Tag: hiking

Day 3: Up and down and back up again

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Beavis campsite to Boarding House campsite

Mileage: 12 miles/19.2 km

Sectional total: 42.7 miles/68.3 km

Today’s section is notorious on the Bibbulmun as being one of the hardest sections on the entire trail. This is because of three very steep climbs and descents of which one, known as the ‘V’, is very unforgiving. This is particularly the case for southbounders as the climb for them has no switchbacks and goes straight up.

The trail started off in a benign way from Beavis and was pretty straightforward for the first couple of km. After that, it was the first big climb of the day. It certainly got the heart pumping and the calf muscles. Whilst tough, it is all great training. I can’t imagine how people with 30kg packs manage this section though as it’s pretty tough.

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Pemberton to Donnelly River – April 2018

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As part of my training hikes for my upcoming Tahoe Rim Trail/John Muir Trail hikes in the US, I will be doing a week on the Bibbulmun Track starting from tomorrow between Pemberton and Donnelly River.

Pemberton is a town in the South West of Western Australia and was named after the original settler Pemberton Walcott being founded in 1862. We will be walking north along the track towards Donnelly River, an old timber mill town.

2013-06-07 at 12-01-27

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ZPacks Hexamid Solo review

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I have recently been trialling the ZPacks Hexamid Solo. The Hexamid has been around for a few years now and has had various iterations through its life as Joe Valesko and the ZPacks team have worked upon the basic design and improved it.

I formerly owned a Hexamid a few years ago which was the version where the extended beak came standard but before the split beak of current models was introduced. I sold that model and actually regretted it later. The tent is super lightweight and, although it most definitely has limitations, it can find a useful place in any ultralight hiker’s gear list.

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ZPacks Cuben Fibre 2013 in blue

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Thoughts on the Bibbulmun Track

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Having now completed my thru-hike of the Bibbulmun Track, I thought it was worth providing some thoughts on the trail as a whole. Hopefully, this will prove to be of some value to future thru-hikers (or end-to-enders as they are referred to in Australia) considering hiking the trail and also in planning their future hikes.

Trail overview

bibbulmun

The route of the Bibbulmun Track

The route of the trail takes in the best of what Perth, the southwest and southern regions of Western Australia have to offer. From the extensive jarrah forests of the north, through the granite outcrops and viewpoints of the monadnocks, through the transition area to karri forest and onto the plains and wetlands and finally the southern coastal region. The trail allows the hiker to experience the best of these areas and to immerse oneself in the experience.

The trail is long enough in that it can grant a sufficiently extended hike to allow an individual to really get a proper thru-hike experience.

It is also short enough in that it is manageable for people to fit into their lives, particularly those who are in full-time employment and would find it difficult to take off longer periods of time. This hike can be accomplished without needing to resign from your job or take a career break (unless you would like to of course).

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Day 43: The finish

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Mutton Bird Campsite (977.7 km) to Albany (1,002.3 km)

Mileage: 24.6 km/15.4 miles

We started bright and early from Mutton Bird campsite at 6 AM having risen around 4.30 AM. It’s amazing how quickly the body clock adjusts to the daylight hours and your routine adjusts to that schedule. At the moment in Western Australia at this latitude, it gets light at that time and is not fully dark until 8.30 PM so there is plenty of available hiking time.

The morning started with a few isolated rain showers which were a feature of the first few days. Fortunately, these had mostly cleared by the time we got underway.

Morning rainfall at sunrise

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Day 41: Across the Nullaki

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Denmark (917.6 km) to West Cape Howe Campsite (948.8 km)

Mileage: 31.2 km/19.5 miles (+1.8 km side trail from town)

It was good to rest and refresh in Denmark yesterday. The town has several cafes (yes, chai latte…) and a large supermarket so I was able to get the resupply done for the final three day stretch into the end of the trail in Albany.

To leave Denmark, you need to get across to the Nullaki peninsula which can be done by foot (the long way), road (the cheap way) or boat (the 007 way). Being the debonair individual that I am, I chose the boat and arranged for John from Madfish Charters to take us across Wilson Inlet. Our little cheery boat arrived at 7 AM exactly to take us across the 3km inlet. The good news is those kms are included in the official trail km so we don’t have to walk them.

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Day 40: Into Denmark

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William Bay campsite (897.6 km) to Denmark (917.6 km)

Mileage: 20 km/12 miles (+1.8 km side trail to town).

Today was a day when I was glad to have done the longer km yesterday. The highlight of the day  was climbing Mt Hallawell which would have been difficult on top of the beach walk of Mazoletti Beach yesterday which is the longest beach on the trail.

We left William Bay campsite around 6.40 AM with the aim of arriving in Denmark around lunchtime (for obvious reasons). The trail after the campsite was fairly easy being along ridges and being generally undulating rather than the demanding ups and downs of yesterday.


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