Day 20 - Australian Alps Walking Track

For some reason I sleep in this morning.   Have I finally acclimatised to the brightness of the morning sun hitting my white shelter which almost makes it glow?  Am I absolutely stuffed?  Not sure even now what the answer was but I know I didn't pack up camp and start hiking till 7am, which is an hour late.

A bit of a surprise really as I was standing in the bushes this morning, doing what we all do when we first wake up.... we will say #1's and leave it at that.  I am interrupted by about 100 young men and women from Timber Top School walking through Catherine Saddle.  They had stayed the night 5 km's up the road near Mt Speculation.  Yesterday there was no one, now first thing there are more people than I have seen in 3 weeks.

I finalise my packing and set out on the trail, not taking the shortcuts up to Mt Speculation. I cross another 100 kids or so just in this 5 kms or trail.  A number of different schools are all in this Razor-Viking wilderness area for year 10 camps.  St Leonards, Brighton and Geelong Grammar are the groups that I spend most of the day walking past.  Virtually stopping every time to tell my tale of how far I have gone and how I got spat out by the Viking yesterday.

In that video the shower I refer to is to take a bucket shower.  There is a spring at Vallejo Gunther hut this afternoon that I am hoping has sufficient water to have a nice wash off.  Yesterdays sweat is sitting all over me and my gear like snake's skin.

Climbing is really hard today.  Its not heavy work, it's just that my legs are still really wasted with really no power left in them.  They are just jelly.

What's amazing about today is that any time I could take a photo and just see postcard perfect mountains in every direction.  The breeze was perfect, just enough to quell the heat.  These are mountains.  You can touch the sky from here.  The odd cloud rolls past with a couple drops of rain but not barely enough to even notice.

Mt Speculation, Horrible Gap and Mt Buggery are all behind me soon enough.  I know a number of online AAWT writers have written how frustrating it is to see other people in large groups while on the trail but to honest I liked it.  These kids and their leaders/teachers I think were just the distraction I needed today.  The chance to talk a little, the chance to share some great wilderness.  I think like any athletic endeavour you end up being a little bit selfish.  You prepare for so long, you train hours and hours on your own, which is taken away from time with your family.  But then a day like today comes along and you have a chance to share.  Sure it wasn't with my loved ones but none the less it was sharing the experience with people and that was good.

On the CrossCut Saw

All day as I travelled I was saying that I would probably see these groups again for lunch at Vallejo Gunther hut but that I would continue on to Hellfire Creek Camp or beyond.

Crosscut Saw, trail can been seen bottom left

As I continued along the trail, which is easily followed across the CrossCut Saw I could feel my engine slowing down, getting weaker.  By the time i had arrived at the junction to leave the trail before Mt Howitt to divert to Vallejo Gunther I felt like crawling.  I check the book and its just around the corner.  I check the book again and dame it my mind convinced me it was around the corner but really its up and down then around the corner.   I check it again, same story.  This is the longest 1.5 kms ever.  Then  I see it.  If anyone were to ask Tim about my routine when I see my destination after a long day and i'm tired he would probably laugh a little then inform you that if I am really tired and I see home ( for the night) I RUN! If I see it from 3 kms out or 300m I just run.  Today I cannot.  I try and I can't.  There is nothing in the furnace.

Sign above me says " In Snow Dig Here"

I get to this amazing hut and go inside, empty a couple things on the wooden bunk and lay down.  3hours later I am awaken by a couple of the school kids opening then closing the door " Ooops sorry about that"  I didn't even look.  by the time the door was closed again i was asleep.  It then started to be an occurrence every 10 minutes so I woke up and opened the door so anyone knew they were welcome.  The place isn't mind and it is such a fantastic place I feel a bit sheepish that I'm keeping in to myself.  The next 6-7 hours are spent relating my stories, showing visitors what i have been carrying in my pack and talking general hiking.

Ladder heads to the upper bunk, which is the glass area seen in the front facade photo above.

These 6-7 hours are also really helpful for me personally.  As most of these leaders I had passed earlier today they were all aware I was stopping because of my physical condition.  As we all chatted at different times of the afternoon, they would disappear and return with satchets of Staminade and various health bars to get my energy levels up and my hydration back in order.  Again, it just added to the whole days experience of sharing on the mountain.  I spent the night sharing about my trip and gear and they shared of their substance and their experiences and knowledge.  Was really a uplifting evening.

View of Vallejo Gunther from the North East

By 10pm its was dark and pounding down with rain.  All 500 odd students and leaders had returned to sleep in the rain and I was left with Vallejo Gunther, dry and warm and all by myself.  I fall asleep looking out these amazing glass pains knowing I will wake to the most amazing morning.

Day 19 Part II - Australian Alps Walking Track

So this video is of me come back down one of the off a false summit between Viking Saddle and Mount Despair.

I bend over to try to stretch out and my back starts to spasm.  I have had a constant headache for the last couple hours.  I know I am broken and need water.  I check my camelbak as I start to climb Mt Despair and I barely have any clean water left.  So I decide to take the risk and climb down into the bush to try to find water, again.  I hang one of my trekking poles from the tree by my pack so that I will be able to identify the trail and my pack as I climb back out.  I spend about 40 minutes (20mins down and same back out) looking for water but no luck.  I climb back out and know I need to make a decision on getting myself help or fixed.

I decide to have dinner using the brown water.  See video below.

I can make a list of about 10 things in that video that were inaccurate, contradictory to something I had said previously in the video or plain just didn't make sense because I forgot to say words!  Happy to receive facebook messages or messages in general laughing at them all.

After recording the video I start thinking about how I cam make the brown water I am boiling go further and provide me extra energy and resources.  I decide to add a sachet of red powerade crystals to the dehydrated dinner.  Highly concentrated red powerade Honey Soy Chicken dinner, has addressed a lot of things but man that was like eating solid sugar.  Its not helping my headache thats for sure.  I have energy again and I am not cramping so I feel like I have made a good choice.  Now lets finish this day and got me some water!

So I finish the climb up Mt Despair and down to Catharine Saddle.  The water is apparently down this old 4x4 track.  Straight away I can see puddle on the track and I am almost tempted to have a drink.  The trail "s" beds 4 or 5 times and then I figure its time to climb down into the scrub and see what I can find.  I climb down about 200m and I can hear a trickle.  I lay down and look under some fallen trees.... there it is.  A small trickle into a pond just bigger than my water bottle.  Its clear and no swimmers so I put back a full 500ml straight away.  GOLD!  I fill up my camelbak and the hip bottle and walk back up.  I can actually feel the cold of the water as it travels into my stomach.  Its an amazing feeling but awkward feeling.  To know that your insides are so dry you can now feel the the water passing over your internals and re-moisturizing them.

I am just grateful to have made it here and found water, 34 kms in the hot sun including The Viking makes me a tired boy.  Good night.

My little puddle water source

Day 19 - Australian Alps Walking Track Instalment 1

So I am re-writing this post as I deleted my 2 days worth of writing accidentally last night!

I sit here writing, thinking of my night sleeping at Selwyn Creek Camp.  I don't remember it, I have no pictures and my diary has nothing written in it that has helped me to remember anything about this spot.
It just goes to show the bad mood I was in last night and all of yesterday.  I think this morning as I wake I am so focused on what is ahead that I'm not really concentrating on anything around me.

The plan for today is pretty big.  Walk 25km along the relatively flat Selwyn track.  Climb 4km up and down the Viking to Viking saddle and set up camp.  Its a relatively big day.

Middle back of this photo in the mist - The Viking

This morning is like all others, with an early start.  My mind is really focused on getting through these rolling hills and get climbing the Viking.  So I follow Twins Track to Selwyn Track, I'm not pressing too hard, just 3kms per hour as I do not want to run out of energy before the Viking.  Today is much hotter then the any other morning.  I had checked the forecast before leaving Hotham and today is meant to reach 30 degrees which is atleast 6 degrees hotter than anything I had hiked through on this adventure.  Calculating how I am tracking, I'm going to be climbing at about 2pm today which will suck but I want to stay on schedule now that i have a deadline to meet and I am in striking distance to the Viking so it game time.  Unlike yesterday the game face is on.

I have filled up with water at Selwyn South water tank and continued on Selwyn track.  There is little breeze even today so things are really quiet.   HHHHHHOOOOOOOOOONNNNKKKK!

Holy Heck, what is that.  About 10m above me is the blow horn sound just as loud as it would be right beside me.  All I can think is how has Tim found me out here and why has he got a fog horn....and why did he just let it off beside me head.  I almost drop to the ground it has scared me so much.  For sure it someone has a video camera I would have won family home videos.  

I look up, see and hear the Sambar Deer running through the scrub.  Hilarious.  I laughed about it for an hour.  

The trail is easy to follow today no issues, it definitely the warmest day I've faced.  I am really going through the water.  There were actually 2 tanks that I filled up with but I cannot remember where the second one was.  I had marked it in my book but as I rip up my trail book to make fires I no longer have a record.

I am down to about 1.5 litres of water by the time I arrive at Barry Saddle.  There is an old water tank here that I am looking to fill up.  I figure as it is old and rusty I should probably check the water quality, so I only fill up my 550ml hip bottle.  Nasty, its brown and has all these little spermy swimmers in it.  I am not going to drink that but I also have the feeling I shouldn't through it out.

I'm not enjoying the prospect of going over the Viking on a day like today with so little water but I have no choice really.  The only direction is forward.

So with all the build up to the point now over I stand here at the base of the Viking. I start climbing trying to stop myself from just running up the side of this bad boy.  I want to get over the top but also don't want to blow myself up either so I keep telling myself it is hot and I have put in some big kms with little water - take your time.  I do.  In the end not by choice.

There are parts of the ascent that is more like climbing and bouldering that hiking.  This feels more like a mountain than any of the others I have hiked on this adventure.  I am moving really so.  Its so hot.  I am so thirsty but I am cautious so I take a big mouth full at a time.  I find myself walking from shaded bush to shaded bush.  I will walk for 5 minutes then see a shady boulder outcrop and I can't help it but take off my pack and lay under the boulder in its shade.  I start stopping more often, I just can't do more than a 100m at a time without stopping.  I can feel the effects of light dehydration already, a small headache across my forehead like wearing a headband.  Every hour or so my legs are cramping and spasming.

I keep trying to press onward up but its hot, I am really starting to worry about my water consumption.  I'm down to a litre plus the brown water on the hip and I'm not over the top yet.  I start to only allow myself a sip.  Now I know this may seem dramatic, but even at my early stages of dehydration a sip is so hard.  All I want to do us chug it down but all I can do is sip.

When I finally reach the summit I am relieved for a couple of reasons a) I have just climbed the Viking b) I am no longer climbing the Viking c) there is now an almighty wind that seems to want to knock me off the Viking, which at this point is much nicer then the dead dry heat I had been battling for the past couple hours.

The summit is a beautiful place.  Not only for the distant views but I really love the rocky outcrops that I can only imagine gave the Viking its name.  Much like the horns on a Vikings helmet the outcrops point out over the cliff faces.  I find them fascinating.

I take a rare moment to sit down to enjoy the views.  I remember that Tim's camera also has video and decide now is a good a time as ever to start a video diary of my progress as well as my condition.

Now, I have been contemplating since my arrival home whether to share some of these videos.  They are a real reflection of my state of mind and the position I am in at the time of taking them.  I like them.  I look back and remember recording them.  These are recordings of me at a time when things are real.  No worldly consciousness.  No regard for what might be said or how what I am saying may be viewed.  This is just genuine thought.  They tend to get more genuine as the day goes on.

Once I start my climb down I start to relax a little, there is a cool breeze on the south side of the Viking and its an enjoyable trail.  I can also start to think about the Viking saddle below me and the knowledge that on my arrival at the saddle I will enjoy replenishing my water supplies.

Now more than a week ago, at Thredbo, I had a chance to cross paths with Jochen Spencer (as previously mentioned) and one of the things Jochen mentioned to me was a chock stone which I would come across as I descended from the Viking.  He mentioned I should keep some spare guy line or chord to attach to my bag so I could lower it down the drop and then scurry down under the stone myself.  When talking at Taylor's Crossing with the 3 gentlemen there, they also mentioned a similar technique.  Now you need to watch all 4 videos to understand how funny this all is.  In hindsight it shows how exhausted and dehydrated I actually was.  My thoughts are a mess - I'm just spent.

So I now feel pretty silly, but I am used to laughing at myself, so I do.   I continue down the Viking to Viking saddle which is a pretty easy foot pad to follow with only a rare spot that is overgrown.  I am walking now with extra purpose.  I can almost taste the fresh cold water I will soon refill with at Viking saddle.

As I come down off the mountain I can see a grassy clearing which is the Viking saddle camp ground where I should be able to get water from.  When I get down to the camp site I drop my pack and get out my trail book to figure out where to source water.  There is an unmark path through the bush which goes about 300m from the camp, it not there I will need to continue another 600m or so to the main branch of Buffalo River.

I walk for about 45 minutes - nothing.  neither sources.  The first branch at 300m is definitely dried out
so I figure a river is a sound bet.  I couldn't find it.  In my physical condition I am worried about going further into the bush as if there is no water then I am only further deteriorating myself with no benefit.  I could be using this energy to get to the next most reliable source.  I decide to return to my pack.  I have virtually no water now, except the brown water.

I grab my pack and start along the climb up towards the Razor.  I am shattered, I can usually talk myself into some motivation but there is nothing left.  I am cramping up so often, my back, my legs, my brain..... they all hurt.  I am now basically shuffling up the mountain.  I shuffle past the junction to go over the Razor, part of me is a little disappointed that I can't also take on the Razor.  I descend and ascend again this time climbing up Mt Despair.  I can see in the trail book that there is water to the east below Mt Despair so once again I take off my pack and spend about 45 minutes trudging through the bush looking for water.  Nothing.

So I think this post is getting a little long so I will have to divide today into 2 posts, will get the next one up asap.  I will also mention that the next instalments videos made my 8 year old daughter cry when she saw my condition so you will want to read on!

Day 18 - Australian Alps Walking Track

While at Mt Hotham I had some mobile phone coverage so was able to talk to Meegs.  She had a great idea.  How awesome would it be if she was able to hike the final day with me!  I was so excited by the prospect, that would be an epic finish to this adventure.  We made plans with Tim to give Megan a drive out to Mt Erica carpark November 27th and with our good friend Stephanie Sommers to watch the kids.  Tim would then have to drive our kids out the very next day so we could all be together at the finish line!  For any of you that don't know Tim, I'm sure you can tell by now that this guy is a "Legend"

So This morning I get out late.  There is a tradesman working on the Leeton Lodge and he offers to cook up Bacon and eggs.  So that caused a significantly late start.  Tim gave me a ride up the road to the trail start and off into the bush I went, again.

Plenty of burnt gums from the last fire that spread through Hotham

Leaving Mt Hotham was a much different feeling than leaving Thredbo.  I left Thredbo full of energy and focus, as well as a mission to impress.  I knocked out a massive day the day after my rest at Thredbo and I felt great.  Leaving Mt Hotham this morning was a mellow experience.  I had no excitement, no drive.  I thought later this could have been the 15 pieces of bacon I ate for breakfast!  But honestly, I had even spoken to Megan about it the day before.  This is just a hike, why am I trudging off by myself again?  Why does it really matter whether I finish or not?


Megan's response was simple.

You have got to do it!  Finish it, I love you.


How can you argue with a woman like that...... so I head off towards the Twins with my mind on the idea that this isn't all kisses and giggles any more.  I walk past this little campsite on my left, think "huh, cute" and keep on trudging up the 4X4 Twins track.  About 45minutes later I realise I have missed the trail to go over the Twins.  I am really pissed off with myself.  This is the 3rd or 4th junction that I have looked straight at and then just walked on past.  I have a look at the map and see where the trail comes past the track I'm on, although the Twins track I'm on is adding about 2km's!  I race off just pissed off with it all, cross paths with a 4X4 with a couple dogs in the back seat.  Before long I have made the spot where I desired to get back on the trail.  Leaving the road and I start climbing this incredibly steep climb over unnamed summits.  Once on top it was pretty easy to follow the trail but I just can't shake the disappointment of missing yet another trail junction.

Its about 2pm when I decide to stop and have a snack/lunch on a massive log near the old Murray Hut site.  I eat up the mountain bread, parmesan cheese and salami and pack up to go again.  I check the maps and the next junction should just be 1.5km's up the road.   So I decide to put my head down for some reason and walk straight past all the massive signs that say the junction details and that I should be turning.  I stay on the Mt Murray South Track instead, I go about 2kms and about 300m higher in elevation than I expected today before I realise that I missed it.  I am just off my game today.  So pissed off with all my errors.  Take a photo of the signs that I walked right past!

NOW back on the Twins Track there is no other junctions to camp so I just race off in the hope to raise my spirits.  I none the less check every intersection to double check my position and direction as 2 set backs today is enough.  I stay tonight at Selwyn Creek road campsite.  I spend the night eating and calculating how to make my appointment with Megan on November 27th.  It feels really weird to all of a sudden have to meet a specific deadline.  I have been playing each day as it comes, now I have to switch gears and only walk to that schedule.

I just go to bed angry about the whole day.

Australian Alps Walking Track - Day 15 - 17

This morning I wake up a new man.  I feel a lot better for having taken the short day.  I start today reading some inspirational print out from my wife and then get packed.  The pack is looking really light.  I chucked out some food last night as well as I am still just oversupplied with food.

So today is the day.  Big River!  On day 3 Hayden and Dave were talking to me about Big River, its the single sharpest descent and ascent in the whole AAWT.  I didn't care.  This morning was all business and I am ready to just smash it out.

As I follow the trail I keep taking photos of the morning fog below me.  Its just an amazing feeling this morning.  So the climb down to big river is not as dramatic as I was expecting.  Maybe it had been built  up in my mind for so long that in the end I'm just not impressed.  I get down to Big River fairly easily and start looking at how to cross.  I climb up onto the log so I can grab onto the crossing chain.  In doing so i take a chunk of flesh out of my knee.  I jump back down, its really difficult to put pressure on my leg, kind of a funny bone kind of situation.
In the end I just cross using my walking poles straight ahead from the trail in the shallower part of the river.

The climb out takes a little more effort but to be honest it was just a bit of fun.  I'm looking forward to seeing Ropers Hut.  So far the huts in this area have been amazing so I am looking forward to Ropers.

As I walking into the general Ropers Hut area I see someone packing up camp.  I stroll on over to introduce myself.  Mitch is packing up having stayed the night.  Mitch had started the day after we did, but from Walhalla.  Unfortunately on day 2 he tweaked his knee and had to pull out of his end to end adventure.  Having taken some time to recover, and with the time off work already in place he was now  tramping around checking out the huts of the local landscape.  To my surprise he also tells me he has been watching our SPOT tracker online!  That was a cool feeling to meet someone out on the trail that had been following Oz4Adventure.

So Mitch and I hike together for a while, across Warby Corner and below Mt Nelse to the Park.  All morning we can just see across vast mountain ranges.  Mitch is heading off to the Kelly Hut area so we go our separate ways at the Park.

Its not long before I cross the Langford East aqueduct and grab some lunch.  My plan is to stay at Cope Hut so I am travelling well and should be there by about 4pm.  As I continue to follow the aqueduct, which is a easy gravel dirt road, I take some time to check out the great views and little waterfalls coming into the aqueduct.  A couple hours down the trail and I meet the Wallace hut junction.

The AAWT now follows the Wallace's Hut track, John Chapman's updates have this listed but if you don't bring them with you it will surprise you when the track marker takes you up there instead of straight onto Cope's.

Wallace's hut is amazing.  Before I take shots inside the hut I actually take heaps of shots of the toilet.  Although its newer, it has some really great timber workmanship.  So I go into the hut and the floors are amazing, still the old timber floor slabs.  Built in 1889 it is the oldest hut and is still in its original form.  Really amazing.  I find myself really wondering how live would have been back then, these were tough people.  They lived hard, worked hard.... I'm in awe.

I follow the new trail along the Bogong High Plains Road to the Cope Hut Junction.  I head back down the trail to Cope Hut.  Again this place was so awesome.  The bunk beds and the stone fireplace, its just has a really cozy feeling.  Behind the hut there are also newly installed camping pads with awesome views off the back of the summit.  Its actually the first time I have seen these type of platforms.  Although the views would be awesome, I'm not a fan.  They look unnatural in this landscape.

I decide not to sleep at Cope Hut a) because i would want to sleep in the hut which I shouldn't and I could get caught out by a Range as the road is only 500m away and b) Mitch mentioned that weather was coming in tomorrow so I decide to keep going so that my hike into Mt Hotham will be short in the bad weather.

Following the Snow poles along the Bogong High Plains was pretty enjoyable.  Its really wet underfoot through this next 10 kms or so.  The infrastructure is pretty good so that you don't get absolutely bogged.  There are plenty well placed stepping stones to get you across the worst of it.  I am now going to push to Dibbins Hut which will leave me with just 9 kms in the rain tomorrow morning.

I decided to check out the phone coverage as I walk towards Basalt Temple.  I make a couple calls while I have a break.  Its about 5:30pm so I am looking forward to a nice break.  I just sit back for about 30 minutes and enjoy the views and landscapes.  Its not much longer before I am making camp at Dibbins hut.  I must say Dibbins Hut is the spookiest Hut I have come across, I think its because it has no windows and is tucked into the corner of a valley.  Its just wet and dark down here, I set up camp... not sleeping in there!

November 16, 2014 - Day 16

I am hours from a hot shower!  I am hours from a hot shower!  I am hours from a hot shower!

So once I have come to terms with the fact that I am hours from a hot shower, I pack up and get moving.  Its lightly raining, more of a wet fog almost.

I check out Derricks Hut which seems to have had a fresh paint on the exterior of the building lately and then continue on my way.  The wet fog stays with me all the way to hotham.  I'm just going to let the photos tell the story.

The only thing I didn't know was whether anything on the mountain would be open!  Would the post off be open on a Saturday morning?  Its 9:30am as I walk down the highway to the Post office, there is no one up here.  I do see a couple early morning cyclists through the fog....... Its open.  So excited.

I spend about 2 hours at the Post office cafe with my food drop.  Checking and double checking what I have and need.  I think I repacked 3 times.  My brain was just running at 200% it was pretty excited to be here.  It was also the & peaks cycling challenge this weekend so with a cafe full of cyclists I was able to hand out a couple of my Cadel Evans energy bars.  I am starting to get over them.

View from POst Office Cafe

The guys at the Post Office organised a room at Leeton Lodge for me.  $45 per person per night...... a short walk down the road and there I was....eye to eye with a hot shower!  The Leeton lodge was empty.  I had the whole place to myself which was awesome.  The next morning Tim arrived and we just caught up for the day and relaxed.   Tim also brought me a new spork as my plastic one broke.  I enjoyed relaxing but I also felt under pressure that I could be on the track.  Being a Sunday the town is basically closed so it was a quiet day at the Lodge.

View from Leeton Lodge, I will be crossing this range in the next couple days