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Snow Day Trip For Melbourne Dolers!


Leah82
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We have tentative plans to head to the snow this Sunday, the closest snow in state forest (dog friendly) is at Mt Margaret outside of Marysville which sits at about 1100-1200m. Because it's generally borderline snow territory you need to keep a close eye on the snow forecast and drop everything and go when it's good. I use this forecast which is the closest resort to Mt Margaret and Sunday is looking pretty good...

http://www.mountainwatch.com/snow-forecasts/Australia/Lake%20Mountain%20Resort

It takes about 2 hours to get there (more or less depending on where you're coming from and if you need to stop for hire chains/apparel etc)

If anyone is interested in tagging along and introducing their dogs to the white stuff let me know, last time we found a closed road that had a decent amount of coverage on it, great for frolicking, snow man building or even sledding (you'd have to be dragged along though) :D

Things you'll need:

Snow Chains - the road is unsealed and is not cleared by anyone, fine for 2wd's though.

Snow Clothes - Jacket, gloves, pants, snow boots, beanie (feel free to improvise and layer up but the more warm and water proof you are the more fun you will have, also snow boarding boots get tiring to walk in so gum boots with layers of socks or snow walking boots are a must)

Towels - for the doggies once they're ready for the trip home

Also Doggy Jumpers/PJs for the trip home because they'll be cold, wet and exhausted

Other than that food and drinks for people and dogs as it's a state forest not a resort, there are no shops.

This will hopefully be the first trip of many this winter so next time we plan to head up I'll probably be updating this thread, so if you can't make it this time let me know if you're interested next time.

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It's pretty great seeing dogs have so much fun in the snow, especially those precious few who don't even like getting their feet wet *cough* Sarah *cough* :p

What I didn't expect was Collie's reaction to snow melting off the trees and crashing to the ground all around us, he was going nuts

After Mid July we'll be mostly free on Saturdays and Sundays and to be honest I'm not against taking a last minute day off work. It can be pretty hard to get the right conditions to go up

And if anyone wants directions to go up themselves let me know

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where is Mt Margaret? It sure would be funny to see my little IG in the snow, but she's in lockdown at the moment, having her first season.

Google maps will tell you where Mt Margaret Rd is, it comes off from Buxton-Marysville Rd. It's mostly unsealed hence the chains are absolutely needed if you have a 2wd.

It you continue onto Blue Range Rd you'll come across a closed rd on the right side heading south. We parked out the front of the closed rd and wandered in and let the dogs have a ball :)

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  • 5 weeks later...

Snow report isn't looking too bad for this Friday/Saturday. Not sure if we'll be able to make it but if anyone else is interested then go for it :)

http://www.mountainwatch.com/snow-forecasts/Australia/Lake%20Mountain%20Resort

Where we go is about 1200m and a freezing level of 1000m means you'll get snow down to about 900m. More precipitation would be nice but dogs will still enjoy a mere 10cms

here's a map from Marysville to 'the spot'

29-07-201410-41-32AM_zps4ebcc052.jpg

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  • 11 months later...

Hi Leah82,

Thank you for sharing it with us and with all the details and map, they are very helpful.

I have been wanting to take my dogs to the snow for years but never find a spot that I can.

But I have some problems, can you please help me?

I checked the forecast and it says freezing level at 1550M, is that means there will be no snow at 1200M (where we are planning to go!) I checked a lot of website but got nothing that I can be sure that there is going to be snow at 1200M. And with 1550M freezing level, I am not sure if I should travel 3 hours to see if there is snow there. At what freezing level do you think is safe for us to go? Is 1300m ok? or do I must wait till it gets to below 1200M? Lake mountain snow report shows the next 9 days will not be below 1200M, I am very confuse.

We are not looking at 10cm of snow, even just 1cm, we are fine, we just want the dogs to finally have a chance to have fun with the snow. Hope you can help me.

Thank you very much in advance.

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Hi Leah82,

Thank you for sharing it with us and with all the details and map, they are very helpful.

I have been wanting to take my dogs to the snow for years but never find a spot that I can.

But I have some problems, can you please help me?

I checked the forecast and it says freezing level at 1550M, is that means there will be no snow at 1200M (where we are planning to go!) I checked a lot of website but got nothing that I can be sure that there is going to be snow at 1200M. And with 1550M freezing level, I am not sure if I should travel 3 hours to see if there is snow there. At what freezing level do you think is safe for us to go? Is 1300m ok? or do I must wait till it gets to below 1200M? Lake mountain snow report shows the next 9 days will not be below 1200M, I am very confuse.

We are not looking at 10cm of snow, even just 1cm, we are fine, we just want the dogs to finally have a chance to have fun with the snow. Hope you can help me.

Thank you very much in advance.

This weekend looks good, Generally I just go with Lake Mountain's snow forecast even though it's a bit higher. Snow usually falls a couple of hundred meters below freezing.

So my rule of thumb is if there is snow at Lake Mountain there will probably be snow at Mt Margaret

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Hi guys, thought I would just add on to the info here. Went down for a short trip last week and the snow coverage was good, didn't have to head as far up into the spot shown above (There was a pretty big fallen tree on the way there though). I would think snow chains are a must-have, as even with it my little city car was sliding around a bit.

Also, do note that your GPS may route the shortest route via Buxton (recommended by some sites when I was searching online as well). I tried that way but it was not passable, as a portion of the road was just really bumpy dried up mud. So you may want to avoid it if you are not driving a 4WD and stick to the route suggested by Leah above.

Great thread btw! :)

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Hey,

Also finding this useful.

I thought you'd like to know this is the thread that got me to find and join dolforums! Back in late may I was googling for dog friendly snow trips in melbourne and this thread was one of the first results - it's been shared around at work with fellow dog-owning friends as a good reference. I have it bookmarked as well!

We haven't gone yet, but hoping to go up to that area soon. I even bought snowchains for the car (and will practice putting them on/taking them off before heading out) and reckon the dog will like it.

Edited by Thistle the dog
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Hey,

Also finding this useful.

I thought you'd like to know this is the thread that got me to find and join dolforums! Back in late may I was googling for dog friendly snow trips in melbourne and this thread was one of the first results - it's been shared around at work with fellow dog-owning friends as a good reference. I have it bookmarked as well!

We haven't gone yet, but hoping to go up to that area soon. I even bought snowchains for the car (and will practice putting them on/taking them off before heading out) and reckon the dog will like it.

Naw thanks :) it took me awhile to collate all the info so I figured I'd make it easier for everyone else.

If you're going to bring Thistle up make it fairly early in the morning as the area is quite popular for locals to bring their dogs up after some snow

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Wow, just checked the forecast, this Saturday is going to be a cracker at Mt Margaret, 24cms predicted for Friday and another 8cms for Saturday. Freezing levels suggest the snow should stick around as well.

And I'm going to Perth this weekend :(

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Thanks! Yeah we want to avoid the other dogs for now. She's never seen snow so don't want her to stress.

I'll practice the chains Friday night so maybe we can go this Saterday! I hope it's not difficult, I don't want to have an accident :/

Do you have other spots you can suggest? We are in the city but I don't mind the drive. We're both country girls who moved to VIC so don't know the areas.

Otherwise I was thinking well just map out your route then pull over wherever looks good.

Edited by Thistle the dog
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  • 3 weeks later...

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