Trip 050 - Yellow Ridge - The Gap - ABC Cave

 

DATE: April 25, 2023 (ANZAC Day - Tuesday)
LEADER: Antony Pettinger (03 473 7924)
TRIP GRADE: Moderate-Fit (7-8 Hours)
MEET: Clubrooms, 8am

The first club trip to ABC Cave was over ANZAC Weekend in 1971. In the late 1960’s club members Alan Smith, Bruce Clark and Colin McKenzie set out to find ‘a bivy close to some good rock outcrops somewhere in the local hills’. After a couple of days of searching in the Silver Peaks, ABC Cave was found, and named after Alan, Bruce and Colin (ABC).

The cave was improved in the late 1980s by the addition of a sleeping platform. Occasional Bushcraft and club parties have used the cave, but many preferred to stay in the beech forest across the valley.

The Gap is a prominent point at the northern end of the Silver Peaks, and in earlier times appeared to have been referred to as ‘the Devils Gap’.

A common club trip up until the 1990s was a circuit of Gap Ridge (between Sluice Box Creek and Tool Bar Creek) and Yellow Ridge. Gap Ridge is outside the reserve and is now unenjoyable farmland.

It has now been 10 years since a club trip to ABC Cave has been run (with the exception of Bushcraft trips), so this trip is overdue.

The trip is also being held on ANZAC Day, 52 years since the first OTC trip to ABC Cave.