Cathedral Ranges - Cooks Mill

Type: 4wd'ing + hiking + camping
Location: Cooks mill cathedral ranges
Dates: 19th - 20th October
Weather: Cloudy and small showers
Crew: Toon, Jax, Billie, Sam, Willo, Mia, Liam, Hugo, Huggett, Mishka
Key Tracks Hit: N/A
Vehicles Used: Paj, Subi Outback, Nissan xtrail, Hilux
Distance Travelled: 200km
Campsites: Cooks Mills
Fishing: The river was golden ripe for fishing. Kids do not enable us to drop a line...
Gear Purchased: N/A
Gear Review: N/A
Food: Garlic Bread, Hot dogs, slow roasted lamb shoulder souvas, nachos, pancakes, bacon sangas
Report: Great overnighter. So easy to get up and out. Kids had a blast, must keep doing this.
Rating: 9/10. 10 if Ross could have made it.

Snow 4wding

Type: 4wd'ing + hiking + camping 
Location: Warburton to Lake Mountain
Dates: 10/8/19
Weather: Cold. Winter blast from way down south had snow falling down to 500m.
Crew: Toon, Jax, Millie & Sam
Key Tracks Hit: Various. Explored all sort of tracks on the way towards Lake Mountian from Warby.
Vehicles Used: Paj
Distance Travelled: 200km
Gear Review: Cooper ST tyres are nearing replacement. The rear tred is low, made it tough to gain good snow traction.
Food: Stuff
Report: Epic session. First proper snow off-roading done. Headed off in search of snow because of the weather that hit Melbourne, there was heaps! Drove to Warburton up towards Donna Buang. Kepts going then hit some track through there. Then went off some track that was heading up towards Mt Strickland, and a few km's up that was a massive tree fallen over the road to turned around. Joined up with 2 other vehciles at that time and tagged along with them for the rest of the day. We then headed towards lake mountain and went off some tracks. Lots of tree fallen climbs required and lots of winching if you wanted to step it up. Decided to turn around and head higher. Found a deep rutted out track and did some driving and then the kids got out for a play. Got stuck and needed the maxtrax to get out of a pickle (faster than the winch!). After the kids had a play, I had to then head back home. On the way home, i saw some dude trying to flag down a car on Maroondah Hwy by Dom Dom Saddle Picnic area so i pulled over. He got his fancy merc stuck trying to do donuts! Haha. Winched them out of trouble - great way to close off a day off-road.
Rating: 10/10

Exploring Toolangi

Type: 4wd'ing + hiking + camping 
Location: Toolangi area
Dates: 4/8
Weather: Drizzle
Crew: Tvb, Jax, Millie and Sam
Key Tracks Hit: Pauls Lane, Pauls Creek Track, Forest Road, Blowhard Rd, various tracks around blowhard.
Vehicles Used: Paj
Distance Travelled: 60km
Campsites: 
Fishing: 
Gear Purchased: 
Gear Review: Runva winch clutch is too stiff to disengage. Unsure on how to fix so that it can free spool out. Needed to use the "out" to get the winch out, much quicker to free spool but couldnt move clutch.
Food: Snacks
Report: Solid 3 hour session. Tracks were very slippery and most closed but surprisingly a lot open too. Some tracks were just too gnarly to go up unless there was a 2nd vehicle and probably no kids on board as getting stuck would have been inevitable. Did however get stuck in a mud pit and needed to winch out. Lucky i brought the recovery gear!  Needs to get out again!
Rating: 8/10

1 hour 10 min north

Type: 4wd'ing + hiking + camping
Location: 1 hour 10 min north  #28
Dates: 6-7 July
Weather: Perfect. No rain, no wind, sunny, but cold. Nothing a fire and warm clothes couldnt fix.
Crew: Toon, Jax, Billie, Ross, Ella, Alphie, LJ, Hugo.
Key Tracks Hit: N/A
Vehicles Used: Paj, Mazda, Subi
Distance Travelled: 220km
Campsites: #28. Solid spot, maybe one of the best in this area.
Fishing: N/A Closed season. River was awesome though and would be great spot to fish.
Gear Purchased: N/A
Gear Review: n/a
Food: Hot diggidy dogs, chips, stoner cones, lollies, chicken wings/legs, froot loops, bacon and eggs, pancakes.
Report: Was worried we would be amongst hoards of people given school holidays, but it worked out very awesome indeed. Great site, great times. Hugo's first time out, and the kid was a champ. Few tears from kids, meant the trip was pretty chill. All kids had fun, all adults had fun too. Need to keep arranging these! Ross' tent is massive, we all had a sleep over in that. Most dissapointing thing was the midnight chicken not up to scratch!
Rating: 9/10. Chicken was a let down.

Toolangi State Forest

Type: 4wd'ing + hiking + camping
Location: Toolangi State Forest
Dates: 25th - 27th Jan
Weather: Hot
Crew: Toon, Willo, Ross
Key Tracks Hit: Various. Winter time this place would be insane and you need one seriously hard core lifted truck. Many bog holes and slippery slides!
Vehicles Used: Paj + Pathy
Distance Travelled: 380 km
Campsites: Special One i am not going to tell you about.
Fishing: 1 trout. See https://fishingcrew.blogspot.com/2019/01/murrindindi-river.html
Gear Purchased: Liam gave his old mans funky campfire frypan
Gear Review: Funky frypan is awesome.
Food: Ate like kings again. Fried chicken wings and legs, nachos, lamb souvas, hot dogs, bacon and egg rolls,
Report: Awesome time. Was going to hit up Upper Big River, but a fire started just past Marysville, and so had to come up with a back up plan. Headed to Rubicon, and waited at Buxton to get confirmation from Ross/Willo they were coming. Ditched Rubicon and chose Toolangi. Was super surprised no one was there, maybe because i had to open the track after a tree fell over the road? Either way, site was nice, if only it had a bigger river to do proper fishing in or swimming. Was just a wicked couple of days chillin, kloping, and talking shit.
Rating: 7/10. Would have been better if Ross stayed another night and LJ didnt little jimmy.

Upper Big River - McClelland Camp

Type: 4wd'ing + hiking + camping
Location: Upper Big River State Forest
Dates: 10-11 Feb
Weather: Hot
Crew: VB Fam
Key Tracks Hit: N/A
Vehicles Used: Paj
Distance Travelled: 380km
Campsites: McClelland
Fishing: Unfortunately none. Was itching to drop a line!!
Gear Purchased: N/A
Gear Review: N/A
Food: Hamburgers, Coco Pops, Fruit, Vegemite, various other odds and ends
Report: Awesome to get out for the first session of the year. The place is wicked, and far less crowded than Rubicon and Lower Big River and the sites further north. Many campsites to choose from, it may have been empty because we were there weekday, but left late friday pm and still no one on the big river rd. The most annoying part, and what ultimately cut the trip short were the FLIES! Fuck loads of them and there is nothing you could do. They were everywhere, and then when they started to piss off at about 8pm, the freaking tiny midgie flies were everywhere. They got in your eyes, mouth, nose, and worst of all wine! Had to go to bed at 9pm. The next morning was warm and the flies were around, so got on the road and had a blast up on Lake Mountain flying fox, summer toboggan, and orienteering course. Kids had a blast, and i have to give a massive thumbs up to the guys at Lake Mountain, they were exceptional in their service. Spent the rest of the day at Marysville Pool, and then headed back to camp to pack up the site. Hit the road at about 6:30pm and headed home. Would have loved to stay another night, but the flies said see ya later!
Rating: 7/10