Victoria - Easy/Medium trip around Mt Stirling near Mansfield

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Given many of the tracks will close soon for Winter, the following might be of interest to any non hardcore/new to the 4by scene ausjeepers to plan for next Spring/Summer, or in the next 2 weeks if the rain holds off.

If any of you have been following my build threads, you will know my 2012 WK2 CRD Laredo has had personal mods as well as professional mods by Dave at Uneek4x4 here in Melbourne and CRDSTU at Murchisons in Breendale. I also recommend new people participate in a registered 4WD training program.



bear with me while I build this post up using tapatalk

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I have the opportunity over the next few years to get out an explore as much of this great country as time and $$'s allow, and am hitting areas and tracks to build my confidence in my WK2 and what it can and maybe shouldn't do.

So I researched and mapped out a bit of a trip today that worked pretty well without putting me or my Jeep at too much risk while still pushing a few bounds and experience.


Leaving Mansfield Tourist Info centre at 9am with a few other family and friends, we headed east towards Mt Buller and some 12km's out, turned left onto Buttercup Rd.

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Buttercup Rd turns into dirt/gravel pretty quickly so the first chance we could, we pulled over and aired down. I normally run my BFGATKO 18"'s at38psi on highway around town etc, and have found after a bit of trial and error that 28psi seems to be a good pressure for offroad.



There's two small creek crossings on this road that I was warned could be a problem in flood (but hey aren't they all). Today both only contained a couple of inches of water and I don't think even hit the rims.

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Buttercup Road runs into Carter Rd and we veered left and followed this up to Tomahawk gap. Bit muddy but not too slippery today even with constant rain on the track. At the top we turned right onto No.3 Road.
At this point we engaged low range as the No. 3 Road has lots of small low rock and a few switchback turns. At the top there were small bog holes but nothing that slowed or stopped us.

Normally I understand the views from this area are pretty good, but the weather gods weren't on our side today.
There's a cattle gate up near the top that we opened and closed but otherwise stayed on this track all the way to Circuit Road, that runs all the way around Mt Stirling.

So by now some of you hardcore guys will be saying "boring" and I have no problem with that. This threads probably not for you anyway.

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At Circuit Road we turned left and followed this around to Clear Hills Track where we turned right and followed this into Craig's Hut carpark.



The trip so far took about 2hrs ex Mansfield. This is probably longer than normal but take into account this was our first time on these roads/tracks and it was raining the whole trip.

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Ok so now the trip becomes a little more challenging. From Craig's Hut, we dropped down onto the Monument Track. This had some steep sections, a couple of switchbacks and remember it was wet, but surprisingly not to slippery for us. Have to admit I haven't necessarily enjoyed the BFG AT's since putting them on, but suspect that's been a lot to do with finding the right psi for offroad and up until recent weeks, it's all been very dry and dusty. In the wet, I'm very happy with the performance, control and grip.
Monument Track intersects Circuit Road again and then becomes Bindaree Road which heads to down to Bindaree Falls and Bindaree Hut on the Howqua River.
Note: At this point if you've had enough, you could turn right or left on Circuit Road and head to Mt Buller for a look or back down to Mansfield. We kept going down to Bindaree Falls and Hut.



At the time of this trip, the walking track out to Bindaree Falls was closed for repair, so we continued on down to Bindaree Hut where there's a water crossing. The crossing is mostly made up of two rock shelves with a gutter in the middle. My tip here is to keep to the left and crawl through as many 4bys seem to hit as they're going out on the rear towbar. First time you wonder what the hell you've done, but it's noise more than damage as long as you take it steady.



You can see here in this next pic where a Hilux drops it's back wheel into the gutter between the 2 rock shelves.

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From Bindaree Hut, we jumped onto 16mile Jeep Track. This road was mostly Ok, but in the latter sections, it climbs from the river flats up to the top of a ridge. Some steepish climbs but nothing that phased us. Some of the water ruts kept us in track, but with the suspension lift there was never an issue.



One of the 4by's with us lost traction on one of the tougher rut sections and we had to help by giving a light snatch , but outside of that everyone got safely to the top, where you can then trip out a short track to Bluff Hut.



By this time it was 2:30pm and we knew we still had a bit of a drive to go, so continued on toward Sheepyard Flat on Bluff Link Road.