b'CLUB SPOTLIGHT NORTHERN RANGES 4WD CLUB O n the weekend of 6-7better than that! BY: AARON SKILLEN fresh tracks in that level of snow. Road out of the snow and into thetry!We encourage all current and HIGH COUNTRY HIGHLIGHTSFrom the top of the Howitt Highsunshine.within an hour, it wasprospective members to check out Plains, we continued westwardamazing the difference. our trip calendar on our website on Twins Track to Mt Murray. Thetracks, we found we were runningtoward Lovicks Hut via King BillyFor a first trip for the club, this(https://northernranges4wdclub.May, we ran our firstdusting of snow was present onout of daylight pretty quickly, soTrack. The creek crossing at thewas a pretty hard one to top.guessorg.au) to find out where we are official club trip intoMt Murray which we thought waswhen we arrived at Riley Hut andbottom of King Billy was prettyit throws the gauntlet out to us togoing next!the High Country and itamazing.little did we know thatdiscovering no one was there, itspecial to do with the snow falling. will be a hard one to top! Our trip24 hours later, it would be muchtook less than a moment to decideThe climb back up was pretty cool participants were treated to someto pull up stumps for the night(no pun intended) with the final magical early-season snow for theFrom Mt Murray, we headedat the hut. We had the potbellypush to the Brocks Road junction entirety of Sunday. down Twins Jeep Track, acrosscranking that night and with a fullproving to be the most difficult Starting on Friday night, weMt Selwyn, before coming acrossbelly, settled in for the night withpart of the weekend. The track settled into our camp at Shippensanother group that had donethe rain still falling. had turned to slop and required Flat before the precipitation setthemselves a mischief! Trying toOn Sunday, the aim was to dropa decent effort to get up. It is no in for the weekend meaning a wetavoid a fallen tree, they simplyinto Wonnangatta briefly, beforewonder these tracks are closed start to the day on Saturday. Theslipped off the road. Thankfullyclimbing up Zeka Spur Track to theduring snow season. They turn to original plan for the trip was to dowe arrived when we did.theyHowitt High Plains. What we weremush pretty quickly.Mt Blue Rag Track, then down todefinitely needed more recoverytreated to was snow from 1,100m;Stopping for lunch at Lovicks Talbotville and Eaglevale via Basaltgear and another winch that madeand heavy snow at that. At theand the obligatory car shots Knob Track finishing at Billy Goatsthe recovery pretty simple in thehelipad at Van Dammes Track, theproved amazingly special given Bluff on Sunday.but given theend. The poor 80 however willsnow was 2-3 inches thick. By thethe white stuff on the ground. conditions, we decided to go downneed a bit of repairing. time we reached the Howitt HighWe then pressed onto Bluff Hut Gunns Track to the Dargo HighWith this recovery and stoppingPlains, it was 4-5 inches. There isbefore making our descent back Plains Road before heading westto clear at least 4 or 5 trees off thesomething special about makingdown Bluff Link Track and Brocks 12 TRACKWATCH|September 2023 TRACKWATCH|September 2023 13'