Leader: Mark Graesser

Camp Lake, or  ‘Lake Camp’, as some call it, is perched in a sub-alpine cirque beneath Mt Prospect on the western side of the Cobb Valley, opposite the Tent Camp on the valley track.

Three of us set off at 8:00am on Saturday in hopes that the unstable weather would settle down for a couple of reasonable days on the Cobb.

As it turned out, a mixture of misty rain and sunny breaks made for pleasant walking.

Our German guest, a recent biology graduate, was happy to absorb a steady stream of commentary from the locals on the prolific bush birds and native plants. We ducked out of the rain for lunch in the Chaffey’s Hut, and paused at the newly-refurbished Tent Camp to consider whether or not to proceed or bail out at this point. ‘Onward’, was the decision.

Getting to the lake proved more problematic than I dimly recalled from a visit about a decade ago. We began by following a sporadically-marked track leading across the stream just north of the camp, then steeply up the side of the ridge. This track was probably created by Friends of Cobb to access the Henderson Lake area, where they operate trap lines in hopes of saving the rock wren population.

The good news was that this track enabled us to gain about 250 metres of elevation fairly efficiently; the bad news was that it seemed be taking us well to the north of the lake itself. Finally, we plunged into the dense, resistant bush, and bashed for more than two hours before arriving at the lake around 6:00pm, as darkness was rapidly falling. (Total time from leaving the road end was about seven hours, half that being the off-track climb.)

We quickly pitched tents in less than ideal locations, and hunkered down for the night to recover from an unexpectedly exhausting journey.

In the morning, Uta announced that her thermometer read zero degrees. We bundled up, pausing only for a couple of misty photos, and found our way out by a somewhat more efficient route than on the previous day.

All members of the party appreciated the natural features (birds, plants and geology) we encountered, and the satisfaction of completing a trip whose ultimate challenges placed it well above the official ‘medium’ rating. As leader, I was grateful for the steadfast, uncomplaining demeanor of my two companions, one a veteran and the other a neophyte. Participants were Uta Purcell, Julia Piko and Mark Graesser.