Thursday 10/12/2020 Rennix Walk, Boggy Plain Creek, Rams Head Range, Snowy Hydro radio reflector
Kosciuszko National Park, NSW
Ngarigo country
Participants: Stephen Davies (Photos, Report), Sue Davies
Rennix Walk crosses Sawpit Creek which is just beyond the car park at Rennix Gap. Then it follows Boggy Plain Creek upstream to the north for about 1km. Along this section, we observed a multitude of wildflowers in bloom. Moving away from these boggy meadows onto the ridge the track gently meanders over a series of 30m high bumps through subalpine meadows, snow gum woodlands and open plains.
Max elevation: 1681 m
Total climbing: 551 m
Total descent: -551 m
Average speed: 3.69 km/h
Total time: 05:34:03
After a beautiful sunny morning at Island Bend preparing for the day’s walk we were surprised to find the clouds rolling in just in time for the start, these low clouds limited morning visibility to a few hundred metres whilst providing a great atmosphere and nicely diffused lighting for wildflower photography. Feeding on the nectar were three or four species of butterflies.
Wildflowers along Rennix Walk track
Unlike yesterday’s walk which included passing hundreds of other walkers and half a dozen National Parks vehicles on the Mount Kosciuszko Summit Track today, we would only encounter one other couple of a similar age and a young guy out for a run/walk.
Reaching 1660m at the end of the ridge the grassy vehicular track stops abruptly at a nice, tall, close-knit family of granite boulders, topped by a mysterious structure which we would later find out to be a Snowy Hydro radio reflector. That was not expected! Here we paused for lunch before heading back.
The clouds started lifted a little shortly thereafter, yielding glimpses of both Lake Jindabyne to the east and the Main Range to the west off in the distance on the walk out.
After the punishingly hard surface of yesterday’s Main Range Walk our feet seemed much happier with the softer cushioning of grass under our them along almost all of today’s walk. We both did, however, seem to reach the limit of our feet’s endurance in the last kilometre. Looks like we need to investigate the cause – foot structure, boots or age-related?
With plenty of daylight left, we made a short detour on the way back to our campsite at Island Bend to do the Rainbow Lake Walking Track which starts near the top of the hill past Sponar’s Lakeside Inn.
Clickable icons on a world map which open the related trip report
A detailed, searchable trip list with links to reports, photo galleries and other content
NSW National Parks signage in the carpark at Rennix Gap track states
You are in a 10,000 year old bog. Sphagnum moss, the green hummocky mounds in bogs, takes in water during the snowmelt and slowly releases it into streams.
Acting like giant sponges, they absorb then release filtered clear water into the mountain streams that feed the Snowy River.
This track skirts the edge of a montane forest and winds through subalpine meadows, snowgum woodlands and open plains. It provides views of alpine ash forests, and glimpses of the Snowy River and Lake Jindabyne.
Rennix Walk starts in a 10,000 year old bog. Aboriginal stone tools have been found in this area.
About 1.6km along the track a gap in the treeline provides views of the Main Range. About 1km further on you can see Mt Blue Cow with the Main Range in the background.
A trig station on a prominent group of boulders near the Snowy Hydro radio reflector marks the end of the track. From here you can see the site of the Island Bend township and the airstrip used during the construction of nearby dams, tunnels and power stations in the 1950s.
Rennix Gap is named after the engineer in (charge of the construction of the Kosciuszko Road from 1906 to 1909). He died of pneumonia after being caught in a blizzard there.
