Day 24 - Australian Alps Walking Track

It's 1:36am and I am still just laying here not sleeping.  I know I have drifted off a couple times for what seems like minutes.  I am restless and wired.  With the light day today I think that my body is now unable to turn off.  It just hasn't used the energy up that it has become used to burning off in a day.  On the other hand I know that my mind is tired.

There are plenty of people out there that would say that the effort so far has been an alright effort but nothing super athletic or amazing.  I agree.  I probably agree more now that I have been home for 7 months.  Although I trained hard for this for 2 years, I then didn't train at all for the year before my departure.  So for me, at the time, I was deep in the well and pushing hard.  Now I only wish I had trained for that year prior to my departure and had made a faster journey.

My mind is tired.  I swear i just heard my phone ring.  I check it even though I took the battery out earlier today.  Hep, the battery hasn't magically found its way back into the phone!  I hope it isn't one of those things where its a sign I should call home cause something bad has happened.  I finally get to sleep.

Morning has come November 24th.  My routine is flawless now.  I'm calm.  Today will be light and uneventful.  I leave my boots off this morning and just chuck on my water crossing shoes.  Instead of zig zagging across Black River, I  decide to walk straight down the middle.  Before the trail had been cleared this was the best way to get along the river, so why not add my name to the list of those that have walked the leach infested Black River.

As I leave the river the sun is shining through the trees.  With all the moisture around from yesterdays showers, the humidity makes trudging out of Black River a real drain.  Its all 4x4 trails really so its not that exciting no matter how I look at it.  Tim & I never took this route in the past as it was closed with tree fall.

Now I'm sure plenty of people would tell you that I often must hear crickets in my head, as there must not be a lot going on between my ears; this morning I would have to agree with them.  I am at piece with what I've done and what I'm doing.  I really am just wandering, thinking of very little.

As I get to Champion Spur junction I see an unfamiliar looking branch on the road.  On closer inspection I discover that it is in fact a Samba deer antler.  I'm not a hunter and don't enjoy guns, so finding an animal trophy to take home is pretty cool for me.  I strap it off to the pack and keep on going.



In the distance I am sure I can hear engines.  At times they are to my right, then my left, its like they are invisible and driving around me.  The trail through this area is better than 4x4 trails.  I would consider them pour quality country roads.  As I pass Mt Singleton there are a couple off-road track to my right with fresh tire tracks.  I'm thinking today is Sunday although I really haven't be keeping track of the days.  Sure enough, 1,2,3..... they just keep coming.  In groups of 2 and 3 I count about 15 or more serious off road 4x4's.  Not one of them even come close to stopping to see if I'm alright.  Thats cool.  As I near Fiddler Green I see a massive Aussie Disposals flag and these off-roaders that had shot passed me all parked of the side.  I have a chat to them and find it's an off-road orienteering course.....no wonder they didn't stop.  they are being timed.  Scored another free soda!

Apparently they changed out the axle on this 67 Willy Jeep the night before to stay in the race!

The walk along these wet and lonely roads is some of the more boring hours I have hiked.  As I leave the road and head down Victor Spur track I stop and have a feed in the rain.  I cooked up some hot soup, using the gate as a table to hold all my cooking gear.  I follow Victor Spur track to the AAWT trail entry.  I am excited to get amongst the trees again but lose the trail within 100m of leaving the road.    Once I get on track again the trail becomes really easy to follow with almost too many trail markers.  When you arrive beside a marker, you can almost always see the next marker off ahead.

The hike down to red jacket is wet but I enjoy the knowledge that I am just around from red jacket and will soon make camp, a fire and change into dry clothes.

3 years ago this cemetery sign would have been shorter than the scrub

Red Jacket has had a lot of clearing done and I am amazed that the scrub where Tim and I camped near last time through the area is in fact located directly opposite the cemetery.  Parks Victoria have done a great job to restore this area.  I am disappointed to see the no camping sign at Red Jacket and decide to press onto Blue Jacket even though I remember Allan Gamble telling me that Blue Jacket is bug infested.  I now realise that Red Jacket would have been fine to stay at as Parks Victoria allows AAWT hikers to stay.

Had to do it!

I set up camp and read the historical boards installed at Blue Jacket.  The bugs are crazy.  I haven't seen this may bugs ever.  I am losing my mind.  I am getting really pissed off with all the bugs so I decide to just pack up and keep moving.  Within 100m of leaving Blue Jacket the bugs are gone!  What is up with that place.  I follow Violet town track to Casper Creek track.  Holy!  Now that is a climb.  Photos can't describe how long and consistently steep this track is.

What you see here is probably 1/10th of the incline, there had to be 10 false summits!

 It is now about 5pm and I am tired.  The humidity of the whole day has really been draining and I had turned down my mental armour so this climb hits me like a tonne of bricks.  This whole section is ugly.  It has been cleared and turned over by large machinery.  The trail is not really that easy to follow and I take a couple wrong turns which really piss me off at this time in the evening.  None the less I make make camp at the bottom of Mt Little Easton, just beside the Thomson River.  The bugs here are as bad as Blue Jacket but I can't go any more.  Its about 8:30pm when I clean up my dinner bowl and get to bed.  I last photo first.

What do my eyes say? After 24 days!

Day 4 - Mt Skene then Hitch hiked to Jamieson

So the final instalment of our 4 day adventure was going to be less eventful than the 3 days already travelled.  Wake up, climb from Rumpff Saddle along the Barkly Jeep Track to the Jamieson-Licola Rd and just keep walking till about 3pm when our ride come past.

Tim & I were both keen to get started in the morning for a couple reasons.  We had eaten 3.5 days worth of food so our packs were a couple kilo lighter than when we started, so that was pretty exciting.  We were going to see our wives and kids, so that was also very exciting.

We set out about 8am with a real energy to see the end of the trail.  We started our day with a 400m ascent out of Rumpff Saddle, over 2-3 km or so.  We didn't really mind it, we knew it was the only challenge for the day so we got stuck into it.  From Rumpff Saddle to Mt Skene is a wonderful summit of Ghost gum swept hill sides.  As we near the the Jamieson-Licola Road we can hear a car coming up the track.

We meet Bernie, Warwick and Dave who have been hiking together for 30 years and are coming back to do the final stages of the AAWT from Rumpff Saddle to Walhalla.  They had done the balance a couple years ago but fell short of Walhalla on their end to end attempt so have come back to finish the job.

They have been hiking through this area for years mind you and had done these sections previously.  When we spoke of our ordeal from yesterday, of black river and the 7hrs of bush bashing, Bernie's comment was that it was the hardest section of track he had done in his 30 years on the trails.

In hind sight this made both Tim & I feel good.  It reassured us that as a Team we could take on the AAWT end to end, and enjoy it.  As we left & the guys drove off, Bernie stopped and yelled out that he had a pecan danish .... with 20 kilos on my back I still broke the Olympic 100m dash record getting that danish out of his hands before he finished his sentence.  Ahhh, fresh food.

The next 5 hours are walked along the gravel road.  We had 2 or 3 vehicles go past us in the opposite direction.... oh how we were hoping someone would be coming our way.  We walked past a hunter that had about 6 hounds in the back of his truck, and a nice buck on his roof.  He was waiting for his last dog to come home.  He was parked there as his dog was trained to return to the stop he left the car.  We then had 3 dirt bikes pass us.  How our hearts raced when we heard then, hoping they were cars but as they came around the corners we were disappointed.  There were 2 topics that had Tim & I walking at about 5km per hour (up from about 3km previously), TGIF restaurant and our wives and kids.  About 1 hour into this combined conversation we got the map out and Tim noticed we had knocked off some major kilometers.

Finally at 2pm, 3 four wheel drives drove past.  The first 2 went on past but the last vehicle stopped.  New Zealand John drove us down to Jamieson and let us off at the Brewery bridge.  If was nice to get out of the direct sun and the look of the Thompson River was too good to pass up.

Shortly after having a pie from the local milk bar, Kaziah came past and gave us stinky fellas a ride home..... she was lucky she didn't smell us before the river dip!

Hiking Hygiene

So lets make a quick list of everything you use at home to keep yourself squeaky clean and looking/smelling good and hygienic.

  

Some of us do not require a brush or comb by default!

• Shampoo/conditioners
• Face wash
• Moisturiser
• Toothpaste
• Floss
• Mouthwash
• Shaver
• Shaving cream
• Body wash/soap
• Antiperspirant/deodorant 
• Hand wash/sanitizer 
• Toenail clippers
• Hand Nail clippers
• Emery board 
• Nose hair trimmer/ tweezers
• Flannel for washing
• Toilet paper 
• Q tips/ ear buds
• Brush/ combs
• Hair dryers/ curler
• Cologne/ perfume

So lets get real about what that would weigh.  Even if you used your shampoo as a body wash, face wash, moisturiser, shaving cream, hand wash/sanitizer you are still carrying some real weight!

When Tim & I head out for our 40 days in the Australian Alps we want to be carrying around 42kilos combined so we need to be really mindful of how much pack weight we are willing to allocate to hygiene.

We are hoping to have a river bath every couple of days when the opportunity presents itself but to be honest we are going to smell.  We will have one change of clothes for each weather type ( hot or cold) so even if we are smelling like fresh mountain water from the river, our clothes are going to be putrid.  After the first week Tim & I won't probably be able to smell ourselves anymore, the only way we will really know how bad we smell is by the speed in which all manner of living creature tried to flee our presents in the bush.

Lets cross off the easy to eliminate from the above list....remembering I have no hair & Tim will be getting a good trim before leaving.  Lets remove shampoo/conditioner, face wash, moisturiser, mouthwash, shaver and shaving cream, toe and hand nail clippers, emery board, nose hair trimmers, Q tips, brush/comb, hair dryer or curler and cologne.  Those were easy, no real sacrifices made..... but now we start having to think a little deeper.

Flannel is light weight and can be stuffed into almost any air gap in the pack but surely using my hand to scrub up in the river will do, Okay lets drop the flannel.

Floss is small, light weight and crucial to keeping my dentist happy..... but based on the idea that we will have 1 rest day on day 11 our wives and kids, we will let them bring the hygienic extras and forgo good dental hygiene on the trail.

Antiperspirant/deodorant is not small but it is light, it may make that first 20 minutes of every morning bearable..... but of course the lovely fragrance emitted by these products will disappear 20 minutes down the trail so it really isn't going to effect our overall sanity...... its out!

Lets move onto the keepers then.  Toothpaste & toothbrush and body wash/soap, have both made the final 4 with very little surprises there but lets talk about the hand sanitizer.... necessary?  A small bottle is going to be one of my luxury inclusions in my pack.  I have read a number of article from various sources who have been through these areas and some have found the water made them sick, some found that if they drank the water after washing their hands the water was fine.... expecting the individuals got sick from the germs on their hands not the water source.  Its a easy insurance policy I think.  Nothing will be more shattering then getting into the trip and having to pull out and go home due to illness.

So item number 4 on my list of hygiene must brings...... of course toilet paper.  I am not as hard core as the guys in the below video clip!  I do however believe I will use some of their tips to reduce the amount of paper I will bring.

I will not be scrapping my ass with a rock, or bark, or a fern.  We are roughing it but some things I am happy to add pack weight for.  A small travel pack of inter-folding toilet paper will not break my back.  That being said I am converted to the outdoor baday, great idea and highly hygienic.

I'll be interested in everyones comments of further hygiene tips while on the trail, so please make comments in the field provided below.

Day 3 - BASHED & LOST

We start the day retracing our steps from the error we made the night before, (see article Day 2 - Hills, Views and an Alpine Tiger Snake)  After crossing Black River we started our 2.8km bush bash northward  to a point in dense brush where we are meant to find a cairn which will indicate for us to change to a northeast direction for another 2.8km of bush bashing across a saddle and then up Mt Shillinglaw, Chapman's book says to expect 3-5 hours of bush bashing.

After 3 hours we were frustrated but happy to see a burnt out marker on a tree as well as a couple other signs that other groups had seen this mess we were in as well.  Above the words What Trak were some other descriptive words which I won't relay.

We knew the cairn we were looking for as a direction changer was at the summit of the ridge we were following and my Suunto watch came in handy with constant elevation checks but after another 2 hours we could tell we still had a some elevation to climb and we were desperate to see any new signs of track confirmation.  None came.

We had a bearings some what as we could see Mt Shillinglaw from time to time when the scrub cleared and could also see a logging trail which we believed met up with the Jamieson-licola Rd we expected to be at by now!

Things were not working right for about an hour now, Tim & I took off our packs and got out all the assets we brought with us.  Map, compass, GPS and a couple of prayers!  We had something to eat and drink and assessed that we had now indeed passed our turn off and return in the direction we came from.  Within 10 metres of turning around Tim notices a white drink bottle on the ground, it was mine from when we had walked through there 10 minutes ago!  The forest was not only interrupting our progress it was stealing from me too........

It had been about 20 minutes of bashing when when Tim almost said "lets have another look at the maps" when I yelled out those marvellous words which would dominate our afternoon for the next 2 hours.  PINK PAINT!

Look closely, wasn't easy to spot on the day either

Thank you to whoever had done the trail and marked the scrub with pink paint.  We were like fat kids in the candy shop!  There was laughter and dancing, I think Tim & I almost hugged at one point!  We had the trail....... but 10 metres later....... where did it go.  Tim & I would split up and walk about 15 metres and one of us would yell out "Pink Paint" the other would then bush bash back to the trail and start the process again.  The below images shows how dense the scrub is, top photo of my back from about 3 metres in front of Tim.  I took a small step, 300mm step and this is the result in the picture below, gone!

4:30pm we had made it out of the scrub having left at about 9am from Black river camping ground to McMillan track a massive distance of....... 5km!  This is 1 of 3 sections with this difficulty on the whole Australian Alps Walking Track.  We were happy to see the McMillan marks but we were down to about 500ml of water each and were about 8km from a reliable water source ( as shown on the map) we decided to make it a long day and get to Rumpff saddle as quick as we could, picking up water on the Barkly Jeep Track so we could avoid headaches from dehydration.

When we saw the water some 3 km's down the road, it made it worth the effort.  Fresh, cold, mountain fresh flowing water.  Although we had been filtering the water over the past couple days we didn't even bother with this spot.  The whole time we were filling up and downing some fresh stuff right off the rocks I was thinking of my father.  Along the Appalachian Trail Dad & his brothers used to swoon over the natural water springs pouring out of the mountain face.  Its Dad's favourite brew, ice cold mountain water.  This photo is for you Dad.....soak in that image!

Well 8pm we set up camp after skipping like school girls from the water source to Rumpff saddle.  Tents, then food.  We had rehydrated pasta and veggies and Tim had brought some bags of Tuna to add to the mix...... wow... what a feed.  The perfect meal to reward our days work.  We washed up and hit the tents about 9:30pm.  A belly full of food, well hydrated and the knowledge of knowing we just tackled one of the more difficult sections of the AAWT and conquered.  We slept well.




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