trip.
Whilst wildflowers weren’t in dramatic display, there was large variety giving plenty of reasons to slowdown, take it all in, and enjoy this beautiful area.
Particularly on the first day, there was quite a lot of smoke haze from the bushfires in Victoria, west/southwest of Corryong. The view south from the top of Bob’s Ridge to the Pilot and the Cobberas particularly was a brown haze.
Cascade Hut was quiet, with just one other couple there, arriving later in the afternoon. On the creek area near the hut there is what appears to be a large exclusion paddock, with a high fence presumably for the feral horses. However, there were a mob of horses inside this paddock. Inspection of the fence didn’t show any breaches, except for dodgy design where it goes across the creek – leaving a large gap underneath easy for horses to negotiate! Apart from this area at Cascade hut, it was quite pleasing to not see any horse evidence on the trip. Indeed the banks of the Thredbo River where severe trampling had been observed on previous trips were now recovering well.