Still riding high after paddling Cement Creek near Warburton on Monday. For folk into rivers, see the trip report below, and couple of photos from a cranking day. Cement Creek DATE; 30 June 2014. GET IN: confluence of East Branch and West Branch Cement Creek. GET OUT; Cement Creek Rd, where it crosses the Yarra River DISTANCE; approx 900mt on Cement Creek (and 1500mt on Yarra River) GRADE: very tight and technical grade 3, continuous moving water and small rapids consisting of small wave trains and drops. Many strainers throughout the trip. We had about 8 portages around strainers and sieves. Eddies in short supply. This section is suitable to small groups of experienced paddlers. GRADIENT: approx 15 mt / per km. On river : 1345 Off river: 1545 GENERAL; *possibly a first decent and yet to find info on previous runs. The end of the financial year means different things for different people. Some of us think of tax, budgets or the birth of new month, while others may think shopping, and chase bargains in every shop. For a small crew of paddlers, this end of financial year was all about maximising on recents rains and kayaking a new creek. Cement Creek has its headwaters on the southern side of Mt Donna Buang in the Yarra Valley about 90km east of Melbourne. It begins as a swift shallow stream that cascades steeply through cool temperate rainforest with Sassafras and Myrtle Beach lined banks. Further downstream, just below the aqueduct trail, it gathers momentum when the East and West Branches join and the valley widens a tad. I had stumbled upon this creek last year while dwelling over topographic maps under torch light, searching for blue squiggly lines that could produce a creek with white water potential. Once a blue line is found, you can measure the catchment size by following the ridge lines with a piece of string to determine the area in square kilometres. Further, it is possible to work out the gradient fall by counting the contour lines and dividing the distance travelled on river by the elevation drop. From what i could glean, it was worthy of having a look and in January 2014, I hiked to the confluence of the East and West Branch. At first glance, it looked similar to the vision id formed when scanning the map, this a narrow low volume creek with the obligatory strainer here and there. At this level, I guesstimated an additional 20 cm would render the creek on. This would create enough water to cover the rocks to float on down yet not be so pushy on the mandatory portages around some strainers. I walked about 300 meters down steam, noted a few hazards to avoid, then gave it the nod. All it needed now was 40mm of rain on saturated soils for a first decent trip. Melbournes autumn in 2014 had been unseasonably dry and warm and projections of El Niño filtered through the cheap pages of the daily news papers. Weather and climate issues dont tend to sell newspapers unless a wild storm event trashes infrastructure or kills humans. Around Sunday 22 June 2014, a large cold frontal system blew in from the Great Australian Bight and began crossing through South Australia. It arrived in Victoria over the next couple of days and brought with it some decent rains across large chunks of the state, including Mt Donna Buang, that got about 50mm. The Yarra at the Millgrove gauge rose above 1mt and maintained a moderate flow throughout the entire week. With the catchments now saturated and unable to hold any more water, any future rains would generate direct water run off and result in rising rivers and creeks. Presto. On Saturday 28 June, the heavens opened up again. It rained for a good chunk of the day, evening and night. And into Sunday morning. Afternoon. And into the night. For a paddler chasing a fix, this was music to my ears. I searched rainfall across the state and saw upwards of 40mm at Mt Donna Buang. With more rain forecast for Monday 30 June, my outdoor work was cancelled and I now had a free day. It was here the penny dropped and the possibility of a Cement Creek run took another step. I flicked an email out to Whitehorse Canoe Club to see if any crew were able to paddle on such short notice. By lights out, a small crew had indicated an interest to join up, this being Evan Brophy and Ross Richards. By 2300, the Yarra at Millgrove had risen to 1.4 mt, this the equivalent to 1900 ML / d (megaliters per day) flowing past a particular point. Monday morning dawned with the sound of light pitta patters falling outside. With excitement, I checked the gauge - the Yarra River had held - it was 1.4mt at the Millgrove gauge. From all accounts and with what we knew, Cement Creek should now be on. Our crew gathered in Warburton around 1300 and we convoyed to the get in and unloaded all our gear. The West Branch was running fast, and the highest id ever seen. Once it joined the East Branch, the flow would nearly treble. We walked east for about 15 minutes, then arrived on the East Branch directly above the confluence. It was still a bit boney, so we pushed on downstream to a point where the creek looked clear and clean. The surrounding vegetation was stunning with spectacular stands of towering Manna Gums dominating the riparian canopy. Pomaderris, Oleria and tree ferns blended in to create a sea of greenery in a fairy tale type of place. Finally, we arrived at a point we felt was suitable to kayak. The narrow creek raced away and no strainers were in sight. With a tingle of excitement in my bones, I strapped myself into my kayak, pushed off the edge, and began to paddle the gentle rapids. The current raced my away, and i ducked to aboid an overhanging fern. At this point, I felt a euphoric vibe and felt blessed to be here and now. Kayaking mountain creeks provides plenty of thrill, and more so when its a first decent. The creek swung around to the right and I noted a small fallen tree about 80mm wide, half in the moving stream and half exposed above the surface. It was slanting on the right hand side, so pushed hard right and boofed the tree. I grabbed a micro eddy on river left, and clawed my way into the branches of the fallen tree. From here, I was able to push down on the tree so to minimise a broach for Ross who was paddling his play boat. Ross followed next, pushed right on the bend, slid over the tree and caught an eddy on the opposite side. We smiled at each other and signalled all good. At this point, the creek was all of 4 meters wide with lots of vegetation hanging down and obscuring ones view. In the upstream distance, Evan began his run, cruised on past, and took off as lead boater. Ross and I followed on, while taking in the sweet forest delights One thing that really stuck out was the glut of strainers and we needed. to be extra cautious and avoid them like the plague. In total, we had to portage maybe 8 times, and carry out ksyaks up and around these dangerous natural features. Most of them were small trees that had fallen across the creek that were often positioned horizontal around waist or head height. There were several wood jams, often on a corner, with some resembling a jumbled mass of spears in an abstract lattice design. While roping boats around one such sieve, the current pushed Evans kayak toward a nasty log jam. Some hard yanking and deep grunts saw him finally free his boat, and we continued with the portage We hoped back in and ran some lovely little chutes, all while surrounded in such a lush forest land. Soon after we ran a magical rapid with a small righthand turn that had a branch at temple height in the main flow. We all got through fine, then the water speed decreased, and we caught an tiny eddy on river right above a heinous river wide strainer. Here, a massive Manna Gum about a metre diameter was blocking the entire creek and resembled a constructed reservoir wall. We thought it had fallen very recently, and possibly in the storms that buffeted these forests just last week. It was a speedy portage on river right and gave us time to stretch our legs that in turn kept us warm. After this, the action really picked up and we enjoyed some epic paddling on some continuous grade 2 water. Ross, in his Rainbow play boat, pioneered a dog leg rapid and avoided the log jam by keeping hard right. The creek then swung left into a sweet little hole before another strainer rendered another short walk around. Ross walked ahead to inspect further down stream while Evan and I wrestled a cumbersome branch and removed it from chute. Once cleared, it was a dream run that justified the time taken to free up the run Soon after this, a pine plantation appears on the right, with a maintenance access track that had a spongy feel from layers of pine nettles. Before too long, we were back on the creek, and enjoying some divine paddling on a series of sweet wave trains. Evan scouted ahead and reported we had reached the Yarra River. Our final rapid on Cement Creek was a hard right sneak line, and directly underneath a large tree fern with unfurled fronds - magic. Suddenly, we had shifted from a clear narrow mountain creek to the cranking chocolate brown waters of a swollen Yarra River. It felt like the volume had increased 30 fold and you could feel the pushy water as it roared down the valley. We encounter one portage on the Yarra section, this a massive river wide strainer just after Cement Creek. From here, its all read and run on a very swift moving Yarra River and then presto the bridge appeared and our adventure trip had come to a close. Although this section contains quite a few strainers, it is an amazing paddle and a real little gem in the upper Yarra valley Sean Marler July 2014.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Jul 2014 07:51:05 +0000
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