Anyone who takes on a long distance through hike will know they will be journeying through all types of weather conditions. The Australian Alps at any time of the year can serve up 4 seasons in a day. Although I am prepared for all weather conditions it doesn't necessarily mean I am willingly looking for bad weather. For the past 2 nights, I have set up camp, prepared and eaten dinner, washed up and planned for the next day before preparing to sleep. Just as I close my eyes for the night, the rain comes down!
I am grateful that it is raining once I no longer need to be outdoors!
Last night marks a momentous occasion for me as well. Never in my life have I pee'd in a bottle, till this night. I wasn't going to go out in the rain so I thought to myself I can always just use one of my 2 water bottles from this point in my trip as a night time urinal. Worked a treat once I worked out how to position myself in the tent so as not to spill! I'd then just leave it out side the tent in the rain to keep it clean.
I became very lazy with this process as my travels continued. It no longer needed to be raining out for me to use the indoor urinal bottle! I never left my tent in the middle of the night for the rest of the Australian Alps Walking track.
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| The Smoke Oh Camp area is just the path widening enough for the tent |
So about 8am I left Smoke Oh Creek with the hope of making either Beunba Flats or maybe even Johnnies Top. So whats this falling from the sky about an hour into the day but my first snow storm. It was really enjoyable actually despite the name of the trail being "Misery Trail"! Was really nice to see the snow falling through the trees.
Having made my way out to Buckwong track and had a morning snack under the porch roof of Buckwong Hut. Shortly after I came across 1 of 17 groups from Melbourne Grammar hiking through the area. I had a brief chat with them and then continued on my way as I knew within hours I would have my next food drop. Unfortunately the snow has now turned to rain so by the time I trek down Mt Hope Road to my food drop I am drenched. I pull the buckets out of the hole they are in, everything now just mud and pull out the black garbage bag with my food in it. I quickly look through Tims bucket to see if he has anything I want to swap in, grab a fresh pair of Tim jocks and his socks ( I didn't have any in this drop as I was doing fresh gear every other drop) and then just kept moving. This was probably the heaviest I have been on the hike so far as I know I have way too much food with me even if I were on my slower schedule.
So being heavy and wet and muddy I hussled my way along to the Buenba Flats expecting to probably call it an afternoon. It was about 4:30pm when I made it to the second gate and sat down with another ground from Melbourne Grammar. A couple of the guides shared some fresh strawberries and a recent Herald Sun newspaper with me. Chris was one of the guides, he was very interested in Hyperlite Mountain Gear and we chatted for about 20minutes about Cuben fibre and the stuff I was using. He mentioned that this station set up for them was for the students to do a solo overnight sleep out and that they were scattered all over the general ridge line. I thought cool, but also I should probably keep moving and try to make Johnnies Top.
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| Looking West towards corner creek |
I set out towards the western end, corner creek end of the flats. This whole area was a marshy wetland that was difficult to follow at times as the trail is interrupted my the creek so often. That being said as you can clearly make out that the mountains around you are guiding you into a corner it is more a matter of how easy the trail could be if you were on it. Its never really a matter of being lost.
Having made it to the the junction where the trail now climbs It is now about 6pm when I start climbing. Its actually pretty steep and my pack if fully loaded so i am finding it hard going. The fact that I had stumbled into the creek a couple times so my boots were bogged, including being rained on all day I was cranky and tired. It took me ages to climb Johnnies Top. I had to get my head torch out for the last 20 minutes coming into Johnnies as it had gotten dark earlier in this weather. Worked really well actually as all the AAWT or Great Alpine Walk signs are all traced in some hi-visibility reflectors so the shone in the torch light.
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| I took photos later in the evening when the fog was really thick and rainy but its just a blur shot...you can't really make much out...but this is about an hour before I made camp. |
At 8:15pm when I got to camp it was blowing an absolute storm. I barely made out the water tank when I walking about 5m in front of it. I was freeing cold because of how long I had been wet....all day and really struggled to get my tent set up. Was again really happy with my Echo II from Hyperlite Mountain gear as the first part of the shelter to go up is the outer tarp. This enables me to get all my gear out of the rain and blowing winds and protect all my items that I need for the night but want to keep dry....my thermals, sleeping bag etc.
So by the time I had set up camp, took off all my wet gear at the entry including the wet medical supplies taped to my feet, it was 9pm. I took my time to get dressed into warm dry gear and re-do the medical treatments on my feet. Although I was wasted from a long wet day, I still struggled to get to sleep. It was so wet foggy and blowing an absolute storm outside that my exhausted brain was a little freaked. I kept going through check lists. Have I kept my wets away from my dry's, have I pegged the tent really well, am I positioned away from possible falling trees, am I on too much of a slope, I know I am pitched right on the trail to stay away from trees but it is an old 4x4 track....what if an emergency vehicle needs to get through in the middle of the night....and so on and so forth. Eventually fell asleep to thoughts of my wife and kids.
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