This Year
0
Number of Walks Ticked
0.0m
Total Distance Ticked
All Time
4
Number of Walks Ticked
38.7km
Total Distance Ticked
| Name | Date | Difficulty | Distance/Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Browns Falls (South East Queensland) |
5 Jul, 2021 |
Medium |
1.2km return 1 hr |
|
| Well my visit was a prime example of how recent weather conditions can drastically change the nature of a walk. I went there two days ago while on a camp at Queen Mary Falls caravan park. Expected an easy walk, but there had been recent heavy rain, the mud was deep, the water levels high, the stones above water wide apart and slippery as glass. Took all my experience just to make three creek crossing without getting wet boots (or injured) before I decided it was more than I signed up for that day and turned back. And that was my assessment as an experienced bushwalker. I was at the Steamers lookout just a week before this, and have done many off-track walks in slippery conditions with high water levels such as Stairway Falls and Larapinta Falls. Yes I could have made it, but safety first, and I was alone - shudder to think of what would happen to Jane/Joe Public if they ventured on this track in current conditions. |
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|
Spring Mt Caldera (Thornbill Drv trail head) (White Rock - Spring Mountain Conservation Estate) |
23 Dec, 2017 |
Hard |
14km return 5 hrs |
|
| I walked the Spring Mountain Caldera circuit for the first time today. Total distance seems to be about 14-15km. I think it is optimistic to call the section between Spring Mountain and the Yuddumun Trail a track, it was entirely off-track with only vague signs humans had ever passed (like a muesli bar wrapper at the formation the OP called the T-rex). Otherwise I had a good walk. GPS was very unreliable, but stuck to the ridge as much as possible and it all worked out. |
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|
Mt Barney - East Peak - South Ridge (Mt Barney National Park) |
30 Sep, 2017 |
Very Hard |
17km return 10 hrs |
|
| Early this year I started hiking as a way to regain some semblance of fitness and found I thoroughly enjoyed it. Somewhere along the line I caught the Barney Fever and set my goal to hike the Peasant Ridge. A few months ago I thought I was ready and set out. Barney taught me otherwise. I only made it as far as the slab and returned to the car park defeated, but determined to train harder to make it next time. So two days ago a friend and I set out once again, frustrated by all the recent wildfire closures that had prevented us going in the cooler weather. This was the most physically exhausting and mentally demanding thing I have ever done in my life. Somehow no matter how tired, how much I wanted to stop I kept going and we made it to Rum Jungle, then up the east peak to a small set of cliffs (1300m elevation) just shy of the summit. Running low on water (I had brought 5L, still not enough!) and exhausted we couldn't find an easy way around them so turned back. The hike back down was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. Exhausted, dehydrated, we somehow put one foot in front of another and half-climbed, half-slid down Peasants Ridge again. I almost slid right off the slab on the way down, only avoiding it by hooking my foot on a tuft of grass. The highest hike I had been on before this was Mt Joyce at Wyrralong Dam (which shares similar steepness of slope with Barney, but far less elevation). Still not bad for a guy who at the start of this year had shortness of breath walking down the hall to work, and did most of Peasants Ridge and the Summit while still weighing in somewhere over 120kg. No matter how often you read this in other comments, I cannot stress it enough - be prepared for this one. If your debating the weight penalty of an extra litre of water, forget the weight - take the water. You'll regret it if you don't. Cannot wait to go back next time, maybe on an over-nighter at Rum Jungle. It is a beautiful place to camp up there. |
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|
White Rock Ridge Hike (White Rock - Spring Mountain Conservation Estate) |
20 Sep, 2017 |
Hard |
6.5km 2 hrs |
|
| I have walked to White Rock many times. Yesterday I came back on the White Rock Ridge Track and noted additional work had been done on the track. From the White Rock end, there are now bright arrows pointing the direction up the cleft in the rock you need to climb, then again along the cliff face, at the start of the track. Where the Ridge Track joins the fire trail at the end, significant grading of the surface has been done for the last few hundred metres, and the eroded gullies are now a flat dirt track, even with little fallen tree barriers lining the path. I met a truck driver in the car park who told me he had been asked to deliver more dirt into the conservation estate. Out of interest I also took a different path up to White Rock - I walked down the Yaddamun Track, until I could take a turn-off south onto the fire trail that eventually crosses with the Ridge Track and the Multi Use Track. There is a sign at the start of this turn off which states service vehicle use only, no public access but as far as I am aware, there is no legislation to restrict access, it is part of their management plan to discourage public access to certain areas. Eventually I discovered what I was looking for - on OpenstreetMaps there is a path called 'Don't Bother'. The start of this track was heavily concealed with stacked small fallen trees. There is a slight path around it to the right. The Don't Bother track was obviously a 4WD accessible track at some point but has not been maintained for a long time. The track is eroded in many areas, overgrown with grass, and crossed by small fallen trees, but there were no real navigation issues, and no lantana overgrowth. Obviously some hikers still come this way, because there were spray-pointed pink dots on trees and grass marking the path at many points. There was a steep climb up a gully at the end which emerged right next to the bench near the White Rock sign at Which Rock. Definitely a wild off-track adventure which I enjoyed, but in the warmer seasons, snakes could be a real issue. |
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