Mt Barney South East Ridge down Mt Barney Creek to Lower Portals.

Mt Barney up South East Ridge the New track, and down Mt Barney Creek from the old Hut Site. We parked one car at Lower Portals and the other we drove to Yellow Pinch Reserve, from there we hiked up the new shorter track up South East Ridge , we started the hike just after 5:45am, Got to the old Hut site by 10:30 am and made our way down Barney Creek, This was after rain, hiking down Barney Creek was at times very slippery. There were times we hiked down in the creek bed and other times we had to go bush, but only slightly, most of the time when we did go bush it was on the left hand side going down, parts of it we needed a rope to drop down into the creek bed itself. We took a 15 Metre rope which was just enough. Further down the creek was a big rock fall preventing us from following the creek bed, it was here we climbed up to the right, once on top, we followed the top edge and then around to the right, then hiked down the path of least resistance into the creek bed again, after this it becomes a lot easier. Eventually you will get to the bottom, walking downstream, we didn't want to swim through the creek itself to get around some sections, so we climbed higher up and hiked along a bit till we could find a place to go back down into the creek bed, we had to use a rope to lower ourselves down. from there it was a fairly easy hike until you get to a steep section, as you will see following the GPS track, hike up there being careful of the loose rocks, once on top, follow the track to the right down into Lower Portals, follow the GPS track across the creek and back to the car. On the way back it got dark so be prepared for a long day, always carry a Head Torch, lots of food, and make sure you have the fitness to do this hike. You may notice the GPS track doubles back on itself, one of the hikers lost her phone and we went back looking for it. When we got back to the car, i forgot to turn the GPS off until we drove back to Yellow Pinch where we started from. The 22.57kms is not accurate as far as walking distance goes. It felt like we walked that far though. Actual hiking distance was about 16 Kms.