Newbies trying out Adelaide Bushwalkers

An easy weekend doing some pack-carrying hikes - ideal for beginners - with Adelaide Bushwalkers

Kuitpo Forest

Since I have only done one hike with Adelaide Bushwalkers (ABW) before, back in July in Mt Remarkable National Park, and with the new hiking season just started, I thought I would join in on this "beginner's hike". This year I'm doing two weeks with the Friends of the Heysen Trail, but apart from that only 3 other walks with them, and a handful of catch-up walks with friends so I can finish the Heysen Trail on August 16. So I will have more weekends available to hike with ABW, especially after August. I quite enjoy pack carrying, and camping out overnight. Also, there seem to many more young people in ABW than in the Friends of the Heysen Trail.

There were eleven of us, 6 beginners - Debbie, Joyce, Sam, Liz & Steve, and myself (who had hiked once before with ABW) - and the rest regulars. Debbie, Joyce and Sam were all pretty new to pack-carrying and camping out overnight. It was great to meet so many newbies, and I think they found much comfort in each not being the only one.

The hikes were fairly easy, only 3-4 hours each, although a little faster than I would normally walk with a pack. Of course the newbies found them more difficult, carrying a full pack isn't easy. There is also very little in the way of hills around Kuitpo Forest. On Saturday, once we had set up camp at Chookarloo Campground - nice - and I found one of the newbies using a very heavy item to in setting up their tent - no wonder the pack as heavy - we did some orienteering nearby with a map and compass. Pretty cool stuff, although thanks to the work of my secret agent my feet were bloooody painful by now.

Fun times that night cooking our meals, all the regular hikers getting a bit of a laugh watching the newbies try to master their hired trangiers, when we all had easy-to-use fuel cell burners. Cruel trick that. Still being the fire ban though we had no campfire, but sat around a candle instead - seriously - it was the only light though and surprisingly bright.

Sunday was easy hiking too, although Liz dragged it out a bit because we weren't that far from the cars, although that's a credit to the newbies though who were obviously coping well. For lunch we rendezvoused at the bakery in Meadows - nice one.

Hiking with ABW is cheap, the weekend cost us each $3 - the cost of camping in the forest. The newbies who hired their gear from ABW would have paid $3-$5 for each item (pack, tent, trangier) which is also very affordable.

Stats: Saturday Distance: 14.7km Start time: 10.00am End time: 2.20pm Moving duration: 3h 12m Stationary duration: 1h 08m Moving average: 4.6km/h Overall average: 3.4km/h Max speed: 8.5km/h

Stats: Sunday Distance: 12km Start time: 8.30am End time: 11.30am Moving duration: 2h 36m Stationary duration: 24m Moving average: 4.6km/h Overall average: 3.9km/h Max speed: 6.6km/h

Training times improve

Beating our best times down towards our goal-times

Waterfall Gully to Mount Lofty Summit

We hiked the week after our 4-day Easter hike, improving our uphill time by 3 minutes - our first significant improvement in uphill moving time (we've only previously made improvements in our stationary uphill times). Tim carried a heavy pack, Kate did not and nor did I (I didn't feel that great so opted out of the pack-carrying). We also set a goal to reach by December - 45 minutes uphill with 5 minutes stationary.

The following week, Tim was away in the Flinders, leaving Kate and I to hike. It made more logistical sense in terms of driving to meet at the summit and hike down to Waterfall Gully before returning back up. Physcologically this seemed harder, but perhaps due to that and our improved fitness (?) we significantly improved our times - beating both our downhill and uphill times by 6 minutes each to 34 and 48 minutes respectively, and reducing our stationary uphill time from 14 minutes to 10 minutes. We think we hiked faster downhill because we weren't tired from the uphill, and then we hiked back uphill faster because we were already warmed up and had been hiking fast. There might be something in that.

View a map from a previous day of the same hike.

Stats: Sat 29 March

Uphill: Waterfall Gully to Mt Lofty Summit Distance: 3.89km Moving duration: 52m (last time 55m) Stationary duration: 14m (last time 14m) Moving average: 4.4km/h (last time 4.2km/h) Overall average: 3.4km/h (last time 2.9km/h) Max Speed: 8.9km/h

Downhill: Mt Lofty Summit to Waterfally Gully Distance: 3.7km Moving duration: 45m (last time 40m) Stationary duration: 1m (last time 3m) Overall average: 4.9km/h Max Speed: 14.7km/h

Stats: Sat 5 April

Downhill: Mt Lofty Summit to Waterfally Gully Distance: 3.36km Moving duration: 34m Stationary duration: 1m Moving average: 5.9km/h Overall average: 5.5km/h

Uphill: Waterfall Gully to Mt Lofty Summit Distance: 3.36km Moving duration: 48m Stationary duration: 10m Moving average: 4.6km/h Overall average: 3.8km/h

"At least I would die happy"

So said Kate as we discussed the way our heavy packs increased our chances of falling down the steep sides of the trail through Deep Creek. She was carrying all the snacks, including the lollies and chocolate, so, in her words, at least she would die happy if she fell.

Hiking the Heysen Trail along the South Coast

This was our first serious pack-carrying hiking together. I had done some before, and the three of us had done some in Innes National Park last October.

We spent 4 days hiking, and camped out 3 nights. The first night we spent with many others (including a witch coven by the sounds of some of the laughs) in the overflow area of Trig Campground. The second night was impressive, we camped in a Heysen Trail camp site at the end of the 5km Tunkalilla Beach. It was pretty nice to have the site and beach to ourselves, long away from the reach of roads. However the third nice was the best - sweet - at an unnamed beach between Coolawang Beach and Parsons Beach. It was very cool, a nice short beach with rocks at each end and a dry creekbed entering the sea. It was here in the grassy creekbed we set up camp. Of course, if this were the outback that would have been incredibly stupid, but on the coast we would notice if rain came (no risk of flash flooding). This was a beautiful beach for a swim in the cool waters and big waves, we were only interuppted by a local farmer boy who drove his ute across the paddocks to go for a surf on his own private beach.

It took us a little longer than expected to get organised, so instead of setting out at 3pm for our estimated 3 hour first-day hike, we set out at 4.30pm. Lucky it was still daylight saving and sunset was at 7.30pm. It was only 7.5km, but it involved a going down into and up out of a deep valley. It was here, deep in the bush that we discovered how overgrown the track was, but also how much harder it was to negotiate with a full pack.

Saturday was our longest day - 16km, although 5 of those kilometres was along Tunkalilla Beach. We tried following a fence along the top of the dunes to avoid the soft sand, but it got too tough so we ended up back on the beach. The soft sand was hard work with heavy packs. Earlier in the day at Boat Harbor Beach we came across a group of guys who had set up a mini-golf hole with drift wood and flotsam. Wow I got to use the word flotsam. Today we also hiked through Deep Creek itself, unfortunately unlike when I was here last in December, the waterfall wasn't flowing this time. We did however appreciate the efforts of the Australian Conservation Volunteers who had cleared back vegetation along a couple of kilometres of track - it made hiking with pack much more enjoyable.



We finished on Monday by lunch-time, we had set out early after a spectacular sunrise and swim to finish the last 5km to Parsons Beach and Waitpinga Beach and the car.

Because the last two of the three nights had no water, the first campsite being nothing but a clearing, and the second campsite not being an official campsite, we had left twelve litres of water at a campsite called Balquihidder West, which we collected on Sunday morning. We learnt some cool stuff though, good preparation for our December trip to Tasmania.



View photos as full screen slideshow



Stats:
Friday 21 March: Cobbler Hill to Trig campsite

• Distance: 7.5km
  
• Oodometer: 7.5km
  
• Start time: 4.39pm
  
• End time: 7.26pm
  
• Moving duration: 2h 03m
  
• Stationary duration: 34m
  
• Moving average: 3.7km/h
  
• Overall average: 2.9km/h
  
• Max speed: 6.9km/h
  

Saturday 22 March: Trig campsite to Tunkalila Beach

• Distance: 16.3km
  
• Oodometer: 23.9km
  
• Start time: 10.00am
  
• End time: 5.22pm
  
• Moving duration: 4h 33m
  
• Stationary duration: 2h 44m
  
• Moving average: 3.6km/h
  
• Overall average: 2.2km/h
  
• Max speed: 7.8km/h
  

Sunday 23 March: Tunkalilla Beach to unnamed beach

• Distance: 12.4km
  
• Oodometer: 36.3km
  
• Start time: 10.33am
  
• End time: 3.46pm
  
• Moving duration: 3h 06m
  
• Stationary duration: 2h 06m
  
• Moving average: 4.0km/h
  
• Overall average: 2.4km/h
  
• Max speed: 6.5km/h
  

Monday 24 March: unnamed beach to Waitpinga

• Distance: 5.9km
  
• Oodometer: 42.2km
  
• Start time: 8.48am
  
• End time: 10.46am
  
• Moving duration: 1h 25m
  
• Stationary duration: 20m
  
• Moving average: 4.1km/h
  
• Overall average: 3.3km/h
  
• Max speed: 10.3km/h
  

Packs this time

Back to the Waterfall Gully hike - but this time with heavy packs

Waterfall Gully to Mount Lofty Summit

Kate and Tim slept on my bedroom floor in my 30 degree house so we could set out early on the hot day for our regular hike. Tim and I carried our big packs, loaded with water and rugs and stuff. I think we were about 16kg. Amazingly we did the hike in the same time, just taking an extra few minutes on the way back down, which is expected. Kate led us this time, but she came to the conclusion we would need to start carrying a pack too to keep up with us.

Time Trials

Back again on the Waterfall Gully to Mt Lofty Summit hike - this time to better last week's time, 10 minutes was shaved off

Waterfall Gully to Mt Lofty Summit

Tim was sick for this one, so while he ran errands and waited in the car park Kate and I hiked, bettering last week's time by 10 minutes - reducing the rest time from 25 to 15 minutes. The moving time was the same - see the stats below.

A warm, sunny day, we set off at 9.30am, which was good as we could feel the heat as we climbed out of Waterfall Gully.

Tim and I had planned to load up our large packs with extra weight, weight training so to speak, but I decided not to do so since Tim was sick. Met Ben and Neil at the summit, they are in training for the Kokoda Track, so they too both had heavy packs - laden with water, magazine stashes and dumb-bells wrapped in towels.



Stats:

Uphill: Waterfall Gully to Mt Lofty Summit Distance: 3.9km Moving duration: 55m (last time 55m) Stationary duration: 15m (last time 25m) Moving average: 4.2km/h (last time 4.2km/h) Overall average: 3.3km/h (last time 2.9km/h)

Downhill: Mt Lofty Summit to Waterfally Gully Distance: 3.9km Moving duration: 40m (last time 43m) Stationary duration: 1m (last time 3m) Moving average: 5.9m/h (last time 5.3km/h) Overall average: 5.7km/h (last time 5.0km/h)

Kick-Start the Training Again

Today we started our first training for this year, and where else close to Adelaide but the Waterfall Gully hike to Mt Lofty Summit?

We're excited about our plans to hike the Overland Track, amongst other overnight hikes in Tasmania, in December. So today for some training we hiked from the carpark at Waterfall Gully to the cafe on Mt Lofty summit, where we discussed the other hikes we wanted to do whilst we'll be in Tasmania. We'll be there for 3 weeks across Christmas, so we have decided to start off with a 2 day Walls of Jerusalem hike, followed by 6-7 days on the Overland Track, perhaps 2 days on the nearby Frenchmnas Cap walk, then travel to Hobart for some coastal walks - 2 days on the Cape Pillar track and finishing off with 2 days on the Freycinet Peninsula Circuit.

A popular training hike, Waterfall Gully to Mt Lofty Summit it short but tough. As you can see from the stats below, it's a lot quicker coming back down. We'll use these stats as a benchmark, as we plan to do regular hikes each fortnight on this trail and other challenging hills, perhaps in Morialta and Ambers Gully.

Tim and Kate also tested out their new hiking boots. Both passed, a little bit of lamb's wool around one toe and all good. I took one of my new trekking poles to try out (taking just one, does that make it a walking pole instead?), but didn't need it - I only need one when I injure a knee, which has been often in recent months, but not today. I use two trekking poles when hiking with a full 20kg-ish backpack so I was glad to purchase my new trekking poles which are very cool, lightweight, and a lot better than the two really cheap, heavy, ugly - and quite rattlie - ones I already had.

I have done some hiking over the past few months, however I have been lazy and not uploaded each to my blog. Here is a list of them, dating back from December to now, although the stories with them are a bit slap-dash given they are not quite so fresh in my mind now:

• Belair National Park, 9 February, 2008
  
• Lavender Federation Trail, 20 January, 2008
  
• Lavender Federation Trail, 13 January, 2008
  
• Old Beechy Rail Trail, 27-28 December, 2007
  
• Deep Creek Conservation, 22-24 December, 2007
  
• Heysen Trail: Pewsey Vale to Kapunda, 1-2 December, 2007
  
• Morialta, November, 2007
  

Stats:

Uphill: Waterfall Gully to Mt Lofty Summit Distance: 3.88km Moving duration: 55m Stationary duration: 25m Moving average: 4.2km/h Overall average: 2.9km/h

Downhill: Mt Lofty Summit to Waterfally Gully Distance: 3.88km Moving duration: 43m Stationary duration: 3m Moving average: 5.3km/h Overall average: 5.0km/h

The Secret Foster Circuit

A circuit of Belair National Park - indeed the secret Foster circuit

Today Jerry and Michelle Foster invited some of us Heysen Trail End-to-End 2'ers to join them in their secret circuit of Belair National Park. Secret, you say. Well, maybe not, and certainly not anymore, but a 13km loop linking various hiking trails. It was a cool day in our very untypical February weather.

View the national park brochure



Stats:

• Distance: 12.9km
  
• Start time: 9.30am
  
• End time: 1.30pm
  
• Overall average: 3.2km/h