Armed with trip notes for Spiral Canyon, Rod, Rowen and I planned to
meet up at Yobbos and camp for a nice early start. Unfortunately Rowen
had to cancel at the last minute, so it was just Rod and I.
I arrived first and set up camp and did the big firewood scrounge, and
spotted the Aussie flag waving from a tree further back in the bush.
This needed investigating! To my amazement, I found a home-made dunny
complete with soggy toilet roll on the seat (yes the lid was down!)
The next day dawned with snowy clouds racing across the sky, but
undaunted, we set off to the locked gate at Dean's Creek Fire trail. We
walked 5kms and left the fire trail at NGR459187 to head for the
tributary to the west. I realised later that the tributary in the
notes was a bit further north than one we entered by, but this only
affected the first abseil. Not realising at this stage that we were in a
different tributary, we rigged for what we thought was going to be a
25m abseil. We couldn't see the bottom from the top, and I was a fair
way down when I realised the rope was way too short for the pitch. I was
able to stop on a precariously narrow dirt ledge and cow-tailed onto the
only tree which was growing out of the wall. Rod rapped down and clipped
in and we reset the rope. Our first rap was about 20m, and the second
was just shy of 30.
Once down, we hit an open section which quickly became very scrubby.
This was the section our notes said was worth exploring if you didn't
mind scrub! We reached the junction of the other tributary that we
should have entered by. The canyon soon showed a bit of promise by
closing in and a few climb downs were negotiated. Rod showed how handy
he can be as a mobile foot hold when I realised my legs weren't as long
as I thought for some chimneying I was attempting. Our next abseil
followed but instead of the 15m we were expecting, it was only 8. We
never found the other abseil that was supposed to follow, but we may
have missed it in a climb down. There was no mistaking the final abseil.
Off a tree on the right, and a very awkward start as the tree is right
on the edge. I sat with my legs over the edge, and had to do the leap of
faith to get into position. This abseil took me straight into the only
real canyon section of the day. A short but very pretty slot section
which opened out all too soon just before Dean's Creek.
As soon as we hit the creek, with Rod leading, we tried to find a
quicker way out up through the cliffline. It looked promising for a
while with a few climbs and scrambling around very narrow corners. We
had to admit defeat when we could go no further and abseiled back down.
Staying under the cliffline, we followed Dean's Creek upstream. The
scrub became close to impenetrable and I found a new use for my helmet
putting my head down and forcing my way through head first. Got to give
Rod credit for knowing when not to lead! if we had stayed next to the
creek it would have much easier going. The first tributary on the left
is the way out and in no time we we at the bottom of a 5m exposed
climb. Once at the top, it was a matter of heading east until we got
back to the fire trail and easy walking back to the cars just on dark.
It was a long 8 hour day for a short canyon, but one I'd be happy to do
again.
A couple of photos, check out the dunny at Yobbos!
http://imageevent.com/jburton/canyons/spiral150608Julie
